Creativity & Genre

 Creativity may be one of the most important aspects of life. As referenced in the Ted Talk on “The Theory of Creativity” as children we have big dreams and open minds, but as we grow older, we are told not to ambitious and to be more practical. Our creative and ambitious side is something we all have when we are born but loose it as time passes. As Picasso once said “All children are artists. The problem is to remain an artist when we grow up”. It is devastating that society crushes this side of us, because creativity and image are something, we need to be successful, it is a way to stand out and be herd. Often, we overlook our hopes, dreams and ambitions. We decide to stay comfortable and not challenge ourselves. A good way to prevent this is to make a bucket list of the things you are looking forward to and want to do. I did this a few days ago relating to an activity in Media Studies and I felt like I learned a lot about myself by just doing that alone. It made me excited and gave me a boost of motivation to keep working towards my goals so that I can one day do these things.  

When working on my portfolio project I have had to be very innovative and imaginative to collaborate with my group and figure out the details of our movie. Our genre of film is comedy/horror, and our inspiration was movies such as, “Scary Movie 5”, “The Haunted House”, “Hubie Halloween”. A director that I admire and is known for directing movies in our chosen film genre is David Zucker. David Zucker has great creative self-efficiency, “Creative self-efficacy typically refers to our confidence to perform creatively on a particular task (or set of broader activities) in a particular situation and is influenced by a host of other factors, including our physiological and psychological state, the social situation, and the task at hand.”, (Shaughnessy, “An Interview with Ron Beghetto: Subtle Nuances of Creativity in Learning Life”). David Zucker has those instincts when directing a film, many of the tactics he uses in his films such as comedic antagonist, pulling out the wrong weapon, the tacky scare tactics, and the excessive screaming after no one else is, are ones that I will be using in my portfolio project. I hope that I would be able to execute these tactics in my own creative way. Something I would do differently is to try to ensue more fear than comedy in my film, unlike Zucker who’s comedy to fear ratio is much higher. At times to much comedy in a ‘comedy/horror’ genre can be more predictable, but when both are equal there is a surprise factor because the audience does not expect.  

One of Zucker's most successful films:

My group and I have a specific vision for the portfolio project. We plan on doing a “Breakfast Club” type approach to our comedy/horror genre. Our movie takes place in after school detention, and of course each student is from a different click or conforms into a certain stereotype. The twist is that the teacher forgets about the students, leaving them locked in school overnight. And while everything is seemingly normal, one of the students is not. They are the ‘misunderstood’ character that is bullied, and everyone overlooks. Causing a major tantrum that could possibly be deadly. Intwined into this story line will be lighthearted comedy.