Production Aims

For my Film Studies F634 coursework, I aim to produce a five-minute film

sequence, illustrating the ways in which the representation of black males
has changed over the years, focusing on the 1990s to present day. During
the 1990s black males were seen in an aggressive manner. Black males
had an abundance of negative perceptions towards them, various social
events led to black males being associated with things such as gun
violence, gang activity and drugs. I managed to plan a thesis, which was
that the representation of black males has changed over the years in
which I began by writing a three thousand words essay exploring my topic
of black male representation in media text. I explored films such as
Menace II Society, making comparisons with films such as A Pursuit To
Happyness, showing the reform of race equality and how the role of black
males in film has become more. As well as this, I decided to analyse the
micro elements incorporated in the short films whilst noting down what
conventions I could use to make my film more suitable for my audience
whilst presenting accurate factors of the Drama genre.
The idea in which I have come up with is to present a five minute short
film focusing on the moral strain of a 17 year old black male when his
friend asks him to take part in harming someone. Both main characters
will be dark-skinned. My idea will be focused on creating a sequence that
will be based on a male protagonist who feels stuck in the middle of what
is morally right and his friendship. I have analysed a number of films which
I believe I will be able to incorporate elements from into my final
production. One of the films that stood out to me was Menace II Society,
this highlighted the narrative showing someone being in a difficult
situation surrounding crime that they didnt involve themselves in. My
main male protagonist will reflect this character shown in Menace II
Society, conforming to some of the black stereotypes but showing signs of
a countertype through his actions.
My main focus is the representation of black males in my final production,
as I will be focusing on the representation of my characters, showing how
the representation has altered over the years. I will be focusing more on
an idea of representation as the role of black males has altered over the
years due to the influences of many social and political factors especially
Barack Obama in the 2000s and the rise of black CEOs in the US.
I will be communicating my ideas through the four major microelements.
Mise-en-scene is a key factor, which I will be using throughout my
production to emphasize the perception of black males in society. The
costumes will include such things as hoodies, hats and accessories as this
represents the clothing shown in the films I analysed, this connotes the
association pof black males to gang activity as these items of clothing
tend to cause intimidating as they are usually worn by people that are
gang affiliated. The location will show places such as estates to suggest a
low economic background as a stigma that has been put on black males is
that they reside in low economic residence. The location will be used to
location and costumes will be used to communicate the themes of the
short film such as violence.

Overall, I aim to produce a film that not only provides my audience with a
meaningful sequence but a powerful message which will be delivered
through the characters voice as main protagonist Jardel will be delivering
his emotions thoughts and opinions illustrated via a monologue.