The Pitch Of Our Group

Trailer 'Strapped!'

Title of Film: STRAPPED! (The name of the film refers to the urban slang for carrying a gun).

Group Members: Andrea, Christina, Ishmeal and RyoChosen Genre: Urban DramaTagline of Film: Which family comes first?

Basic Plot Synopsis:17-year old Shaquille Carr, who attempts to turn his life around and start legitimate work to be alike his maternal half brother. Yet, gang life soon takes over his life and forces him into a complicated operations involving selling guns/drugs and killing rival members on the street. But which family will come first?

Characterization

The protagonist Shaquille Carr is a Black British 17-year old teenage boy. A member of the Beaconsfield Thugs and the most

sensible in the gang. Unlike his friends, he knows right from wrong. Whereas his other friend Cain Barkley, the main antagonist whom is 26-years old. Also a member of the crew, he is often seen

as the most aggressive and the most trigger-happy. Omar Khalid, the most religious yet presumably labelled as the ‘ladies

man’ in his neighborhood. And, Damien Toomey who is seen the most vulnerable out of the group due to his ethnicity.Shaquille’s half

brother Gregory Carr will be presented as the ‘perfect child’ and a all-star athlete at College with a promising London 2012 entry. His

personality will be illustrated ‘well-mannered’ than the other characters.

Mise En Scene

Lighting – As the genre we've selected is perceived about the streets of London etc. The lighting is suggested to be low key rather than a high key as a social realist film would present. However high key lighting would be useful to express or cover up ‘life and death’

issues as the streets of London illustrated in this film trailer is dangerous and life threatening.

Use of Colour – The use of colour in this film trailer would be rather dull so that it is parallel with the low key lighting, and also since the genre is urban drama. For example gritty and dark tones would be an

explicit feature.Props & Make-up – In this film trailer we are going to follow the usual conventions of a urban drama films props and make-ups. For

instance characters wearing hoodies and tracksuit labeling them as urban youths, and weapons such as guns and knifes or other props

such as money, bicycles, phones, condoms and game controllers. This is so our film trailer goes with the usual principles and looks almost

real-life.

Cinematography

Within the genre of the project there are cinematography ethics and features that could be used for example:

Dog’s eye view and extreme close-up shots that will allow the audience to kept in suspense, leaving them in anticipation wondering what could possibly happen next. Long shots would be useful as well

since it gives the audience to feel and to examine the subjects personalities or purpose in the scene. An Establishing shot will also be essential as we would like the audience to relate to the area or

setting of the new scene, like the differences between council-flats or parks, house, schools etc.

Reinforcement or Reinvention of Conventions of Trailers, Posters and Magazines

Trailers – We were considering subverting from the present conventions and possibly using the protagonist as the narrator whilst having voice over’s of scenes in the trailer as well. Furthermore we could use the similar scenes at beginning and end of the trailer as

though it began backwards from start.Posters – We are bearing in mind the original structures of a poster

and conforming more present posters that allow the audience to focus on the main image rather than other text.

Magazines – With magazines we are presenting enticing productions of the cover as it will be comfortable for audience to read and to

increase sales as well as it sticks to conventions.

Relevant Resources

The actors in the trailer will be predominantly male with a minority of females as the synopsis follows the male’s story. The most

relevant props that will be needed are bikes, money, phones and knifes (possibly guns) as it’s a common stereotype for youths in

deprived areas to own any of these items. Also, costumes that’ll be used in the trailer are hoodies, tracksuits, bomber jackets, baggy

jeans and common hats and trainers etc. this is since, the trends of wearing these clothes in deprived areas in London are highly

accurate. Whilst this, the protagonist’s sibling would counter this as the inspirational clothing would be wearing wealthy and designer

clothes etc. this is also another stereotype. The setting that will be selected for the film trailer would be in urban areas of East London as the film trailer set for the upcoming Olympic games and also with

the expected ‘Knife crime’ issues.

Justification of ideas in relation to the genre, Film influences and Unique Selling

Points

Our ideas have been influenced by films such as ‘Kidulthood', ‘Bullet Boy’, ‘Menace II Society’ and ‘Boyz N the Hood’. These film include a troubled male teenager in there plot-lines and

have elements of gang violence and includes urban themes. Our unique selling point is that we are subverting the conventions of

urban drama films which tend to generalize by having some areas relating to real life stories in the ‘hood’ and plus, as the plot of the film sets a parable and almost a moral story which can teach other youths about morals in life like a social realist

film.