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Look out for our regular
courses on Imagination and Creativity We run
these in conjunction with Tshwane University of
Technology.
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What is creativity?
Some people say that creativity
means doing something unexpected, surprising and
original. How do you know it is original?
Original means unique, never done before. How do
you know it has never been done before? Do you know
everything that has been written, seen and heard
everywhere for the last 5000 years?
Creativity cannot measured, nor
compared. Creativity also cannot be taught - it a
is a self-learned skill. Most people are highly
creative. It is their choice and their's alone, as
to whether to develop these skills or not.
Judging "creativity" is completely
subjective. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
(Keats).
Creativity is also regarded as
prestigious and many people aspire to being regarded as
"creative".
However, when they find out that
creativity is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration
(Edison), then they run away.
Most people in the advertising
industry will disagree with everything written here, but
they have a different meaning for creativity, and a
different philosophy for it.
Entertainment started off in the most
primitive of societies with the village medicine man
disguising himself as an animal to be hunted the next
day. This evolved into ritual, and eventually became
inextricably bound up into the mysteries and rituals of
religion.
At some stage or other, and we don't
know exactly when, someone, some bright spark of a
shaman or medicine man, started to charge an entrance
fee. He started to charge more than just asking to be
supported by the villagers. This proves that
entertainment has always been professional.
At that point, the branches of
entertainment and religion diverged. The religious
priests continued to demand to be supported by
"voluntary gifts", and the "show biz" types charged a
fee at the door.
However, they borrowed from each
other. A priest who was not entertaining could never
keep people awake during a sermon. The entertainer, who
did not claim some sort of supernatural powers, couldn't
draw people to the box office.
Entertainment is the oldest consumer
product. Consumer products are successful because they
satisfy needs. Meat is a consumer product sold by a
butcher that satisfies the need to tasty, clean and
hygienic protein. Clothing satisfies the need for
attractive warm and protective wear.
Cars satisfy the need for efficient,
convenient and low-cost transport that also satisfies
the needs for prestige and self-realisation.
So what needs are satisfied by
entertainment? Thinkers have argued about it for
centuries, but the most commonly held theory, by
psychologists and businesspeople, (because it makes the
most simple sense), is the Uses and Gratifications
Theory.
This simply says that entertainment
is a useful consumer good, that people buy to satisfy
their emotional needs.
Sure we have needs to satisfy hunger
and thirst. If we don't satisfy them, we die. On the
other hand, if we don't satisfy our emotional needs, we
end up killing people, and others die. Emotional needs
have to be satisfied as much as physical needs.
And people are prepared to pay plenty
for it. Like R400 a seat for David Copperfield, or
R2000 a seat for a fat Italian with a smelly gob-rag and
a name that describes a bad pasta.
We have basic needs that we have to
satisfy. In terms of the Uses and Gratifications
Theory, and in terms of the theories of Maslow (who my
psychology adviser in the USA Dr Bill Huitt points out,
has never been actually proved although widely
accepted), we have five basic needs. They are
psychological, safety, social esteem and
self-actualisation.
The psychological needs include
emotional needs, and these are satisfied through
expressing six basic emotions, according to Dr Carole
Izard. They are:
1. Joy / Happiness
2. Fear / Anxiety
3. Anger
4. Sadness / Grief
5. Disgust
6. Surprise
How do they work? Let's take a
physical phenomenon with which we are accustomed. We
send out a TV signal. It is a wave, but it is
controlled by the sub-carrier wave, which tells it what
to do. We record a TV signal on videotape, and the
time-code and the other information on the control track
control it. We write emotional content, and the
language and the grammar control it.
In the same way, entertainment
content is controlled by the emotional and other needs
we intend the content to satisfy in the audience.
Let me put it in another way. In a
TV programme, whether it is a news story, or a drama, or
a quiz show, we tell a story. The story is mounted on
top of the structure that will satisfy the needs of the
audience.
Escapism is not a frivolous
activity. It relieves stress and depression. Take the
cost of entertainment as opposed to the cost of Prozac.
Entertainment is drug-free and does not pollute the body
with chemicals. Imagine a world without entertainment,
with everyone stressed, depressed and lethargic?
Fantasy is not frivolous. It creates
aspirations and ambition, drive and determination.
Imagine a world without ambition and aspiration?
Entertainment is a manufactured
consumer product that is NOT a luxury good. It is an
essential product, and it has been so since the
beginning of civilisation. It is the oldest consumer
product in the world, and those who make it are members
of the oldest profession.
Finally, let's look at corporate
production, as many of the works to be awarded tonight
will be in that market. Corporate video is simply TV
that is commissioned by a company for a specific purpose
and for a specific audience. Broadcast TV is
programming that is commissioned for a specific purpose
and for a specific market. What's the difference?
None. Both entertain. Both satisfy needs, and use
emotions to satisfy those needs.
That's entertainment.
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