Boyz In The Hood Review

25 years ago this film was introduced to a large audience of different cultures and ages of what the black community was like and represented as through their eyes.  Because not much has yet changed since it was released it still causes a strong impact on the audience, leaving them to deeply think about what is happening around them and how the problem is still affecting many people. The people within the film were educated however were brought up to believe their only soul purpose in life was to be either killed by their own people or the police. Tre the main character, we grew up with him in the film as we were introduced to him at the young age of 9 years old and then to the age of 18. We shared the knowledge he was taught, learned from the mistakes he made, felt the emotion he felt and because of this we grew a stronger connection with the characters. His family were portrayed as a rather proper educated family, a mother who works hard to provide not only for the present but also the future and a father who tries his hardest to be the his sons role model, providing advise, knowledge and making sure his son knows he loves him. It probably confused the audience as that is not the idea they have of  black fathers, breaking that stereotype.
However Rickys family fall into that correct social stereotype of black families. Ricky and his brother are the perfect example of what most black peoples lives are destined to be like for the men. A sportsmen or a gang member. This film is an insight of what many black people have to face just for their color and their neighbour hood. Another key part of the film is the gun violence, the repetition of people dying due to the constant gun shots just for looking at some the wrong way really highlights how much gun violence has the control over the way black peoples lives run. Once they begin that life it's always going to catch up to them e.g when Rickys brother gave up his life with the violence after his brothers death opened his eyes, he was killed only two weeks later. Even though the film was released 25 years ago, it still has a massive impact as it still relates to the same situation many people of the black race going through the same thing.

Film Language Test Feedback

I was one mark away from the next highest grade. I tried my best to include the suggested context that I needed to insert into my answers.

My feedback given :

WWW: some attempt to use media terminology.
EBI: far too short for each answer - needs extended analysis.

My weakest part was answering the editing section.

In the opening scene, shots of different areas of the dock allowed the audience to understand what the setting is. The cut after which focused on Keaton lying on the ground smoking defeat and to the fire surrounding him causes tension because no one knows whats going on. The characters are speaking in a low whispered tone making it sound like everything is about to end, because Keaton is exhausted with fighting for himself. There's an example of parallel sound, because the non diegetic sound is orchestral and slow. The music rises in volume as the fire flames up the ship, this suggests the ending of the scene alerting the audience. The ending then dissolves into another scene suggesting either a move into time and back into time. There is also loud and dramatic sound SFX which increases emotional impact within the film, such as; gun, lighter, urine and gunshot.

Preliminary Exercise Evaluation

Brief

Produce a 30 second clip to exhibit a scene on TV with the manipulation of basic film production techniques (lighting, sound, editing etc.) as well as employment of match-on-action, the 180-degree rule and shot/reverse shots. The narrative of the scene should include a character opening a door and sitting down opposite another character with whom they exchange a couple of lines of dialogue with.  

         Planning process and pre production 

The planning process involved producing a storyboard to give the director a clear visual of what to do film, shot, cut and complete. Another individual key aspect of the planning process includes the script, it plays an important role as it provides the narrative feature of the film. A shot list was required too as it helped the director to have step by step guide for each scene and shot. 

                                                             Strength and Weakness 

The most impressive aspect of the preliminary exercise was the flash backs that were used effectively when our main character was recalling previous moments that were key to the clip.  The back and forth cuts as the character made her way to and forth from the elevator to the door. The non diegetic sound of the music playing out loud acting as the music in her headphones was effectively used by creating a lifting atmosphere. However there are many things that could have been improved such as the sound once she came into the room, the characters dialogue could barely be heard and the background noise of machinery from the a/c and computers made it difficult and the mic also picked it up along with the dialogue. The cuts between each person was very noticeable and could have easily been fixed and strengthen by smoothing it out.