Creativity
The
Oxford English Dictionary defines creativity to be a ‘creative power or ability
to create’. Personally I do not think that is the case. My reasons for this is
I believe creativity is being able to create something wildly unique and moving
your thoughts into directions that involve a range of different ideas that can
be brought together to make one. Various people consider creativity as
something that comes naturally. In my opinion that is not true, I feel this way
because all around us there are famous artists, designers and directors. They
do not all have creativity flowing through them they are inspired by the things
around them and by the things they see.
In
class as a group we came up with a class definition of creativity – ‘An aim to explore expression and external
influences (e.g. upbringing, surroundings, environment and existing products)
that don’t necessarily need to be original. To do with something you don’t see
every day that provokes a reaction and solves an existing problem, Creativity
is making.’ I do agree with this definition but what if creativity is not
an aim but is an existing problem that everyone is trying to figure out. Being
that an aim is something that you strive to reach where as an existing problem is
something that needs breaking down to find a solution, making it much harder to
figure out. Putting into consideration I think creativity is an existing
problem that many individuals are trying to solve because coming up with an
original and new idea may not always be the easiest.
It says ‘don’t necessarily need to be original’ this could lead individuals all over because even though an idea has been previously used others may take it upon their selves to believe that their idea is also original even though it has already been done. On the other hand they could expand on ‘Originality’ and why not merge different ideas together to create something that has not been done before and can then later on be merged with others. I personally think that should be the case because as I said earlier creating something original and new are not always that straight forward.
During
our fourth lesson we were asked a series of questions that we were told to
elaborate on even though we did this in groups we all had our own interpretation
of what each question meant to us.
Question
one – How can you develop your
creativity
This
question was answered by Naomi and myself, in time we were allocated we came up
with ‘creativity can be developed by
building on what you have previously done, by becoming inspired and
collaborating with other people. This can also be done when thinking
differently’. I tried to understand what it means by ‘develop your
creativity’ and it was hard but the more I thought of it, it became clearer that
you can develop creativity by increasing the multiple ways of thinking. Now
even though Naomi and I said ‘becoming inspired and collaborating with other
people’ will develop your creativity. By looking out for the unusual things
that may not be worth anything to one person but can inspire someone else to do
greater things. Also having different people that think differently will
contribute to development.
Question two - What is your inspiration? Well
personally I think everyone is inspired by different things. As discussed in
class, we are subjected to something that inspires us. The dictionary
definition of subjected is 'being in control, or under the influence'. I
agree with this definition because I believe when we are inspired we are
influenced to do things that we wouldn't normally do and being in control of
what inspires you, leads you to do something creative. I am inspired by many
things but most of all i am inspired by my mother this is because she has
raised 3 daughters all on her own and has not ever complained about her
situation. She is an inspiration to me because one day I hope to be just as
kind hearted and responsible like her. Inspiration leads me to have better
qualities.
Question three - Is creativity a skill? Can it be
developed? No I do not think creativity is a skill, after a long thought a
skill is something you can practice and soon enough be perfect at whereas
creativity is not something that can be practiced but can be developed or
stimulated. I admit that at first I thought creativity was a skill but when i
came to terms with my new thoughts I realised everyone is born with a sense of
creativity and it doesn’t matter if you are creative in a crafty way or even
creative when it comes to solving a problem we will always be creative. As I
stated before creativity can be stimulated, this can be done by environmental
factors because everything around you will have a different effect on you as a
person.
Question four - When are you most creative? I do
not think there is a specific time when you are most creative but I do know
that there is a period of time when you are just about to drift off to sleep
and when you wake up where you experience a bit of your subconscious which is
called the 'alpha stage'. Most people find that they are most creative when
they are listening to music I find that to help immensely because when I listen
to music I think of more things than I normally would when not listening to
music. I also discovered that I am most creative when I've just had a shower,
done 20 minutes of yoga, listening to music, taken a nap or just finished doing
exercise. You may think these are very peculiar but what they all have in
common is that I am always calm and relaxed after everything and when I am calm
I can think properly and become creative.
During our fourth lesson of media we were given a task where we had 20 minutes to make a 20 second movie with the title 'PANIC' below you will see the link to our movie.
In class we all created a table that included our
creative decisions and on the right we had creative inspiration. With this
table we separated out what we did from how we did it. If you look below this
is what we did.
Location/Setting (stairs) – Our 20 second movie was located on the stairs, we
decided to use the stairs because in every horror movie there is always someone
running down the stairs away from the killer, so we thought the stairs would
create tension as we ran down it. We also thought that being the stairs were
concrete when we ran down them the sound of our shoes will be amplified which
also builds suspense.
Camera Position (shot type) [POV] – We decided to shoot the film from the point of
view of the victim, we did this because the audience would be able to
experience the same emotions as the victim but also see how the victim deals
with the position she is in. Another reason why we used it to the point of view
of the victim is because it creates empathy. We wanted to create empathy because
we wanted the audience to share and understand the feelings the victim is
feeling.
Mise en Scene (shoes) – In the movie we used combat boots because the combat
boots were slightly torn but also they were much scarier than the shoes worn by
the victim. Combat boots are a very negative type of shoe as it normally
associated with military use and sometimes murderous individuals. Another
reason why we decided to use the boots is because the heels were really hard so
when the killer would walk down the stairs the exposed shoe heel would hit
against the concrete stairs which once again amplified the sound.
Heavy Breathing – The heavy breathing was a very important part to the
making of the movie, I wouldn’t say it was the most important but was still valuable
in its own way. Having the victim heavily breathing whilst running away created
tension and also having the camera in their point of view means that you can
feel the tension build up but also experience the adrenaline rush the victim
was receiving when running away.
Reflection – When
I was first introduced to the word ‘creativity’ I had a small idea of what
creativity could mean but as the time went on my definition of creativity has
been expanded. So towards the end of the activity If someone asked my opinion
on creativity I would be able to answer them and say ‘Creativity is something
that everyone is born with it just takes time for you to develop your
understanding of it. It is not a skill as you cannot practice to be creative,
it not something you can finally achieve. It is something that will forever be
developing over multiple periods of time’. I have also learned that being
creative doesn’t always mean you have to be original because no one can be.
There will always be that one person who has thought of an idea first however
their idea has just been forgotten. Most people might even say discussing
creativity can cause conflict between others because there is no right or wrong
answer to a definition that can only be defined to your personal degree.
