Creativity Revision

1. Do you think you were creative or not throughout your coursework?

I do feel that there was a degree of creativity on my behalf during the AS coursework but it did happen more as I developed my skills with use of software such as Photoshop. Overall though I feel that not a huge amount of creativity came from me and that in terms of the creation of the music magazine, it was of a following of trends from current magazines that shaped my drafts and final design.

2. Did technology enhance your creativity or not?

The access that I had to new and known technologies was certainly a big help for creativity as oppose to being left to design things on basic programmes on home PC's or so on.

The developing of skills through the use of Photoshop in which I gained much more knowledge of new buttons, for example the magnetic lasso, normal lasso and so on. The hardware use with Apple Macs certainly assisted in the creativity element with the unique and different features that are on the Macintosh's themselves. Also the Sony Video Camera that was used for the filming was one of my own because I knew I had one at home.A new and simple enough to use camera that recorded a decent quality and was quick and brilliant in assisting the creation process.

3. What ideas did you communicate and what stylistic techniques did you use? How did you relate to your interests/self identity?

The ideas I really wanted to get across with the coursework was that people would enjoy the magazine that had been created and make a relation themselves to the genre of the magazine and enjoy the music reviews. They could relate it to one of their accepted genres and accept the style of the magazine that would be presented to them. An example of the research on certain genres that I did was searching for Rap and Indie style of magazines because that was the idea I had, to create a mixture of both genres. The interests I had I put into the magazine along with the kind of music I like and the style i liked as well I did put into the magazine. I did make the magazine one that I liked and maybe that became a mistake in the end because the appeal to a wide audience may have been slightly lost  with this decision. It could have still met success though due to the curious blend of two differing genres to attract a wider audience.

4. Was your product influenced by your environment?

The final product that was made come the end of the coursework I would say was influenced by the environment. With being in school and thinking about the music friends and others like the magazine was related to that also examples that were researched and looked at influenced the style and set up of the final magazine that was made. Example magazines I did research were texts such as "Vibe" magazine which presented the Rap side of my magazine and one for the Indie side would have been "NME".

5. Was it original or did you add something extra to an original media text?

The idea that was created was a new idea, a new magazine that had a new set up and features but the original influences for the magazine I suppose were a mixture of small ideas taken from other known music and other such as sport magazines such as "Vibe","NME" and even a little look at "ESPN" magazine just for alternative style tips. In basic I suppose the magazine I made was a combination of small ideas taken from a variety of 3 or 4 magazines. There was also a magazine that the contents page was the only thing looked at because it had a unique style so I wanted mine to be similar. My magazine could possibly be seen as new extra's being added to a few original media texts.

6. Would you take any creative skills into future projects or have you been influenced to engage these skills in any other projects?

The creative skills I have now and ones I've developed over the period of the year will be useful for future projects e.g. Furthered Photoshop use, iMovie and even developed skills with use of the Blog. I will still be very open to alterations and new developments in my skills being made during the course of the work this academic year. Being able to hone these skills and build on them will be vital for use in the future especially with a certain type of chosen media career.