The Arcade Fire - Sprawl II

The videos by The Arcade Fire can be considered postmodern because they blur the boundaries between producer and consumer. The viewer is no longer passively watching a structured video they are interacting and creating the action within the video. Traditional music videos are usually one of three styles; illustrative, amplified or disjunction which are viewed passively by the audience. For example, Mountains Beyond Mountains traditional version follows the conventions of a typical music video using a "narrative" in the form of disjuncture while performing the song by lip syncing. The audience's role is to watch and listen rather than participate in the film. However the interactive version, although set in the same setting with the same characters, is completely different and depends on the audience to participate and interact with the video for anything to happen. The audience controls the speed and movement which is possible through web 2.0. http://www.sprawl2.com/
The Wilderness Downtown uses hyper-reality where the viewer is taken into a simulation of their home town mixing the reality of the town from bird's eye and street views from Google Maps with animation scenes. There is no apparent purpose to the video except entertainment for the viewer which is made more personal with the fact it can be set in their home town. In the video the viewer can create their own postcard which encourages the audience to participate rather than just sit back and watch. http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/
http://www.beonlineb.com/ Neon Bible also requires audience interaction, with the audience able to control what they see happen throughout the song which leaves it totally up to the individual viewer. All of these interact videos are examples of anti-narrative because there is no obvious story or narrative structure. In The Wilderness Downtown the audience may interpret different meanings for the film as the viewer is portrayed in hyper-reality by the character who is either running around, to or from the town depending on how it is individual interpreted. Neon Bible and Mountains Beyond Mountains also have no narrative structure or apparent representation of the lyrics or music which make them look incomplete as the audience have to make up the rest of the action in the video.


http://blabla.nfb.ca/
The chapters show stages of communication: learning a language, making small talk, expressing emotions. It uses a mixture of techniques both traditional and hi-tech, this is a Postmodern aspect because it mixes the use of hand-made art with graphic animations. 
"BLA BLA uses xerogrpahy, drawing on paper, ActionScript generated animations, puppet stop-motion combined with real-time 3D mapping... I am inspired by projects that feel free aesthetically. I wanted BLA BLA to feel hand-made, imperfect, fragile so we forget about the technology."
The music and the visuals are used to create a mood for the viewer who is essential to the performance because without the audience interaction nothing happens. There is some structure to the website as it follows chapters and a lose narrative around the stages of communication. 
Although I liked the style of the graphics and the audience interaction I didn't really understand the purpose of it because it wasn't exactly entertaining or follow any conventions to make it a game. However I can see the possible development for the future - if this kind of interactive software could be used for children's books for example which would give the website and this type of audience interaction more purpose.


Vincent Morisset the director for these videos and the website: (possible quotes on Creativity for Section A) www.hypebot.com/
"Ideas always drive my projects, and I use the tools that are around me to achieve them. I think it's important that we understand the possibilities and the limitations of those tools, but for me, it's important that the projects are driven by ideas so that they don't become technology demos."
"I like to play with different mediums and to blur the lines and the codes of each of them. Using lo-fi and hand-made content to make you forget the technology in an interactive experience is another trick."
"One of my mottos is "The web is fun." I love this medium but the way we connect with images on our laptop is really different from the way we relate to images on a TV screen. Since I want to trigger emotions through my projects, I work hard so that we kind of forget we're in front of a computer."

Digital Technology Turns Media Consumers into Media Producers.

"The making of the new and the rearranging of the old" - Bentley

"Digital techonlogy turns media consumers into media producers"
In your own experience how has your creativity developed using digital technology to complete your coursework productions?

To some extent digital technology goes turn media consumers into media producers because it enable us to consume current media products for example watching music videos on YouTube which spurs creativity and further develops ideas for production turning us into media producers.

In my A2 coursework I have used digital technology as a consumer and a producer because I have used the internet; band websites, YouTube and Google, to take in information about the pop rock band genre that my products were based on. From what I found and learnt I took ideas forward and turned them into a product (music video, digipak and poster) Through Abode Photoshop and Premiere Elements I was able to develop my creativity and turn it from an idea into a reality. This allowed me to experiment with ideas and from the experience I gained though research & planning I was able to judge how effective and successful the outcome was. This allowed me to produce a more creative product. For example when producing my digipak and poster I developed the designs and layout based on aspects of current products. During my research and planning I was inspired by Parachute's album artwork for Losing Sleep I then tried to produce a similar layering style for my own digipak using photography of city and country. I used digital technology to develop this in Photoshop however it was not as successful as the original. I then developed my ideas further by taking certain aspects ideas from different sources that I had found during research & planning and combining them.

Creativity.

Creativity Deabte: "Does creativity come from the need to solve a problem or not?"

What is creativity? The Thesaurus definition of creativity is:
Originality, imagination, inspitation, ingenuity, inventiveness, resourcefulness, creativeness, vision and innovation.

"Creativity is a process needed for problem-solving …not a special gift enjoyed by a few but a common ability possessed by most people” (Jones, 1993)

"Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light & shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable, originality is non-existent. And don't bother concealing your theivery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's more where you take them to." - Jim Jarmusch

Creativity.

Ideas on Creativity:
“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns. Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. It is also a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing...it makes life more fun and more interesting." - Edward de Bono



"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." - C. S. Lewis


"Out of limitation come creativity." - Debbie Allen



"A truly creative person rids him or herself of all self-imposed limitations." - Gerald G. Jampolsky

"Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them." - Albert Einstein

"Can anybody be given a great degree of creativity? No. They can be given the equipment to develop it - if they have it in them in the first place." - George Shearing



"Creativity and artistic endeavours have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music." - Herbie Hancock

What do you understand by "Creativity" and to what extend have you been creative?
Creativity is where a person creates something new that is individual and original. It can be a product, piece of art, music, literature etc that is different, shows an inspiring concept, brings new ideas or meaning to the audience, something that expresses emotions and ideas to the viewer. Creativity is usually inspired by other creative products or ideas but can be totally original and innovative. 

Did you experience limits/blocks on your own creativity?

Time and equipment has limited my creativity to some extent because I've had to work in a time frame and use resources that were on offer to me however with more time and a wider range of resources I could have been more creative and created a better outcome.

How easy/difficult was it to be creative while still working to the brief?

While working to the brief it wasn't too difficult to still be creative because I was able to adapt it to my skills and experiment with new technologies to make a creative product.

How much of your creativity was about trial and error?
A lot of my creativity is about trial and error because I need to test, practice and adapt my ideas before I create an effective outcome. For example with my digipak I played around in photoshop and the image on the front cover til I was happy that it worked.

Did working within conventions stifle your creativity?

To some extent working within conventions has stifled my creativity because I've had to ignore some ideas because they would not appeal to the audience. For example, at one point I wanted to include more abstract effects in the music video however we decided that it did not really fit with the mainstream pop genre of the music.

Things that have caught my eye and I find creative:


The visuals fit really well with the music, its uplifting and inspiring if you enjoy rugby. The colours they use incorporate the colours of the different nation's kits. Also shows iconic rugby images e.g. Jonny Wilkinson's drop kick, Francois Pienaar lifting the Webb Ellis cup, the haka. It also incorporates imagery of the host nation, New Zealand with the mountains in the background and the fern leaf which is the All Blacks' logo.


This is a really effective use photography and filming techniques to incorporate his signature artwork of silhouettes of the cat and the dog into an interesting alternative style of music video. It's really witty and shows the nightlife of a dog.

Thought to be a sculpture by Banksy given to support the Occup London movement in their protest against corporate greed and corruption. I think this is really effective and creative showing a iconic, well-known image and changing the meaning to send a strong message.