Deconstrutcion of Urban Drama

Urban Drama

• Urban dramas are known for their realistic interpretation of society and their ability to express social issues.
• Urban Drama films started in the later 1980's and started hitting the mainstream in the 00's.
• Stereo-typically most urban dramas are set as 'Hood Films' which show the media's interpretation of the 'Black Culture' which explicitly involves aspects of urban such as: gangs, rap, drugs, racism, violence and profanity.

Some examples of Urban Dramas are: 

• Bullet boy
• 8 Mile
• Kidulthood
• Adulthood
• Victim 
• Straight Outta Compton

                                                         

                                                           

Common Conventions 

• Often multi racial cast (Commonly Black)
• Class, status and ethnicity is usually a theme.
• Usually located in urban areas, often rundown (Ghetto)
• Usually speak in slang.

Panic in needle park inspiration

The Panic in Needle Park

This movie is a stark portrayal of life among a group of heroin addicts who hang out in "Needle Park" in New York City. Played against this setting is a low-key love story between Bobby, a young addict and small-time hustler, and Helen, a homeless girl who finds in her relationship with Bobby the stability she craves. She becomes addicted too, and life goes downhill for them both as their addiction deepens, eventually leading to a series of betrayals. But, in spite of it all, the relationship between Bobby and Helen endures.

This film can help us and inspire us before we go on to filming and give us more ideas about how heroin is shown in the media and how it effects people in sociality.

The main thing that inspired me and that I looked out for in this film was the use of sound used in the scene where heroin was used. There where loads of different technique used to highlight key things the audience should be focussing on and also aiding the audiences hearing with the visuals. During one of the scenes no sound was heard at all. This is because of the effects of the heroin. I thought this was quite effective in what it portrayed and I came up with an idea myself. I want to experiment with sound effects to show the heroin is working on the body. I thought about using special effects like the ringing off ears to indicate to a viewer that something is happening to someone's body internally. I will look into this in a practical task I will do.Another thing I liked used in the film was the use off iritic and faced pace sounds which sped up as the main character overdosed. This was really effective and powerful as it raised the emotions of the viewers and ,make them impatient to see what will happen next. It kept me on the edge of my seat heart beating faster and this is something I want the viewers of my final piece to feel. This is another sound experiment I want to look into. This has given me very good ideas about where to go next when looking at sound. I also need to choose a track that will fit into our footage when we film it and that is polyphonic and has a melody which will aid the visuals of the piece.

Typography For Urban Dramas

The title is on a worn street sign suggests maybe a second or third movie or the fact that the rivalry along green street has late a long time. A usual urban drama is developed through violence and the bloody sign could tell the audience that this is the films main focus something in which the title want to conform to.

The title here represents the two toned situation of the film. One is easy and involves a sinister nature represented by the red writing. The writing also looks like comic sans which is commonly known for looking childish maybe representing the film or characters being comical or funny throughout. The words used are good inspirations they also tell the audience the whole film without being too long and exaggerated.

Trainspotting has a white among yellow background maybe illustrating the person's pasty face and how he may look. However, this title does not tell the audience the storyline as therefore hides its what the film is about. 

Again the title is like green street and has a degraded feeling suggesting a fight scene in the film or it is on some sort of rivalry. The title also is not in direct relation with the film just a topic about who they are. The white in the title could suggest innocence or a vulnerable person. This could be the main focal point for the film.

What I earned from all these titles is that they all don't give away anything in the film and maybe are something to do with the film like setting, stereotype or decision making. Our title idea of Grade A is very good and will fit in with what sort of Typography you may include in a an urban drama. It also tells me we may not have to create a very sophisticated title and needs to include little editing as we don't need to manipulate it like a horror film in a son serif format.

Flight Deconstruction of Heroin Scene

The druggy in flight is a women who has to do the worst jobs possible to get her fix and its about how she cannot realise the own danger she is putting herself in until she has to go to the hospital.

The pan down from the table reveals the needle as the first thing that comes out the box making the audience believe she is an addict. The non diegetic sound of the box bashing against the ground is exaggerated to display the amount of precious and maybe delicate items in there and how the needle is one of them. There is no editing as it is a continuous shot of the accident making it look more realistic. 

The POV high angle displays the dominant person in this shot which is the woman who makes the conscious decision to 'shoot up' with no other drug influence. The non diegetic music is cool and relaxed and seems like the sort of music that you would have in a drug scene. 

This then develops to another POV where you see the drugs and the person on equal levels. The whole continuation of the drug scene displays how powerful the addiction could be on the mind. The out of focus needle becomes in focus as the drop is pushed from the end. The pan displays the family photos and there of bond between daughter and mother this could be the reason why she started drugs as her mother is gone. Or subverting the common representation displaying that it also the innocent ones that succumb to the class A.

Then there is a high angle of the drug user displaying how the drugs has already taken over her body despite only administering it a couple of seconds ago. How they do this is though the eye dilating as it represents her being neurologically damaged. This could be simulated by putting a hand over someones eye and then exposing them to normal light however as this is film in the same light it has probably been edited on for dramatic effect.

The single music sound track climaxes at the point to simulate the drugs taking over the next part. The extreme close up also displays her face without revealing what the rest of the body is doing meaning you are unable to see the needle this means she is able to dump it to without revealing it.

The high angle over the drugs telling the audience the full effect is taking place as well as the fact she is reaching out to the pick up drug. However she is too late to do so and in turn passes out on the floor due to an overdose. Representing that the drugs r on the same level as her instead of her being above them.

Inspiration

As we are thinking off doing a urban drama focusing on the use of heroin we will have to get some ideas about the drug and how it is displayed in film and TV shows. As none of our group know how to use heroin or what it does to the body the only thing we can do is look online about how people use it and the effects it has. We can also look at how heroin is displayed in the media . I looked at the film "Requiem for a Dream" for inspiration and also how they display the class A drug.

 

I looked at a extract from the film called "Drug sequences from Requiem for a Dream". In this sequence the main things they looked at were: Cells in the body changing due to drug, Getting the drug, Using the drug.

 



The first thing I am going to look into is cells in the body being changed by the drug. In the extract there are a lot of shots of cells changing inside the body. These cells give a much more atomically view of heroin and its effects on the body. It is also a really interesting and effective idea to incorporate to break up shots. These are some screen shots of shots used.

 

 

Red blood cells speeding up through blood stream

Cell in pupal expanding making pupal dilate 

 

The second thing they focus on in the sequence I looked at was picking up or getting the drugs. The shots used where manly about swaps of money for drugs and breaking into car looking for money or things to sell so the addict could support his addiction. they also used am interesting close up shot of someone's eyes where the eyeball would roll from one side of the screen to the other to act like a swap between money and drugs was made. This speed up as the cuts became for fast pace to represent the addicts spiral into an addiction.

 

Drugs coming out of dealers pocket to be sold

Money switching hands as payment for drugs

 

The last important thing they looked out in the sequence was using the drugs. There where lots of little shots cut in-between the rest about how to use the drug. This included stuff like heating up the drug, sucking it up through a syringe and putting the filter in the mixture they had boiled. 

 

The filter absorbing the drug to get rid of  impurities

The sucking up of drug through the syringe before injection

 

 

This sequence has given me inspiration and a good idea about how heroin is represented badly in TV and films and also about how to use it and what to include in our film. This also shows me how scientific it is and all these ideas should be included in our final piece.  

Prop Practical

As we have now made a story board and have settled on some ideas about the genre and the story line we can do more specific practical and deconstruction tasks. as we have chosen to do an urban drama based around drugs we will have to incorporate drugs. We want to make this opening sequence look professional so we have to use realistic pros. This means I have had to look into have to make our heroin drug look realistic.

I started research into heroin online and find out how people get it and then use it. Once the Heroin is purchased the preparation starts. Firstly everything will be put out on display and placed in order. The kit includes, Heroin, syringe with needle, spoon, lighter or candle, cigarette filter, belt, citric acid and water. The Heroin is put onto the spoon with citric acid, the right amount of water will then be mixed with the Heroin and citric acid. At the same time the spoon is held over the heat source so all the three substances are mixed together. Once mixed, a cigarette filter will be placed onto the spoon, the solution will then be drawn up the syringe through the filter, and this is to filter out any impurities. It is now ready to be injected into a vein usually in the arm. The belt or similar implement such as a shoe lace is tied tightly around the arm to stop the blood flow, this will cause the veins to stand out for easier injection.

After finding this out I then made a small heroin kit so it looks like a realistic prop. I made the drugs out of kitchen stuff like flour and sugar and coco powered. It is was quite effective because it represented street heroin as it is a darker colour but when I future it in the actual piece I will need to make it more like crystals. Also the lighter looks out of place because it is a family friendly one and has a picture on it that is meant to look pretty. So when I use a lighter in the actual thing I will have to use a clipper or generic branded lighter.

 

 

 The most important thing when looking at this drug in a film is how it looks when it is being cooked up. I will have to make it look realistic when it is being heated. I did this by using honey in a spoon. When heated the honey will boil up and look good. I also have to make the syringe look real. In this picture I used a fake blood syringe and put I ball pump into it., This is good for a starting attempt as it looks quite effective and can be pushed up against the skin and look effective.

Planning Preliminary

Our group already had an idea on what to do as we wanted the film to be serious and slightly professional otherwise it would sound and look really bad. Our minds focused onto and urban genre and the crime, drugs and sexual acts came into our mind. (1)We of course could not do any sexual acts and crime would include special effects or would need to be included in somewhere like Maidstone town centre. So we decided to do a drug deal in school as it is an easy area to film. Also acting has to be brief and props are easy to create that can fit an easy story line. 

Instead of jumping straight in with the storyboard we chose to think of what we had at our disposal to use. We could create fake drugs someone could find a toy gun as a (2) real one would be impossible to get but these two props conform to common conventions. Also we used two people in our film that was in our group that way we didn’t have to rely on someone having a free. They were also black which fitted the urban drama convention of doing illegal activity, like in Kidulthood and Adulthood. We also wanted as little acting as possible so recommended that most of our camera angles were of a person walking which we could edit easily and string together.

So we had our layout and then our best drawer started making the different scenes which took a long time as we could not draw stick men. After getting the different camera angles and images in place he then handed the sheet over to me to explain what would happen in each scene through diegetic and non-diegetic sound as well as editing that would need to follow. (3)However we would have to change our plan if someone didn’t bring in a gun or the whole plan if no one brought in fake drugs.

If we were to do it again?

If we were to do it again I would use an easy to access props other than a gun, as teenage boys are not going to be able to get hold of one. As well as create alternate scenes in the scenario that someone forgets to bring the gun meaning we know what we are doing encase of thinking of something on the spot which will take up valuable filming time. Also have a lot more images as I had to merge some of the shots together in one square which could lead to some confusing moments when we don’t know what shot is happening next.

Problems

   1. We had no access to special effects meaning if we wanted to do an urban drama we would have think simple and use our resources wisely and effectively. Also we had to plan round a setting, which is not dark or full of teenage boys, which conforms to the urban drama.

   2.   The props we could find might not be realistic meaning the film looks unprofessional and make the film not serious when it should be as it is a very serious take on an illegal topic.

   3.  Someone could forget the gun or drugs, which would be disastrous. Our film was an urban drama and as we could not do the other conventions we relied on bringing in fake drugs. The gun could be disposed but would make it difficult for other options make our

filming time shorter.