Creativity Essay

Creativity is ‘A process needed forproblem solving…not a special

gift enjoyed by a few but acommon ability possessed by

most people’

Jones 1993

I believe that creativity is enjoyed by many and everyone has the calpability to be creative. However there are levels of ability within the range of creativity, some are especially talented, and some people struggle to be creative at all. This is reflected within the work you can view of different people, within my class alone we didn't all recieve the same grade for our projects regardless of the effort we each put in. But some of use were more able and skilled to use the software provided and had natural ability to produce higher quality work. However our grades were not a true reflection of how creative we had been. As some who chose to break from the conventions we were attempting to follow, such as placing their magazine title in the centre of the page, would in some repsects the most creative as they could see past the boundaries. But they  may have been challenged, and the course of their creativity questioned for being right.

I believe there is no right or wrong way to be creative, you can use creativity to solve a problem but you can also be creative with no true aim. For my media projects I always had a brief to follow within fairly stricked guidelines, such as my magazine had to be a music genre and my A2 video had to be a music video. This was an aspect that did restrict my creativity as I wasn't free to make whatever I wanted. However the brief acted as almost a problem or a challenge, and allowed my creativity to be channeled, whilst also highlighting my abilities to still be creative when restricted. Diverging from the brief would have been regarded as 'wrong,' however this wasn't the creativity itself that would have been wrong but the product of the creativity.

The idea that creativity is 'needed for problem solving,' I find questionable. As problems can also be solved with logic, and contemplation. This was illustrated within my media work, as whilst being creative with the aid of programmes such as photoshop or final cut pro, I faced personal problems of using the software to achieve my vision. Creativity wasn't required to discover how to change the exposure of my picture, for example, but I had to use logic and process of elimination to actually allow form my creative vision. There is however a quote by Albert Einstein that said 'Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.' I believe this to be true, as without viewing things in a different way you will contiued to reach the same conclusion. Therefore creativity can aid problem solving as it encourages us to attempt something completely different and think outside the box to achieve something new. With the work of our video we had many filming sessions, in which watching the footage back we had the harsh realisation our initial idea just didnt present the desired effect. We therefore had to use our creative abilities and share ideas between myself and my partner to correct our mistake and solve the problem of our poor shots.

Creativity is definately something that can be regarded as a process. It is a step by step journey of attempts and failed attempts to reach a final goal. This was demonstrated within all my projects. My music video, for example, we began with research and planning, analysing currents products and establishing our initial idea. From here we had to attempt to put our ideas into a visual format with moodboards and our animatic to summarise our plans. Even after the production of our draft video we had to edit and tweak footage and film some all over again. It was long process that enabled us to reach our final goal, however our final product wasn't the single creation, but every step of the process was a reflection and progression our our creative ability.

Even though some people may have a natural talent of being creative and artistic, my journey through media has proved that creativity can also be developed, encouraged and taught. As with my very first preliminary product to make a school magazine I lacked vision in the possibilities of my project. When attempting to take my photos for the cover and arrange them on photoshop I had no real concept of what was good and my abilities, especially on photoshop were so poor, I could barely make it look like a magazine. But with guidance on the software, feedback from teachers and peers and simply dedication and practice, gradually my ability improved. Proof of this is with my final magazine achieving me a grade far higher then expected.