Q1a: Posts on Creativity

THIS POST LAST UPDATED JUNE 8TH 2012
All of the 'Posts on...' series primarily gather together existing posts from this blog relevant to the particular 1a/1b topic, BUT may also feature below this list further 'wider reading' links following these posts, and possibly copied-in links lists from this blog. In some cases I've added further links from further DB blogs too. Ultimately, these are 30min questions so the important thing is you pick out some ideas/theories/examples you're comfortable with and know you can apply specific examples from AS and/or A2 to. Some of the posts are brief, others much longer; its well worth skimming through as many as possible though and looking for ideas that click with you.

The main post on Q1a Creativity stresses the overlap with all 4 other DCRUP areas, and the need to consider this one in relation to each of these in turn. Therefore several of the posts listed below may appear to be primarily centred on R+P etc, but I'm including them as a pointer to think of the interaction between this and Creativity.

Characteristics of a Music Video; (bite-sized chunks of theory!)

Web 2.0 + Fan-made vids: Applying YOUR work; (any Q1a answer should cite web 2.0)

PoMo by louderthanwar blog; (accessible guide to this very key concept)

POMO Slasher sitcom Holliston @ FearNet.com;

POMO/NARRATIVE: HI v POP Cul: Austen v TOWIE!; (neat comparison of TOWIE + Jane Austen)

POMO/CREATIVITY: Warhol's impact and vision; (not JUST about his visual style: his groundbreaking use of looooong takes; prediction of today's we-media [everyone will have their 15 mins of fame]; pertinent to working within a group, his concept of factory production by a team but bearing one artist's [auteur...] name)

Creativity + MANGeR: Everything is a Remix?;

CREATIVITY: Tyranny of Genre; (snippet: 'The phrase "tyranny of genre" comes from genre theorist Richard Coe, who wrote that "the 'tyranny of genre' is normally taken to signify how generic structures constrain individual creativity"')

Does slow pace = boring?; (pace was an issue for you all at AS and A2, linked to aud feedback + genre conventions: are you virtually forced to surrender to market/audience/genre demands for fast pace?)

Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film; feminist Carole 'final girl' Clover's 1987 journal article

Final Girl: Carole Clover and critiques; can you be creative in recycling such archetypes yet again?

Creativity sans la femme + Bechdel Test; feminist Bechdel flags up the tawdry way women are used in film, but also consider the wider lack of women in prominent positions: were you influenced by any female directors, for example, of film/video? Feminism is a theory you should address for this topic. To what extent are the conventions you've used sourced from male practitioners? Sexist? Or does post-feminist thinking end such debates? Has gender effected your approach (useful also to consider if you worked within a mix gender group)?

Creativity, Narrative: Coens; 

Coens on using Final Cut for Oscar-nommed True Grit;

Creativity and R+P: Monsters; here's an $800k debut feature by a director who struggled to get financing because he didn't have a full script - like Loach. Leigh etc Gareth Edwards wanted to organically develop his script with his cast during the shoot. Indeed, he hired non-actors as he travelled (entire crew in ONE car!) on location...

Cultural Imperialism; this was tied to a previous exam topic but can still be used to explore how Britishness is subsumed by dominant American tropes - or even how S.Eng rep'ns overwhelmingly dominate UK media output; are your text/s normative or perhaps counter-hegemonic (challenging these normative representations, challenging whats seen as common sense and above questioning?). Have you managed a distinctive UK/Northern/Yorkshire/Ilkley 'voice' or have you overwhelmingly followed patterns laid down by US + London producers?

The 'Britishness' of your work; rom-com eg but can be applied across the board. How does your nationality come through in your work - or is it simply 'globalised' (perhaps even Americanised? see above post)
Hammer horror; any aspect of your work in this classic British tradition? 

Creativity: Gauntlett + Csikszentmihalyi; snippet: 'Some writers on creativity, such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, even suggest that creativity is a phenomenon which only occurs in a social context and cannot be understood, or even recognised, in isolation'
Horror Games: 13 most atmospheric; any intertextual influence from these (which also show wider appeal of genre to multiple audiences)?
British horror + budgets; bright future?;
The false scare; common slasher narrative device, links into concepts of audience pleasure + genre theories

Scream 4 + genre/METZ; the classic pomo slasher franchise + Metz's theory of genre cycles

Audience Expectations in the ‘Slasher’ Formula; did you venture outside the typical expectations in any way?