Creativity & Genre

 

Creativity & Genre 

 

Over time, I have truly realized how important creativity is to me. Not only have I realized that it is exciting when a creative idea sparks from your mind, but as technology and the people in this world find more ways to improve, competition becomes a huge factor in our lives. Now, this is a time where the most brilliant ideas are shooting out from left and right, up and down, and everywhere we know. Because of this, I am starting to discover, as each day passes, that creativity will bring you to the gateway of opportunities and success—and this is guaranteed. 

During class, I watched a Ted Talk that really influenced my idea of creativity. During this Ted Talk, the speaker Duncan Wardle emphasized throughout his talk how important creativity is, especially when it comes to the real world. With that, he gave examples of this by asking the audience to draw houses, and he stated that even constructors created houses like the audience did. Also, even the most unexpected people for the job, like chefs, have a strong form of creativity. He also makes statements on how to world and its people is changing very rapidly, along with technology—so with that, with our creativity, we must keep up with this momentum. All in all, the Ted Talk helped me realize how creativity is not only important in general, but when it comes to filmmaking as well as the categories that make up the film industry—genres. Soon, in varying times of our lives, a door we will open will lead us to numerous opportunities. Once we decide to choose a new endeavor, creativity will be immensely important to keep you afloat and successful. I learned more about this through the New Introductions activity, where we had to create 10 facts about us that are more out-of-the-box than usual. As for me, I chose a bucket list and 10 things I needed to do in my future. This exercise taught me how to think fast and creatively within a limited amount of time, about the things that I look forward to. Along with that, I read the article “An Interview with Ron Beghetto: Subtle Nuances of Creativity in Learning and Life.”  In this article, Shaughnessy captures an interview with Ron Beghetto and his knowledge on creative self-efficacy. He notes how crucial positive feedback from others develops our creative self-efficacy. Along with it being the confidence someone must perform creatively during a certain project, not only tdoes it depend on our current psychological state, but also the type of task and the atmosphere as well. It can be inferred from this article and what was said by Beghetto that creative self-efficacy is something, when you have it, can really change your attitude and outlook on tasks that you have every day. I realized it has a lot to do with willpower and how healthy your mind is at the time, because when an individual is more willing to be open to new tasks, they will most likely be satisfied with the end result—even if it was a failure to them. Like Beghetto stated when he shared his experience with cooking and his creative self-efficacy mindset, it has a lot to do with your personal wellbeing and the feedback you receive from others. I learned from this as well that self-efficacy is most definitely linked to creativity, which also links to how successful you may be with new endeavors. 

Moving on, my chosen genre for my portfolio will be the fantasy genre, because I have always been passionate about other-worldly things since I was little. Things that could surpass the sometimes boring or dull reality of our lives fascinated me. This came to me as science fiction fantasy, as well as medieval fantasy. With that, I researched each director for Inception and Maleficent: Christopher Nolan and Robert Stromberg. Personally, even though it is known that Christopher Nolan has won many more rewards and may be more successful, I believe Robert Stromberg is phenomenal when it comes to the creative, detailed appearances of the characters in Maleficent and other fantasy movies like Avatar by James Cameron. While Christopher Nolan’s movies can be seen as more thrilling and practical, Robert Stromberg always aids his team in creating a fantastical, ethereal world—along with the creatures in it. For example, his creativity truly helped him in creating the concept of the Nav’i race in Avatar, and not only did it look amazing, but it ended up truly successful. With that, each director’s creativity shines through their work in different yet eminent way. 

In conclusion, my portfolio project will embody the fantasy genre. I believe this is the perfect genre that will define me in this curriculum through the portfolio because I am already extremely passionate about this genre. Based on my reactions to fantasy movies I have watched before, this was the genre that moved me and inspired me the most out of any other—in fact, it has inspired me to create my own fantasy projects before. This is why fantasy will be the perfect genre to share my story.