CD Task

Introduction to Creativity

Because people often find that working within constraints gives them something to exercise their creativity,  

How has something been created which fits with certain structures and rules (genre) but plays around with them to give us something a little bit different?

Any act of making something (even making an idea) might be seen as a creative act. 

Highly skilled or original (famous artists, musicians, film-makers etc).

How creativity can be an unconscious, random or collaborative act that becomes more than the sum of its parts.

Constraints:
At AS the type of product we made was a constraint because we had to make a music magazine. There was also a limit on time because it was part of the course which limited my creativity in some ways but also meant that I had to think creatively to get around these problems. 
At A2 we were told to make a digipak, advert and music video, so the types of products were again a constraint. For the music video especially, equipment and budget were a constraint we had to creatively work around. We also had a deadline, meaning there was a time limit on everything we did.

Genre:
In order to make our AS product different from everyone elses we had the freedom to choose our own genre. I chose rock for my genre because I am interested in this genre I felt as though I could be creative. 
At A2 the themes that I developed were also linked to the rock genre but had influences from pop and other genres too. This gave me more freedom to be creative.

Making:
For AS I created a front page, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine. For A2 we created a music video and two ancillary texts - a digipak and an advert.  

Original:
The choices that we did have at both AS and A2 allowed us to be creative. In order to be original from other work the genre and style of our work was very important. We also had the chance to challenge

Colloborative:
In A2 we worked in pairs. This meant that we had to work creatively together, bringing both our ideas into the mix and being flexible enough to change your initial ideas. It was also good because I got the chance to bounce ideas off of my partner meaning in the end our product was more creative.

iPod Shuffle

1. Heaven Help Us - My Chemical Romance - Alternative Rock
2. The Sharpest Lives - My Chemical Romance - Alternative Rock
3. Uptight - Green Day - Punk Rock
4. Why Not Me - Within Temptation - Spoken Prelude
5. Magic - One Direction - Pop
6. All We Know is Falling - Paramore - Pop Punk/Rock
7. Nothing Left To Lose - The Pretty Reckless - Rock (Post-Grunge)
8. Holiday - Green Day - Punk Rock
9. Android - Green Day - Punk Rock
10. Tied Together With a Smile - Taylor Swift - Country
11. Spell - Marie Digby - Acoustic Pop
12. Your Own LoV.E - VersaEmerge - Alternative Rock
13. Last Call - Katy Hudson - Electronic Pop/Jazz 
14. This Close - Flyleaf - Alternative Rock/Metal
15. Give Unto Me - Evanescence - Gothic Rock (Chamber Rock)
16. Whatsername - Green Day - Punk Rock/Rock
17. Cloud Nine - Evanescence - Gothic Rock
18. My Goodbye - Automatic Loveletter - Alternative Pop/Rock
19. Treasure - Flyleaf - Alternative Rock/Metal
20. Some Kind of Miracle - Kelly Clarkson - Contemporary R&B/Pop 

4. 

7. 

12. 

17. 

As and A2 Coursework

AS:

For the coursework we were asked to produce a front cover, a double page spread and a contents page for a music magazine. My target audience for this product were teenagers that liked the rock genre of music. We were given seven evaluation questions to answer after we had finished the product.

A2:

For the coursework we were asked to produce a music video, a digipak and a magazine advert. My target audience was mainly teenagers and young adults. At the end of the coursework we were given four evaluation questions to answer about our products.

                           

Section A: Skills Evaluation of Production - Task 2

Digital Technology:

• Computers, Laptop and Macs
• Photoshop
• Final Cut Pro
• Camera
• Microsoft Word
• Internet (Blogger, Youtube, Google, Animoto, Prezi etc.)
• Windows Live Movie Maker

Creativity:

How I have used my own original ideas along with ideas born out of existing inspiration. How I developed these ideas and made them into a reality and how I then justified and evaluated the final product.

Research and Planning:

Investigating existing products as inspiration for my own and breaking down the different elements of a product to see how they were both alone and together (eg. fonts, images etc.) Organising thoughts and ideas using different methods and developing these until they resemble a product.

Post Production:
Evaluating and reviewing the product as a whole, thinking about what I could change if I were to do it again.

Section A: Skills Evaluation of Production - Task 1

Pu the requirements of this question into your own words:
Describe and evaluate your skills development over the course of your production work.

Describe and weigh up what skills you have gained and how your skills have developed from the beginning of the course until now.

What is a Paradox?

A paradox is an argument that seems contradictory and doesn't seem to make sense within logic or common sense. Paradoxes are known to be invalid arguments but are still valuable ideas of which to be thought about. Some have revealed errors in existing logic and have caused the rules of logic to be rewritten.

Examples:

Logic:

Crocodile dilemma: If a crocodile steals a child and promises its return if the father can correctly guess what the crocodile will do, how should the crocodile respond in the case that the father correctly guesses that the child will not be returned?

Catch-22 : A situation in which someone is in need of something that can only be had by not being in need of it.

Self Reference:

Socratic paradox: "I know that I know nothing at all."

Vagueness:

Sorites paradox: One grain of sand is not a heap. If you don't have a heap, then adding only one grain of sand won't give you a heap. Then no number of grains of sand will make a heap. Similarly, one hair can't make the difference between being bald and not being bald. But then if you remove one hair at a time, you will never become bald. Also similar, one dollar will not make you rich, so if you keep this up, one dollar at a time, you will never become rich.