Task A2 - Generic conventions ('Brotherly Love')

Generic conventions - Brotherly Love

In the movie, 'Brotherly Love' it is a drama film produced by Charles (Charlie Mack) and directed by Jamal Hill in 2015. The movie subverts Tzvetan Todorov's theory because the drama film doesn't have a normal beginning, it skips that stage and started with the disruption stage first which was also in the past. This could make the audience feel discomfort because they don't understand what is purpose of showing this at the beginning. Moreover, the movie 'The Man in 3b' is a drama film which does follow Tzvetan Todorov's theory. The movie first starts of with an equilibrium, then something disrupts this causing there to be a recognition. The disruption is then repaired and a new equilibrium is created. Jamal Hill filmed the movie in Philadelphia USA and within that location they also filmed in a house where Cory Hardrict (June), Keke Palmer (Jackie), Eric D. Hill Jr (Sergio) and Macy Gray lived. They also used a studio for Jackie and Quincy (Chris Collins), then the high school for their homecoming dance at the end of the movie.

In the movie industry, you can get actors that only star in specific genres which means that Eric D. Hill Jr is a conventional actor for drama films because he doesn't do a lot of movies and he also has been in another movie called 'Hurricane Season (2009)' which is also a sport/drama movie. This prompts the audience to feel as if Eric D.Hill Jr is made for drama and sports movies, as his first movie he starred in was a drama movie. Macy Gray could also be portrayed as a conventional actor for drama films because most of the movies that she stars in are either drama or a hybrid with drama in it. Moreover, she does star in other genre film such as comedy ('November Rule') and crime/thriller films ('Training day'). This makes the audience feel as if Macy Gray is a very skilled and good actor as she is able to star in a variety of movies.  It could be argued that these less well known films (apart from Training Day) conventionally use less famous actors due to their previous roles, but  also the fact that the budget for films like 'Brotherly Love' aren't as big as other films that may feature A-list actors.

Similarly, 'The man in 3B' stars Brely Evans who doesn't star in specific genres. She stars in a variety of genres such as dramas, romance and comedies. This makes the audience feel as if she is very skilled and because of this the audience see's a familiar actor that they know. Therefore, they know that it is going to a good film because of her previous films starred in. Moreover, Christian Keyes also stars in this movie and his main genres that he stars in are drama and romance films such as 'The Perfect Man', 'Act like you love me' and 'Note to self'. This makes the audience believe that he is going to be a reliable aspect in this movie because of the history of movies he has been in. He's already been in drama movies which means that he should be able to make this movie very realistic and interesting.

'Brotherly Love' uses typical aspects that other drama movies have. They use typical props that are found in drama films such as guns, expensive cars and money. These props prompt the audience give the audience an overall interpretation of the film, which could be that someone may die or that there will be some sort of violence during the film. This creates anticipation and a tense atmosphere, especially due to Mr.Hill not following Todorov's theory and uses the disruption stage as his first choice for the opening of the movie. Moreover, in the movies ' The man in 3B' Tray Haley also uses typical props in their movies and this is because they want to ensure that the audience understands that it is drama/mystery genre film. This will be highlighted through the props that they use, in this movie they use guns and baseball bats. This creates a lot of tension in the movie which makes the audience feel suspense as they are not sure what the outcome of the altercation is going to be.  I believe that props like these are conventional to drama/crime films and do meet audience expectations, but often paints black people as violent or involved in illegal things, which is a negative aspect to these types of film.

Jamal Hill uses both elements from natural and artificial lighting, because when using natural lighting it gives the movie a very natural and unprocessed feel. Therefore, making the audience feel as if the movie is very realistic and the image on the left shows that natural lighting portrays a sense of evil and danger which could emphasise that everyone has an evil side, but could only come out at night as most violent scenes are in the dark. Moreover, artificial lighting is used to highlight a key actor or scene. As the image on the right, shows the use of artificial lighting which focuses on June whilst does his speech at his house. This emphasises that the speech he was giving was important through the use of overhead lighting. On the other hand, in 'The man in 3B' natural lighting is used during the fight scene between Darryl and two gang associated boy. This perhaps is because they want to highlight the situation and how it is being handled with. Even though the two gang associated boys started the altercation, Darryl ensured that the situation didn't get out of control. This makes the audience feel as the natural lighting made the situation seem better than it was resolved and no one was hurt.

Costumes weren't very fancy but very casual. June dressed casual, however always wore a gold chain. This shows the audience that June could be having a good financial income. Stereotypically, many of the audience would think he's a stereotypical 'hood' boy that sells drugs and causes troubles on the streets, and that's how he is able to support his family. Jackie also wears casual clothing, but because she's apart of the cheerleading team you'd see her in her cheerleader outfit throughout the movie. Jackie is also a stereotypical character because she is a young teenage girl who gets blinded by love. This makes the audience feel as if it's a love movie, which makes the audience become chill and relaxed as they feel as if this will be a nice, romantic movie but it's not.  Hoodies are conventional to a range of genres but this one in particualr as it highlights where these characters live is often poor areas of America.

Both extreme long shot and close up shot is used at the beginning of the movie. Extreme long shot is used to denote the roads of Philadelphia USA, this could connote how hollow and dangerous the streets are because how dark and empty the streets are. As this was at the beginning of the movie, it could be highlighting how dangerous the roads are which make the audience think stereotypically. Also a close up is used to denote June when he kills Chris's cousin at the start. This connotes anger and power, which could be because he just killed someone even though they pleaded for their life. This perhaps could make the audience dislike June as his first camera shot was very violent.

A high level angle was used to demonstrate inferiors and to see who's more superior. In this movie, a high level angle was used to denote Sergio hiding from the policemen in the house they tried to rob. This shot in this angle made the policemen seem much more superior to Sergio, however the policeman did let Sergio free whilst his two friends got caught. This is because he knew who Sergio was, and he knew that if Sergio went prison his basketball career would be over so he showed sympathy for him. This could prompt the audience to feel that even though he's superior, he doesn't use his authorities as power. Also suggesting to the audience that Sergio isn't a stereotypical 'hood' boy who wants to cause problems, and the policeman understood. Another drama movie Deuces also uses a high level angle but in this drama movie it is to demonstrate the heartbreak and devastation of the donation of Deuces bleeding out into Jason's arms. This highlights that drama genre films use various emotional perspectives such as a young person's death like is seen in Kidulthood when Trevor is stabbed at the end of the film, allowing audiecnes to not only  feel sympathy for the character, but also gain information about how young people are affected by knife and gun crime.

Sergio is an archetype of a young school boy. This is because it denotes Sergio never getting into trouble (only at the end), only going basketball practise and basketball games. This connotes that Sergio is a simple and casual teenage boy who grew up into a violent area, which isn't his fault as he has no control over this. Some of the audience may feel sympathy for Sergio because the violence and money problems could potentially affect the lifestyle he wants. Also some of the audience may watch this because they are able to gain insight into oneself, which suggest they watch it for personal identity. Again the struggle of a young person to leave these poor areas and life of crime is conventional of many gang/drama films such as Boyz N' the Hood , where Trey has to decide whether he wants a life of crime by getting revenge on his friends killer, or working his way out of poverty.

In the movie, diegetic music was played a lot throughout the movie which both the audience and characters could hear and hopefully relate to. During the school dance scene, 'Best of me' by Anthony Hamilton was being played whilst the characters entered their school gym where the dance was. This song is very calming and reuniting, which could encapsulate that June's family should appreciate each other and love one another as they do loose a loved one at the end (June). Mr Hill also incorporates non-diegetic music at the beginning of the movie. It was a quick clip and the instrumental was gloomy and suspicious. The heavy rain over the non-diegetic music created a tense atmosphere which made the audience suspect something violent is going to happen, for example someone dies which occurs as June kills Chris's cousin over a gambling game and he wasn't the only one who died as June killed two others that played the game that night. Sound effects were used in the movie to emphasis the use of the guns. Whenever a character shot the gun, there was aloud gunshot noise which will make the audience feel as if they were actually there through the intense noise.

In 2005, Philadelphia gang violent rates was very high. A lot of the areas would have rivals to stand their ground for the are they lived in. This prompts the audience to feel as if Jamal Hill wanted to demonstrate the dangerous of gang violence to the public so they are aware of the political issue in Philadelphia in 21st century. The set piece in the movie, is when Chris shoots June in the car park. No one expected this to happen, the audience nor the characters. This made the audience feel shocked and confused to why Chris would shoot his girlfriends brother. The flashback scene of the disruption scene at the beginning of the movie, caused the audience to understand why he shot June. The audience may not like Chris because the audience realises he used Jackie to get closer to her brother. Before killing June, he says 'I wasn't meant to fall in love with your sister' which could make the audience feel as if he love was genuine but he really wanted revenge to give himself closure from his cousins death.