Within our group we have began to start analysing trailers, each member of the group had to analyse trailers, as a group we also began sourcing music and have gotten a few sound tracks.
We have started scripting and is currently still in progress.
Auditions have been held and the correct people for the 'nigga' group. :)
Monday, 27 January 2014
Trailer analysis
Little Man - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MHYJjfPp0A
'Little Man' is a full on comedy based upon the representation of black people within a both positive and negative way being a method of binary opposition. This movie was both written and produced by the Wayans brothers, Marlon and Shawn; they also starred within the movie with lead roles, Marlon being the negative character, stealing the diamond with the help of his 'goof-ball cohort' Tracy Morgan and in contrast to this, Shawn playing the positive role of a father-like figure, is seen to 'take care' of Marlon who has to play the role of a little baby in order to fit into their house.
The conventions of this trailer are that they link to our production as the idea of stealing a diamond and the negative representations of black people may be one of our plots that we may use to make our own trailer and this clearly shows the representations of black people in a both positive and negative spotlight which is what our group may do. Another reason as to why I chose this trailer is because it is a comedy and some conventions such as 'black humour' may be used within our production in order to make the target audience laugh.
After a few of the camera shots, towards the end, text comes up, with the narrator saying 'Little is the new BIG.' having many connotations, some of which include talking about the little man, actually being of a very large age or of him about to do something very big, or can even connote how this may be a small production, with a big turn-out within the movie. The camera angles are taken from a many places ranging from long shots, mid shots, tracking shots, pans and low and high angels shots. By doing this, it described what was going on within the story line and where the audience would look if they were part of the movie being a very important method as by doing this it would link the audience and would allow them to engage with the trailer allowing them to watch the movie creating a sense of anticipation and also being a clever method of marketing the movie.
The songs used within the movie include the following:
Most of these songs used as known to being of a very ghetto-like background and may appeal more target audiences of the black mass market as artists such as 50 Cent and Chamillionaire, who are also black, hip-hop artists, may appeal to the black target audience as they find it easier to relate to them being a positive impact upon the movie. The movie overall generated a total of $58,255,287 sales domestically and a total of $101,589,216 worldwide being a huge success which is why this movie may be appropriate for our group to analyse as it may help our production to also be successful in order to make people laugh outlining our genre of a comedy movie trailer.
'Little Man' is a full on comedy based upon the representation of black people within a both positive and negative way being a method of binary opposition. This movie was both written and produced by the Wayans brothers, Marlon and Shawn; they also starred within the movie with lead roles, Marlon being the negative character, stealing the diamond with the help of his 'goof-ball cohort' Tracy Morgan and in contrast to this, Shawn playing the positive role of a father-like figure, is seen to 'take care' of Marlon who has to play the role of a little baby in order to fit into their house.
The conventions of this trailer are that they link to our production as the idea of stealing a diamond and the negative representations of black people may be one of our plots that we may use to make our own trailer and this clearly shows the representations of black people in a both positive and negative spotlight which is what our group may do. Another reason as to why I chose this trailer is because it is a comedy and some conventions such as 'black humour' may be used within our production in order to make the target audience laugh.
After a few of the camera shots, towards the end, text comes up, with the narrator saying 'Little is the new BIG.' having many connotations, some of which include talking about the little man, actually being of a very large age or of him about to do something very big, or can even connote how this may be a small production, with a big turn-out within the movie. The camera angles are taken from a many places ranging from long shots, mid shots, tracking shots, pans and low and high angels shots. By doing this, it described what was going on within the story line and where the audience would look if they were part of the movie being a very important method as by doing this it would link the audience and would allow them to engage with the trailer allowing them to watch the movie creating a sense of anticipation and also being a clever method of marketing the movie.
The songs used within the movie include the following:
- "My House" by Lloyd Banks and 50 Cent
- "Ridin'" by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone
- "The Message" by Echo & the Bunnymen
- "Movin' on Up" by Jeff Berry and Ja'net Dubois
- "Celebration" by Robert Kool Bell
- "Home Sweet Home/Bittersweet Symphony" by Limp Bizkit
- "Lifetime" by Muddy Waters
- "In This Moment" by Ill Niño
- "Purple Haze" by Maxwell
- "Buddy (D-Rex Theme Song)" by Dwayne Wayans and Eric Willis
- "Best Friend" by Harry Nilsson
- "Pump It" by The Black Eyed Peas
- "Happy Birthday to You" by Mildred J. Hill and Patty S. Hill
- "Praise You" by Fatboy Slim
- "Candy Shop" (instrumental) by 50 Cent and Olivia
Most of these songs used as known to being of a very ghetto-like background and may appeal more target audiences of the black mass market as artists such as 50 Cent and Chamillionaire, who are also black, hip-hop artists, may appeal to the black target audience as they find it easier to relate to them being a positive impact upon the movie. The movie overall generated a total of $58,255,287 sales domestically and a total of $101,589,216 worldwide being a huge success which is why this movie may be appropriate for our group to analyse as it may help our production to also be successful in order to make people laugh outlining our genre of a comedy movie trailer.
Targets
1) Research and analysis of comedy trailers, 2 each on blog, list ideas/key conventions
2) Script/Voiceover
3) Casting/Auditions/Rehearsals
4) Sourcing Music- examples on blog
5) Progress report
2) Script/Voiceover
3) Casting/Auditions/Rehearsals
4) Sourcing Music- examples on blog
5) Progress report
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
Ideas for the project.
Summarise your idea;
- Explain who you're working with and why;
I am working with Mathew, Rohit and Kiran. This is because all of our critical investigations link together of the portrayals of black people and how they are represented within the music and film industry.
- Make at least three links to your Critical Investigation;
The 3 links to my critical investigation is that we are doing it on representations of black people and ethnic minorities, also it will be a spoof reinforcing the stereotypes regarding black males. Furthermore the genre we have picked will also link back to my critical investigation of a crime drama.
- Explain what elements you've learnt when doing your essay that you'll apply in the production;
The elements I have learnt while doing my critical investigation includes having to be careful when reinforcing stereotypes regarding black males as people could get easily offended and we cannot talk bad about key events in the history of black culture as this may easily be seen as offensive, so we would have to make sure that we do not offended someone too majorly.
- Identify the target audience (demographics, psychographics);
The target audience will be mainly those of ethnic minority and black males/females this is due to the fact that we are reinforcing the stereotypes about them as a spoof, they will also mainly be of the CDE class so working class and the younger generation, this is also due to the comedic genre of our production as the younger generation are more likely to be able to relate to the characters as although it is a comedy, I feel that it is important for the audience to have a direct connection with not only the storyline but also with the characters in order to the movie to generate sales.
- Explain where/which channel/when it would appear and how your text will appeal to them;
As we are doing a movie trailer, the production would most likely feature in the cinemas then on Sky Movies comedy or Film4 as these are the channels that would support our genre and film, it will also appeal to Sky comedy as they have a channel that shows only comedy movies and Film4 also shows British comedy films for example; Anuvahood or Ill Manors.
- list ten additional genre conventions you aim to incorporate.
Humour(dark) -Dealing with disturbing subjects such as death, drugs and violence
Costume - Commonly seen gangster clothing such as tracksuit bottoms, jeans, hoodies, trainers etc.
Setting - Usually a bright place for example a city or town, for teen comedies mostly schools.
Camerawork - Natural shots, everyone is usually of the same status so mostly mid-shots and close ups.
Lighting - Would usually be bright due to the comedic genre, usually natural light which make the scene look happy.
Props - Props would be important in a comedy, so using small things which are funny in the movie
Characters - usually a contrast between someone stupid and a group of intelligent people, shows the change in status too.
Monday, 9 December 2013
Essay Plan
To what extent can it be argued that contemporary hip hop music is a negative influence on its target audience?
Introduction
Within the past 20-30 years, rap music has made a drastic change within the music industry like any other genre of music. Artists have developed into such people that make their audiences follow everything they do, how they act and what they aspire to have. This genre of music is well-known for having a huge impact mainly upon the new generation of the youth. It is said that hip-hop has not only evolved within the past few years that have passed, but has changed continuously all along.
The contemporary factor of hip-hop, rather than having more positive values, through time, artists have evolved to put materialistic factors before anything else which is morally correct such as educating the overall target audience of the youths about being more peaceful for example; hence, instead, contemporary artists encourage the opposite of starting war instead of putting a halt to it; being one of many examples as to how the target audience of hip-hop music are being effected in a negative way.
P1 - 1980 artists' beliefs and ideologies within their music.
Artists such as Flava Fav, Chuck D, DJ Lord formed a group called Public Enemy famous for their 'politically charged' music. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy_(group) This group formed in 1982 and targeted their own races' concerns within their music in order to get the word out as to how the African-American people felt at the time. For example, topics discussed within their music included political, social and cultural consciousness. As the racism topic was one of the worries of the African-American residents, the group was shown to attack the audience with their strong beliefs within people such as Elvis which were glorified within the music industry.
The lyric from their song of 'Fight The Power' stated "Elvis was a hero to most, But he never meant shit to me you see, Straight up racist that sucker was, Simple and plain, Mother fuck him and John Wayne,Cause I'm Black and I'm proud." Talking about how as white people such as Elvis or John Wayne believed in racism,and the members of Public Enemy believed within and were for this argument of wanting white people to be separated from the black people. This movement was called The Nation Of Islam, leading to influencing more people to create a divide between black and white people and ultimately causing more controversy within the 1980's as this era was arguably known for being heavily controversial.
Theories:
P2 - Developing technology within the era of music
Although some artists within the music industry talk about the positive representations of women within their songs such as Usher for example on the basis of love, there also a lot of negative representations within not only the rap, but the whole music industry talking about the negative representations of women. For example, Eminem's old days of Slim Shady, his lyrics were easy to hear, hence, easy to interpret by the audience and as he did this, he would make women such as Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton look like rich yet very 'slutty' women within the industry being one of the many negative representations for women being portrayed within a undesirable manner.'Rather than viewing this imagery as misogyny, it could be argued that Eminem is ridiculing them in a bid to show us how unrealistic some modern representations of femininity are: robotic, aggressively sexual and objectified.' This leads to the misleading representation of today's society showing women to be of a less importance and more of objects for men in order to meet their needs of sexual satisfaction.
Quotes:
Due to today's society of rap music developing into having lots of swear words, it could be argued that culture is evolving into portraying artists to lacking creativity. For example songs such as 'F**kin' Problems' it is shown that the song has two versions one being explicit and one being clean this is because as the song turned out to be so popular, it tended to be broadcasted upon the radio, mainly on hip-hop channels such as 89.5 FM - Ghetto Radio, this song would be played often and in order to be allowed to play, it needed a clean version. Further more, within the music video, there are a lot of women dancing around wearing clothing which may come across as provocative to men, leading to theorists such as Laura Mulvey to discuss that male gaze is one of the main reasons for the success of many explicit music videos some of which include F**kin' Problems, Dance A$$ ft Nicki Minaj, 23 etc. It can be argued that within today's contemporary Hip-Hop genre, the music videos try to relate to the category of pornography and due to this, it may encourage more people to be astounded and shocked by not only the explicit lyrics but also the scenery that is being displayed within the music video; by doing this creates a huge discussion and causes a lot of controversy as, as well as adults viewing the explicit music videos, the younger generation of children can also access and view the videos raising questions such as:
Conclusion
Introduction
Within the past 20-30 years, rap music has made a drastic change within the music industry like any other genre of music. Artists have developed into such people that make their audiences follow everything they do, how they act and what they aspire to have. This genre of music is well-known for having a huge impact mainly upon the new generation of the youth. It is said that hip-hop has not only evolved within the past few years that have passed, but has changed continuously all along.
The contemporary factor of hip-hop, rather than having more positive values, through time, artists have evolved to put materialistic factors before anything else which is morally correct such as educating the overall target audience of the youths about being more peaceful for example; hence, instead, contemporary artists encourage the opposite of starting war instead of putting a halt to it; being one of many examples as to how the target audience of hip-hop music are being effected in a negative way.
P1 - 1980 artists' beliefs and ideologies within their music.
Artists such as Flava Fav, Chuck D, DJ Lord formed a group called Public Enemy famous for their 'politically charged' music. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Enemy_(group) This group formed in 1982 and targeted their own races' concerns within their music in order to get the word out as to how the African-American people felt at the time. For example, topics discussed within their music included political, social and cultural consciousness. As the racism topic was one of the worries of the African-American residents, the group was shown to attack the audience with their strong beliefs within people such as Elvis which were glorified within the music industry.
The lyric from their song of 'Fight The Power' stated "Elvis was a hero to most, But he never meant shit to me you see, Straight up racist that sucker was, Simple and plain, Mother fuck him and John Wayne,Cause I'm Black and I'm proud." Talking about how as white people such as Elvis or John Wayne believed in racism,and the members of Public Enemy believed within and were for this argument of wanting white people to be separated from the black people. This movement was called The Nation Of Islam, leading to influencing more people to create a divide between black and white people and ultimately causing more controversy within the 1980's as this era was arguably known for being heavily controversial.
Theories:
- Alvarado - As the members of this group are black, and as they may be seen as intimidating within society, it links to the idea of them being two of the four things that Alvarado mentioned of pitied and dangerous.
- (Going against) - Fanon - 'Hiding behind a white mask.' - This group goes against this theory and instead of trying to 'fit-in' within the white society, as the lyric of their song goes "Cause I'm black and I'm proud." showing how they are proud of who they are, linking to what they believe in of 'The Nation of Islam' which is the division between certain countries and the idea of if the countries did not have their own land, they would always be oppressed by white people.
P2 - Developing technology within the era of music
Thanks to YouTube, you can revisit the press conferences and
see how painful it was listening to their misinterpretations. Sites such as Rap
Genius allow the public to suggest the meaning behind song verses of any genre. Misinterpretations of rap are usually what helps to portray artists of being
negative however, beneficial websites such as Rap Genius explains what each
sentence actually means so that the misunderstandings and the negative
portrayals of artists disappear being one section of how quickly technology has changed within the past few years as within the past, old hip-hop would not have this problem occurring as much as not as many negative topics would be up for discussion as much as today's contemporary artists which include Lil Wayne, Drake, A$ap Rocky etc.
Quotes:
- 'The elder generation have an inclination of blaming rap for much of the violence that goes on within the younger world.' - Eminem: hip-hop’s Lord of Misrule (media magazine) - Going with my question of negative portrayals within the music industry and of contemporary artists being a factor of violence.
- 'Thanks to YouTube, you can revisit the press conferences and see how painful it was listening to their misinterpretations. Sites such as Rap Genius allow the public to suggest the meaning behind song verses of any genre.' - Eminem: hip-hop's Lord of Misrule (media magazine)
Theories:
- Perkin's theory of how there is some element of truth within things linking to the first quotation used.
- Medhurst's theory of short-hand stereotypes and how the stereotype of teenagers being seen as violent within the views of the elder generation as they associate rap with violence and link it to young people. Also dependant on their backgrounds for example, if they were born and raised within a black family, then this may lead more people to link them to rap and violence and stereotypically, most rap artists within the music industry are black and rap originally started off with a black person, DJ Kool Herc.
P3 - Gender roles within music videos
Although some artists within the music industry talk about the positive representations of women within their songs such as Usher for example on the basis of love, there also a lot of negative representations within not only the rap, but the whole music industry talking about the negative representations of women. For example, Eminem's old days of Slim Shady, his lyrics were easy to hear, hence, easy to interpret by the audience and as he did this, he would make women such as Kim Kardashian or Paris Hilton look like rich yet very 'slutty' women within the industry being one of the many negative representations for women being portrayed within a undesirable manner.'Rather than viewing this imagery as misogyny, it could be argued that Eminem is ridiculing them in a bid to show us how unrealistic some modern representations of femininity are: robotic, aggressively sexual and objectified.' This leads to the misleading representation of today's society showing women to be of a less importance and more of objects for men in order to meet their needs of sexual satisfaction.
Quotes:
- 'Rather than viewing this imagery as misogyny, it could be argued that Eminem is ridiculing them in a bid to show us how unrealistic some modern representations of femininity are: robotic, aggressively sexual and objectified.' -Eminem: hip-hop’s Lord of Misrule (media magazine)
Theories:
- Hegemony - This theory can be used within this section as the target audience of young men listening to music which ridicules women and portrays them to be objects, may influence this target audience, who may want to be like artists such as Eminem to also treat the women in the negative ways. For example, domestic violence also plays a big role within this, as within Eminem's very violent song called 'Kim', senseless lyrics are used such as 'Bleed b*tch, bleeeeeeeed.'. The song also talks about violent factors such as slitting his ex-wife's throat due to his anger being very sadistic and ultimately cruel leading to the encouragement of (domestic) violence and violence in general.
- Gender - The differentiation between men and women and how men are seen to look more superior compared to women within the music industry.
P4 - Censorship within music videos
Due to today's society of rap music developing into having lots of swear words, it could be argued that culture is evolving into portraying artists to lacking creativity. For example songs such as 'F**kin' Problems' it is shown that the song has two versions one being explicit and one being clean this is because as the song turned out to be so popular, it tended to be broadcasted upon the radio, mainly on hip-hop channels such as 89.5 FM - Ghetto Radio, this song would be played often and in order to be allowed to play, it needed a clean version. Further more, within the music video, there are a lot of women dancing around wearing clothing which may come across as provocative to men, leading to theorists such as Laura Mulvey to discuss that male gaze is one of the main reasons for the success of many explicit music videos some of which include F**kin' Problems, Dance A$$ ft Nicki Minaj, 23 etc. It can be argued that within today's contemporary Hip-Hop genre, the music videos try to relate to the category of pornography and due to this, it may encourage more people to be astounded and shocked by not only the explicit lyrics but also the scenery that is being displayed within the music video; by doing this creates a huge discussion and causes a lot of controversy as, as well as adults viewing the explicit music videos, the younger generation of children can also access and view the videos raising questions such as:
- Is technology evolving for the worst?
- Are children being brainwashed and encouraged to watch more videos which contain explicit content?
- Is it fair for the younger generation to be an audience of this kind of music?
Conclusion
Historical Text - 1980's - Public Enemy - ways in which this subverts my original question
The nation of Islam - this included separatism and the members of Public Enemy believed in this; with their strong controversial points within their songs with the famous quote of 'Elvis was a hero to most But he never meant shit to me you see Straight up racist that sucker was Simple and plain Mother fuck him and John Wayne Cause I'm Black and I'm proud'
Talking about how as white people such as Elvis or John Wayne believe in racism, black people such as the members of Public Enemy believed within and were for this argument of wanting white people to be separate from the black people. This movement was called The Nation Of Islam, leading to influencing more people to create a divide between black and white people. This goes with my case study as it links to a direct contrast between the negative portrayals of rappers influencing negative things such as drugs, alcohol, violence etc. within society. However, Public Enemy were a heavily influential group upon the political problems within society and would try to start a 'war' leading to the
Bibliography
http://www.ehow.com/about_5418679_negative-rap-hip-hop-music.html
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The Hip Hop Wars - Tricia Rose
Check it While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip-hop Culture, and the Public ... - Gwendolyn D.Pough
Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. By Imani Perry
Much Respect: Toward a Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment - By Paul Butler
The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop
Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students? - Michelle E. Kristler
Rap Music Genres and Deviant Behaviours in French-Canadian Adolescents - Dave Miranda,Michael Claes
http://www.collegenet.com/elect/app/app?service=external/Forum&sp=3940
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5589579_effects-rap-music-teen-society.html
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5761873_rap-music-bad-influence-children_.html
http://voices.yahoo.com/african-american-art-influence-hip-hop-community-67979.html
http://hiphopvtheworld.edublogs.org/2011/03/28/negative-effects-of-rap-and-hip-hop/
http://musicmagic.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/music-in-society/
www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog
http://www.theguardian.com/music/video/2013/oct/13/jay-z-london-underground-tube-o2-arena-video
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/oct/11/wiley-statue
http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/girls-aloud/news/nadine-coyle-jason-bell-father/
http://www.capitalfm.com/artists/rihanna/news/new-tattoo-chris-brown/
http://books.google.co.uk/books?
http://thepoint.gm/africa/gambia/article/black-african-music-and-society
http://itstheskittlee.hubpages.com/hub/Music-and-the-Influence-on-Society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_panic
http://tsmithchs.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/rbhip-hop-music-magazine-target-audience/
http://www.ehow.com/about_5418679_negative-rap-hip-hop-music.html#ixzz2iMRHWScC
hl=en&lr=&id=KiHcllqdzl4C&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=how+does+music+influence+society%3F+&ots=C3Pp0ZGK-U&sig=OXAyltG1dgve4fkdpy6U8isphck#v=onepage&q=how%20does%20music%20influence%20society%3F&f=false
http://uk.ask.com/question/influence-of-music-on-culture
http://musicmagic.wordpress.com/2008/07/10/music-in-society/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJbKwU3I3Kw&safe=active
The Hip Hop Wars - Tricia Rose
Check it While I Wreck it: Black Womanhood, Hip-hop Culture, and the Public ... - Gwendolyn D.Pough
Prophets of the Hood: Politics and Poetics in Hip Hop. By Imani Perry
Much Respect: Toward a Hip-Hop Theory of Punishment - By Paul Butler
The 'Hood Comes First: Race, Space, and Place in Rap and Hip-Hop
Does Exposure to Sexual Hip-Hop Music Videos Influence the Sexual Attitudes of College Students? - Michelle E. Kristler
Rap Music Genres and Deviant Behaviours in French-Canadian Adolescents - Dave Miranda,Michael Claes
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