Research&Planning-Creativity Vs knowledge.

We discussed this question today in class and came up with a lot of interesting points on the subject. Initially a lot of us were on the fence about this, however after discussing it in depth I feel that creativity and knowledge are both needed to make something, such as a music video, and that they both feed into each other. Knowledge can inspire creativity as by learning new things you are thinking about them and thinking of how to put your own spin on them, however it can also be restricting as you may end up copying someone else's work instead of getting creative yourself.

Some people argue that by having knowledge of already existing products, such as music videos in this example, you will create something that fits with all the conventions of the pre-existing products and not strive to make them different, therefore not using all your creativity, however I believe that you can still be creative while sticking to conventions and it is all about making something that may have been done before exciting and engaging again to an audience.

It was also said that the most creative ideas are going to come from someone with no former knowledge of the subject as they are more likely to think of something completely new as their thoughts haven't been tainted with what other people have done. Yet I don't think this is true because even without going into specific research about music videos everyone has seen them, or seen films, or television programs, read books, seen plays, ect. and all of this it what helps you create your own ideas. So no one can pull an idea entirely out of the air, it is always going to be inspired by something they have seen or heard, even if they don't consciously know that is where it is coming from.

Personally I believe that there can be no such thing as 'too much knowledge' and that knowledge will only limit creativity if you let it.

Other people's opinion can be seen on the Yahoo Answers page:
Creativity Vs Knowledge