Generic Conventions:
The generic conventions used helped us draw in the target audience in
multiple ways, one being the use of colloquial language. By using slang that
our target audience would understand and relate to it built a higher interest
in our film. For example by using terms such 'Dutty', 'Lowe it' and 'Yo' and
taboo language such as 'swear' words. Realism was added to our film. This is
similar to most Urban dramas such as Topboy, using words like this during most
of the dialogue.
Also the way characters interacted with one another made our film
relatable with the target audience. By acting in a certain way around friends;
having banter, laughing and joking and fighting (in a fun/joking manor) for
example this again added repeatability to our characters, story line and film.
Oppositely the way the characters interacted with enemies also helped gain an
audience, creating tension and excitement making the audience want to watch
more. Also the use of clear gestures and facial expressions helped the audience
understand the current situation and events through terms of non verbal
communication.
An atmosphere of betrayal is created during our film, by the main
characters friends turning on him and taking over the gang. This created
suspense for the views, gaining interest of the future of the characters
involved and the general storyline of the film. By doing this the audience were
made to ask themselves questions such as 'why did they betray him' and 'what
will the outcome be'.
The narrative consisted of violence and gang culture but also has a plot
twist of betrayal, the gang tuning on him in an attempt to gain power. This
adds to our attempt of gaining target audience. By setting the opening over a
period of time, consisting of both night and day its shows that the full film
would be fast paced throughout and would make the audience expect that allot
more problems would occur during the remainder of the film.
Mise En Scene:
The Mise en scene is
directly linked to generic conventions due to the clothing used, the locations
and the gestures done by characters. By wearing clothing such hoodies,
tracksuits and baggy jeans the clothing stenotypes linked to this subculture
involved in gang activity is covered. Similarly in the film ‘Bullet Boy’ the
main character is shown wearing a full tracksuit, reinforcing this stereotype.
By doing this realism is created, attracting a wider audience. Location has
also helped attract an audience by setting it in a urban area of the city,
making it relatable for our target audience.
Music and sound:
In most urban dramas ‘Grime’ and ‘Rap’ music is a constant these,
reoccurring throughout. This is because stereotypically this genre of music is
massively associated with urban life. We kept this in mind while creating our
film, assuring we added an ‘urban’ genre of music. By doing so we knew it would
attract an audience who have interest in rap and rap culture, However we also
wanted to assure that the music had a purpose, either having a message or
foreshadowing future events. This was done in the film ‘Adulthood’, ending the
movie with a grime song (Bashy – Kidulthood to Adulthood) which spoke about
growing up, maturing and trying to leave the ‘hood’. However we also chose to
add classical music to our film, which isn’t typical for an urban drama. We did
this in order to build tension, captivating the audience and making them want
to continue watching. We also decided to keep the natural background noises
such as traffic, wind and speaking in our film as it created realism, making
our target audience relate to current surroundings as they would have heard it
on a regular basis. Another reason we chose to keep the background noise is due
to our film being a gritty urban drama, rather than a blockbuster Hollywood
film.
Cinimatography:
Our use of filming has helped attract our target audience, by using multiple
close ups, mid shots, high and low angle shots and fast paced editing we managed
to add excitement and suspense. This use of close ups creates a feeling of
awareness for the audience whilst prompting an emotional response, regarding
the on screen character as you can see their current emotions. The use of
lighting also helped to captivate an audience, filming at night (in low
lighting) leaving the audience curious to the future happenings in our film.
After receiving feedback from both our target audience and other audience members
it is clear that our use of filming and editing was good regarding our film
genre as by using simplistic effects, transitions and sounds we managed to
create a fast paced, entertaining and suspenseful film opening, also reinforcing
the unique selling point (USP) of our film.
