Making movies: the structuring of creativity in contemporary British cinema

Abstract

Film-making is a fundamentally creative process. Film studies tends to tie the concept of creativity to the romantic idea of the autonomous creative subject or film author. Creativity is rendered a subjective and transcendent construct evoked by terms such as inspiration, imagination, talent and genius. Sociology has demonstrated forcefully that individuals cannot transcend their social context and consequently that creative activity always occurs in relation to a social and material context.

We can begin to develop an understanding of film-making as a materially-based creative process by examining the context in which it occurs. Creativity is dependent on context as it determines the space within which creative activity takes place by providing the necessary resources, posing problems, suggesting solutions and imposing constraints. Film-making is therefore structured activity and should be seen in relation to such structures.

Current British cinema provides an interesting substantive area for study. The British film industry is small and the structures of that industry are amenable to examination. Creativity can be looked at in relation to the particular structures of the British film industry but also in relation to wider concerns such as aesthetic tradition and film technology. Each context: the industrial, the aesthetic and the technological, contributes significantly to the structuring of the creative process.

The production process itself is also interesting in that it is essentially collaborative with various experts making particular contributions at different stages of the process. However, the director maintains a position of overall primacy by virtue of being the creative co-ordinator supplying the necessary direction to the process.

Throughout, issues are raised and points are illustrated by the use of numerous quotations drawn from interviews conducted with. around thirty leading members of the British film industry