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Janet Adebiyi-Ojo
Evaluation
The task I was required to carry out consisted of me creating a two-minute
film sequence to feature part of a crime drama film that focuses on the
representation of youths and gang culture. After having completed my textual
analysis of two well-known films in the crime/drama genre, Kidulthood (UK 2006) and Freedom Writers (USA - 2007), I aimed to reflect and develop on
the ideas I had learnt from my textual
analysis. These included things such as
the way the director would use
particular camera shots to portray
feelings of anger, and also how sound
has a very significant impact of a
scene. In my final production, my main
focus was on using a variety of camera
shots to illustrate the crime/drama genre. Kidulthood can be seen as a hybrid
genre, as the audience see many aspects of the social realism genre
intertwined within the drama genre throughout the film. An example of this is
through the use of non-diegetic sound this microelement was used to
reinforce the feeling of suspense and give this audience the feeling that
something is bound to happen.
The synopsis of my production involves a young black male, Ashley McKenzie
(Jaydon Charles) who wants to get out of his bad habits, and a young Asian
male, Jay Khan (Dev Umeria) who is part of a local gang and requests for the
Ashleys assistance in an upcoming fight. Ashley is trying to stay away from
the gang life but has one final thing he needs to do to get rid of the knife
that was used in a previous fight. It was essential that the characters were
accurately represented in terms of how they looked and how they acted, as
this would help to reinforce the genre and help the audience to understand.
In
Kidulthood,
the
main
protagonist is introduced through
the use of close up shots of only
his eyes, hands and some sort of
machinery, showing how he is in
deep concentration with what he
is
doing.
The film develops the
theme of crime and drama
through the use of extreme close-up shots of criminal behaviour such as drug
taking and vandalism and through mid-shots of sexual behaviour occurring in
inappropriate locations. I emulated the use of extreme close-up shots in my
own production for example: when the protagonist Ashley is putting the
knife into his waist.

I was able to identify a number of conventions when analysing Kidulthood

and Freedom Writers. Examples include the use of point-of-view shots and
eye-line shots to create a strong audience-protagonist sympathetic
relationship while still portraying the
drama and crime genre. Another feature
evident in both Freedom Writers and
Kidulthood is the use of a suspenseful
non-diegetic musical score to accompany
the more climactic scenes, for example in
Kidulthood, during a fighting scene
between the protagonist Trife and the
antagonist Sam, the song POW by
grime artist Lethal Bizzle is played as background music to support the scene.
I incorporated this technique into my film as I have a teenage protagonist in
my film for a teenage audience. This created a sense of tension and made
the audience think something is going to happen. Similarly, Freedom Writers
helped to understand that the use of close-up shots to demonstrate a
characters feelings would create an emotive response from the audience, as
they were able to understand how they are feeling for example, when Eva
Benitez expresses how she feels about white people.
The purpose of me
auditioning
various
male characters for my
production
was
to
ensure I casted the
correct people for the
roles. A screen test
was put together, with
details
of
each
performance
and
reasons as to why I would or would not choose them to play Ashley and Jay.
After careful consideration of each actors individual performances, I made
the decision to cast Jaydon as Ashley and Dev as Jay. It must be noted that
towards the end of the filming process, I figured it would be rather difficult to
carry out a stabbing scene with the limited equipment I had. After having
discussions with my teacher, I thought it would be best to change the ending
of my film (hence the reason for the end of my script not corresponding to
the end of my film). However, I do feel as if I made the right decision to
change the ending, as the representation of the males was still accurately
shown.
My finished artefact was largely successful at achieving its aim to represent
ethnic males in a stereotypical way within the crime and drama genre. The
filming for my two-minute film production took part of the course of one
week. My choice to film in the location that I chose also helped to reinforce

the genre as a fight between male teenagers is likely to take place in a

secluded area, as there may be
various forms of weapons used.
Furthermore, my choice of costume
(tracksuits and bomber jackets with
trainers) for the actors helped to
portray the stereotype of typical
teenage boys who are in a gang.
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