Project: Mini-Exegesis

When creating my genre bending trailer Halloween: A Love Story, it’s easy to say that my goal was simply to find comedy in a darkly humorous way. This is of course true, however I also attempted to push forward my mission statement (found in the about page of this blog). That is to create a (hopefully) original product from multiple, unoriginal sources. This goal takes from a variety of topics an ideas discussed in our creativity class. My version of creativity is in and of itself based around the process of re-creation. Technology and a creative environment has helped build up my confidence in undertaking such a task. This project is connected to copyright law also because, in theory it would need to fall under the parody section of “fair use”. These elements all connect to my thought process of creating my project.

My personal idea of what creativity is can be found all throughout my project. It’s not something 100% new or innovative, but something that is new and appealing. I used a favorite horror series of mine to create something that I’ve seen and loved on the Internet a million times. My “implicit theory of creativity” (Davis, 2004, p. 70) is of course inherently biased towards my own creations, but personally I see the effort I put into the project come out in the final product. Of course how much effort I put in is also up to interpretation. I tried to put research into this project, watching romantic comedy trailers and studying the genres I wanted to implement. I tried to understand how a trailer advertises. I tried to discover just what humour can be discovered by placing horrific visions over poppy love songs. This knowledge is what led to a fairly high percentage of transformative qualities in the piece.

This transformative quality of my parody piece ties into copyright law and how it effects creativity. The trailer ticks many boxes of what is needed in order to be considered “fair use”. Through my editing, a combination of original and unoriginal audio and video has created a partly original whole. This in turn goes into the modern idea of creators remixing and recreating works. As I said, my idea came from watching such videos online. In my case I specifically altered both the audio and video, as well as combining them. I didn’t do this to step around copyright law that I will probably never encounter, I did it to create a product with a consistent image and tone that reflected the trailers I was copying. I knew that if I could pull that off, the audience would be engaged at all the right moments. It just so happens that this process helped with the copyright question too. An important fact on connecting my project to the course that started it.

In order to implement the changes and authenticity of my trailer, I needed proper technological involvement. As I edited in a non-linear editor, ideas came and went, both similar and different to the ones I typed out in my word processor. As an example, the only intended horrific moment of the trailer changed music, timing and thus impact multiple times. The automation, easy handling, and on the fly analysis (Mitchell, Inouye, & Blumenthal, 2003, p. 65) that the program provided allowed my creativity to adapt on the fly. It also made the changes that are needed for a work to be original and part of “fair use” much easier to implement. I could analyze trailers and genres I was basing my work off at any moment. I could change text created on one program and have it appear on the other. I could document every step I took for all of this to happen. The list goes on and on, and I find it clear that the impact of technology is irreplaceable in the creation of my project.

Equally important of course is the creative environment where I brainstormed, prepared, produced and analyzed my project. The Creativity class gave us almost infinite possibilities to create our final project. So of course to start with I turned to Youtube. What significantly creative project could I undertake that would blend well with my skillset? Could I perhaps create something original using other sources, like I’ve potentially done before? I took what ideas I could find to people in the class as we all did, and the simple peer to peer discussion made my choice to do a trailer edit clear. The same way an internet environment gave me a bunch of ideas, the open environment of class helped me refine my ideas over time. While much of the research and editing process involved the simpler, solo activity of sitting in front of the computer in a quiet place, the contribution of others cannot be ignored.

Finally as I reflect upon my finished trailer, I see something in its core that I’m very proud of. Most of this has to do with the transformative nature I’ve mentioned previously. The problems start to arise when I take the project out of myself editing it (something which unfortunately can only happen after a project is finished). The timing I tried to replicate from real trailers seems too fast paced. The middle appears to drag post “shock” climax. Some of the footage clashes more than I anticipated. But these problems are miniscule compared to the overall net positive I see as I watch again and again.

The trailer is an original creative work. I made something I enjoy and find funny, despite all the headaches that went into it. I think it’s creative for the same reason the law might see it a fair. It transforms a decent amount of sources into one (relatively) complete whole. Its nature as a parody pokes fun at the violence and ridiculousness in a series of films, while also poking fun at something ever present in our advertising world. With the combination of a stimulating environment and modern technology to carry the load, I was able to focus 100% on the creative aspect of the production. Small issues aside, this is why I think I’ve succeeded. If this is what we were meant to create in this course, I think I’ve done rather well for myself.

 

References

Catmull, E. (2008). How Pixar fosters collective creativity. Harvard business review, 1-13.

Davis, G. A. (2004). Definitions and theories. In Creativity is forever (pp. 58-73). USA: Kendell/Hunt.

McIntyre, P. (2012). The digital revolution: Copyright and creativity. In Creativity and cultural production: Issues for media practice (pp. 176-194). Palgrave Macmillan.

Mitchell, W., Inouye, A., & Blumenthal, S. (2003). Advancing creative practices through information technology. Beyond productivity: Information technology, innovation creativity (pp. 61-95). Washington: The National Academies Press.

Project: Final Product

Here it finally is, for all to see!

 

Credits:
Halloween: A Love Story
By Alex Johns

Footage & Audio From:
Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)
Halloween II (Rick Rosenthal, 1981)
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (Tommy Lee Wallace, 1982)
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (Dwight H. Little, 1988)
Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (Dominique Othenin-Girard, 1989)
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (Joe Chappelle, 1995)
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (Steve Miner, 1998)
Halloween: Resurrection (Rick Rosenthal, 2002)
The Room (Tommy Wiseau, 2003)

Music:
No Rain by Blind Melon
Hush by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed Under Creative Commons
Crazy Little Thing Called Love

Other Materials:
Fabric Texture Taken From photos-public-domain.com
Gothic Heavy Font Taken From halloweenmovies.com

Created In:
Adobe Premiere Pro
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Photoshop

Week Ten Response – Creativity, The Pixar Way

In the article How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity, Ed Catmull suggests that the animation company Pixar is the perfect example of a creative environment. The basis for this is found in the team based company that gives power to those that can use it in creative ways. The employees of Pixar are said to be surrounded by creative people, fun environments and good leadership. The company’s example is intended to reflect on our creative culture and provide a possible improvement to everyone that reads.

The stuff highly creative, intelligent dreams are made of. (Fig. 1)

In order to support this theory of a creative environment, Catmull first establishes how Pixar views the creative process. “A movie contains literally tens of thousands of ideas” (Catmull, 2008, p. 4) he states, focusing on the collective efforts of a team. This definition connects to the roots of our culture, where smart people are pushed together to create great ideas, rather than great ideas being pushed together with the assumption of intelligence. Expectations are needed to keep a team and their leader in check. From this, peers working together can be put towards whatever tools are needed and create amazing products. This in a nutshell is how Pixar head, John Lasseter views creativity and how he uses it to make a creative environment.

This creative environment is the most important part in Catmull’s point. The collective groups at Pixar are open to all forms of communication as a problem solving technique. In order to foster this environment, comedy and fun are welcomed and encouraged. The idea is that the most fun type of learning is the kind that is done together and so Lasseter pushes this forward to corroborate the many ideas the company brings together. Evidence for a creative environment “supports the habits of people who eschew a desk altogether” (Delistraty, 2014) so the open discussion areas of Pixar also help with this process. At the head of it all, a good leader is needed to forward the plan and reflect on the end product.

About as chill as office spaces get. (Fig. 2)

This is why the example of Pixar works so well. Lasseter has a defined set of principles that he uses to establish his team. This leadership helps the team work productively and intelligently on their creative endeavors. Lasseter states that “it doesn’t matter at all has the idea” and that you should bring people only as intelligent as you into a team (Reis, 2009). This way the creation and post-mortem of all products can be seen to be as thorough as possible. Catmull works at Pixar, so he knows that these claims are true. He sees the company analyze its successes and failures in the same groups that created those successes and failures. The environment allows people to take these risks.

Catmull holds the Pixar up high in his article as a shining example of a creative environment that produces amazing products and intelligent people. I don’t think these claims are too much of an overstatement. It’s clear that the cycle of open discussion, fun people and strong leadership fosters Pixar’s well known creative output.  The success of the company speaks for itself.

 

References

Catmull, E. (2008). How Pixar fosters collective creativity. Harvard business review, 1-13.

Delistraty, C. (2014, September 22). How environment can boost creativity. Retrieved from SBS: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/09/22/how-environment-can-boost-creativity

Reis, D. (2009). John Lasseter’s seven creative principle’s. Animation magazine.

Images

Fig. 1: http://www.aerogrammestudio.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/pixars-22-rules-for-storytelling.jpg

Fig. 2:  http://officesnapshots.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/pixar0.jpeg

Project: Update #3

My Adobe Premiere timeline.

This is my (almost) final edit for my project. You can see that I have added the fast paced, music based montage. Finding clips enough clips to fit the tone of the montage was difficult, but in the end I think it fits well. . Also at the end of my project, I added credits. The final length for the trailer portion of the project comes in at 2 minutes, 19 seconds. A bit short of what I’d planned, by I’m happy with it.

I should note that all these Halloween films have different aspect ratios, so I had to try and enlarge certain clips to fit in the ratio of the first film (2.35 : 1).

Before and after.

My final act before I finish is to go through all the clips used and do some colour correction. The cold, dark feeling of some of the films does not sit well with the tone of the trailer. This will also bring some unity between a series of films that are shot and edited very differently. I would like the trailer to appear as one cohesive piece.

An annoying prospect.

And with that I will finally be finished! I expect to post the final product up here soon.

Past Work: The Dark Knight Rises Fan Trailer (2012)

I struggled to try and find a final piece to post here, but when I looked towards the project I’m doing for my assignment, I figured it out. I’ve always had a fascination with trailers of films and television. An advertising medium meant to sell the type of media I love most holds a lot of interest to me. This is partly why I chose to make my project a trailer. However as this fan-edited trailer for the 2012 Christopher Nolan film The Dark Knight Rises shows, I’ve been doing this for a long time.

I’M BATMAN! (Fig. 1)

This trailer was edited together before the film was released, and so it only uses footage and audio from trailers already released for the movie. This can be seen as a creative “challenge” generated by my hype for the film and kept alive by the Internet community I surrounded myself in before and after the film’s release.

Like my actual project, I actual used a simple for of research to create this. I watched how other big budget, action movie trailers sold themselves and attempted to recreate them in a realistic manner. I also wanted to create a complete montage of the film in a way that paid tribute to a film I hadn’t even seen. The results were not that great, by I yet again edited something into creation from another set of works (which in this case were also derivative, only in a much more official fashion).

In conclusion, I gave myself a challenge I didn’t know was challenging, I researched a topic I didn’t know I was researching and I represented I product that I wasn’t entirely sure deserved to be represented.  This connects back to my goal of showing how other works can greatly inspire creativity. It also goes to show that I often go overboard with the hype.

 

Images

Fig. 1: http://dark.pozadia.org/images/wallpapers/46483340/Dark/The%20Dark%20Knight%20Rises%209.jpg

Week Nine Response – Is Copyright Law Good For Creativity?

The question on whether copyright law enhances or limits creativity is an extremely difficult one to answer. Copyright is forever expanding its reach in the name of “incentive for the creation and dissemination of aesthetic and intellectual works” (Abrams, 1992, p. 3), however this expansion can also be seen as restrictive. That is the use of “other works” to create something new can be seen as bad with the protection of these extended to very long periods. With my work on display in this blog, it’s not hard to see where my problems come from. Copyright law as we know it started in 1710 under The Statute of Anne as a way to prevent “a monopoly on the part of booksellers” (McIntyre, p. 183). Through various cases the laws evolved, becoming more and more about the protection old works while encouraging new ones. The modern concept of “fair use” for example, originated from book abridgements has expanded to include review and parody over a hundred years. The changes that often split creative communities are the ones that increase the length of copyright protection. Originally it lasted 14 years after the creation of the work, but now lasts 70 years after the death of the author.

Copyright Law: Keep it simple stupid. (Fig. 1)

This expansion of copyright is the biggest issue when discussing its ever increasing reach. That is the continued growth of subject matter under the law and how long those subjects are protected. The reason for this seems obvious – more copyright would mean more incentive to the author and more works for the public to benefit from. Studies show however that “historic long-run growth in new copyrighted works is largely a function of population” (Ku, Sun, & Fan, 2009, p. 1672) instead. So why the need to constantly update? Changing behaviour under a law is an extremely common effect, which includes both punishment and rewards. It’s possible that in the past these laws were changed (for whatever reason) and an increased population noticed the change and went with it. However these restrictive changes don’t fit as well in a modern context. In fact, some argue that copyright law is not up to date enough in this modern age of connectivity and remixes. It’s easy to see complications when “fair use” laws are being discussed from music being heard in the background of everyday home videos. Remix’s and recreations are so common in this Internet age that mass breakings of perceived copyright law is also seen as standard. “With piracy rife, today’s society sees free content as a right, particularly over the Internet” (Remix culture: A rights nightmare, n.d.). When certain laws say that sampling a song an illegally downloading one are one in the same, there is a problem.

Warning: Stealing music may cause explosions.

From a personal standpoint, I believe very heavily in the use of other works to create your own. This is reflected in the mantra I’ve displayed throughout this blog. If someone wants to work in an industry, they’ll need incentive so I do understand that strict laws are partly needed. Because of my age I’ve grown up in a remix culture on the Internet. I see the law as changing in restrictive ways but staying the same in ways that can truly help creativity flourish.

References

Abrams, H. (1992). Originality and creativity in copyright law. Law and contemporary problems, 3-44. Ku, R. S., Sun, J., & Fan, Y. (2009). Does copyright law promote creativity? An empirical analysis of copyright’s bounty. Vanderbilt law review, 62(6), 1669-1746.

McIntyre, P. (2012). The digital revolution: Copyright and creativity. In Creativity and cultural production: Issues for media practise (pp. 176-194). Palgrave Macmillan.

Remix culture: A rights nightmare. (n.d.). Retrieved from ABC: http://www.abc.net.au/catapult/indepth/s1645533.htm#top

Images Fig. 1: http://www.erikjheels.com/Images/articles/2007-07-18-drawing-explains-copyright-830×470.png Fig. 2: http://wallpaperdj.com/view-remix-1600×1200.html

Project: Update #2

My Adobe Premiere timeline.

I have now finished the mid and end point of my trailer. Footage wise all I have to do is add some fast paced clips in between these two points. As you can see from the amount of titles, I have added both review quotes and a cast list to the trailer as well as the title itself. Also at the end, I’ve included a recreation of those credits that often appear in real trailers. I have also decide to put most text in front of a teal fabric texture I slightly edited in Photoshop. This will make the text stand out more, and increase the production quality of the trailer.

Before and after.

Also newly included are two new music tracks: A royalty free piece called Hush from the site incompetech.com and Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen which is for the closing montage of the trailer. I also have added a piece of audio from the cult classic move The Room directed by Tommy Wiseau. This came from recently rewatching the movie and seeing a piece of dialogue that would fit well in a long stretch of music in the middle of the project.

High praise.

The last montage I plan on doing will be fast paced and entirely based on the rhythm of the music. I’ve already started colour grading in a way, which I will talk about in more detail in the next (final) update.

Past Work: “Never Failed” Short Film (2012)

Some could consider this next project my own personal Citizen Kane. Not for any kind of quality, but because this was a film that I had 100% control over. My final TEE film for High School was written, directed and edited by me. The 2005 Robert Rodriguez film Sin City, and the Frank Miller comics it was based on caused me to fall in love with the film noir genre. When we were allowed to make a noir film for our final project I jumped right in, packing my script full of clichés and monologues.

For our final films, our entire class was taken to a camp ground, full of possible locations and given a class full of Drama students as actors. We spent only three days there so rigorous timetables were created for when and where every crew would shoot. I was also in the Drama class, so I not only worked on this film but also acted in one and was a crew member in two others. Needless to say this led to a lot of stress. Locations had to be changed, weather held up shoots and my page wasn’t translating to screen as well as I hoped.

I tried hard to stylise the film in a way similar to this. Black and white, high contrast, simple shots ect. (Fig. 1)

But through the great help of friends and teachers, I persevered through those tough times and ended up with way too much footage and dialogue to edit into the mandatory five minutes. More stress and emotions followed this realisation. But yet again there were people around to help me get past it. The film I created isn’t great at all (although it got a decent mark), but I put all I had into it in many ways.

The same creativity that let me go wild in my planning, caused me to screw up in more ways than one. However, from this I discovered a different, more professional form of creativity that helped me build around my problems rather than just ignore them. I have so many people to thank for this of course. In the end I created a product that challenged the creative mind I thought I had, and brought out new aspects of it.

 

Images

Fig. 1: https://noirwhale.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/film-noir-sin-city-nancy-and-hartigan-via-filmdogsonline.jpg

Week Six Response – How Technology Has Made Creativity Easier

There is no doubt in my mind that advances in technology have allowed creativity to flourish in the minds and world of many. The creative process, by definition has barriers that can be torn down with the relatively recent advent of advanced technology. I think that the modern version of planning, creating and releasing content has helped me a lot in my personal creative journey.

In the planning and development of products and creations, technology has proven irreplaceable. Ignoring the specialized tools created for specific areas, (e.g. tablets for artists, 3D printers for designers) the simple communication and simulation additions of technology are irreplaceable. In important fields of research, professionals from across the world can corroborate over great distances. Not too long ago Charles Darwin’s contemporary “Gregor Mendel, had discovered the principles of genetics shortly after Darwin published his famous work, but they remained completely unaware of each other for their entire lifetimes” (Satell, 2014). This is the kind of thing that would not happen today. Also important in this is the simulation of failure that technology can bring. Digital failures are much less problematic then one’s in real life. Having this less intimidating option is a very welcoming prospect.

Creativity is literally pouring out of these screens! (Fig. 1)

Mixing and remixing has also opened up crazy possibilities for many creative levels. Taking content from others than simply creating your own is a perfect entry level, made easy by simple distribution and accessible tools. Programs and products have been created simply to remix music, for example. For entry level creators, this gives them a starting point, for professionals this gives them the ability to stretch their creative muscles from trying to make something new from something old.

With the advent of the Internet, it has also become insanely easy to show 90% of creative output to the entire world. While traditional forms of communication have limited what can be passed through them, the “Internet’s design encourages innovation at the edges by users” (Advancing creative practices through information technology, 2003, p. 75). In relation to my area specifically, video and image sharing sites are in no short supply. In relation to this, the amount of devices connected together by the World Wide Web allows for an insanely large audience to have access to your products. So you can, in theory, communicate a large number of different things to a large number of people. The encouragement and discussion of creativity this development brings can speak for itself.

The Internet is strange and scary. But also creative. (Fig. 2)

Some argue, however that technology can also limit creativity. Doug Johnson argues that programs can “automate and outsource craftsmanship” in order to display the “illusion of creativity” (Johnson, 2014, p. 85). It’s true that certain programs allow automatic content creation, like clip-art in Microsoft Word for example. I would argue that these kind of programs are simply a starting point for the average consumer. While it isn’t too crazy for someone to start editing home movies in Windows Movie Maker, using all the available tools, more complex user focused programs like Adobe Premiere are needed for fully fledged creations.

In the end, I’d say that modern technology has an unprecedented positive reinforcement of the world’s creative output. I of course have a massive bias in this regard. My area has changed insanely in the past 20 years, for the better I’d say. However, opening up a way for anyone to have a creative output and share it with everyone else is a net-positive I just can’t deny.

 

References

Advancing creative practices through information technology. (2003). In W. Mitchell, A. Inouye, & S. Blumenthal, Beyond productivity: Information technology, innovation creativity. Washington: The National Academies Press.

Johnson, D. (2014). Technology and the illusion of creativity. Educational Leadership, 71(7), 84-85.

Satell, G. (2014, January 27). How technology enhances creativity. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2014/01/27/how-technology-enhances-creativity/

Images

Fig. 1: https://images.cambria.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/creative-tech-1-1024×768.jpg

Fig. 2: http://www.reactionface.info/sites/default/files/imagecache/Node_Page/images/28405225.jpg

Slow Goings

Looks like way more posts/content is gonna be late than I predicted. Still have 3 Blog Responses planned as well as 2 Project Updates and 2 Past Works. Of course I also have my Exegesis I’m working on. I will try to post what is finished and work on whatever’s not tomorrow, but for now just watch this as an apology: