Our opening sequence of 'Granted' focuses on certain social groups which are two different social groups. One are young thug looking teenagers living in an poor area in London and the other is a young and intelligent man. We chose to do it this way so that our film does not only focus on one narrative but two sides in one which will make it more enjoyable.
In our opening sequence the main characters are not present but the characters that are shown, are represented just like the area as dirty, poor & dangerous.The costumes that the characters were wearing were hooides and trainers suggesting that these people are teenagers who probably are poor and bad. These are stereotypical views on teenages living in London, representing them as deprived teenagers. Another way our opening sequence represents the social group is by body language and facial expressions. This is because they are shown standing restless and screwfacing. This shows that they are not happy people and something has gone wrong in their past because they will not be up in the morning doin nothing important, representing them as lazy and careless. The fact that the props of the characters in the opening sequence are alcohol bottles and cigarettes represent them as brave and careless teenagers because they don't care about thier health which should be good at their age and they should not be drinking nor smoking due to it's illegal at their age meaning they don't care what trouble they can face.
'Scarface' (1983)
is an example of a crime drama film that doesn't show its characters which the audience don't expect.The three characters that are present in our opening sequence are all the same age and of different races which suggests that everyone living in that area are the same regardless of race and nationality. One crime drama film that uses a range of different people is 'Kidulthood'(2006)
who uses different races for characters and both genders.We used a low angle, close med shot of the teenage gang in our opening sequence pretending as if they well selling drugs which will show the audience the social group they represent which is lower class teenagers. We chosen to use those shots because the low angle will show their strenght and power while the close med shot will show their face to see their facial expression dealing drugs and costume to see what stereotypical class their in and if thier in gangs. The parallel sound used was a slow gangster beat which will tell the audience that they are gangsters and that they feel slow in a sad way just like the pace of the beat because of the environment that they are living in. This is very similar to 'Boys in the hood' apart from they use real songs. In the frame of the shots the props that one character is holding is a cigarette with a lighter & the other an alcohol bottle which both are stereotypical crime drama props. This will make the audience aware that their life is wasted at a young age and they possibly don't care.
Before our cast was chosen we wanted them to be all boys because it will suit with the convention, but later had to change it because there were not enough boys and had to use a girl. As much as we thought it would ruin our film putting a girl it didn't because changed her image and repesented her in a gangster form.
Me and my group directed our cast to stay true to their representation of our characters by the use of their body language and costume. This meant that they were to be standing like gangsters, moving around like gangsters, screwfacing and wearing hoodies.
As our main characters were not in our opening sequence, apart from the non digetic music it was down to the setting/location to represent our main characters. We located our film during a busy morning in a dirty alleyway near litter & graffiti. It's not very nice and is a convention of where you will expect to find gangsters hanging about.
The main characters in our film are:
Character 1
Name: Nicholas Smith
Nickname: Big Jon
Age: 22
Date of birth: 22.01.1987
Gender: Male
Current Address: 42 Boxley Street, West Silvertown, E15 4nf
1 younger brother
Health Status: Healthy
Lives With: Gang Members
Personality: Never gives up, Risk Taker
Zodiac Sign: Aries
Chinese Zodiac Sign: Rat
Ethnic Background: Black British
Single
Character 2
Name: Trey Smith
Nickname: Tee Dog
Age: 20
Date of birth: 10.08.1989
Place of birth: Barking Hospital, London
Gender: Male
Current Address: 1 Barge house road, North Woolwich E16 3nx
1 Older Brother
Health Status: Healthy
Personality: Tough
Zodiac Sign: Leo
Chinese Zodiac sign: Monkey
Lives on his own
Single
Ethnic Background: Black British
From these pictures you can see how they they are represented by their costume, props, colour design and body language. Nicholas is represented as a gangster due to he is wearing a hoodie and a bandana which represents gang culture as well as the gun. Trey is represented a average man due to his normal ocstume and his smile representsd him as a kind man.
We didn't show him in our opening sequence but if we did he would have been represented as a good young man, minding his business probably of to work with a smile on his face just like picture.
Overall I believe that the opening sequence of 'Granted' represents particular social groups effectively by the characters body language, costume, props and location and so appeals to our target audience.
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