Analysis of Film Extract

Between 0 - 3.15

Boyz In Da Hood

In this essay I will be discussing how the director uses conventions of a film to appeal to a target audience and create the setting. Director John Singleton carefully chooses the right mise-en-scene, lighting, sound, cinematography and editing to create an effect for the audience. Boyz In Da Hood is about a group of friends growing up together ‘in the hood’. The movie shows them struggling to escape the violence and drugs, some of them opportunities for education, pinning their hopes on college, others are caught up in the violence that is common to the neighborhood.

The opening shot is a shot of the Columbia Pictures logo with non-diegetic sound of young men talking in the background. The young men seem to be in a group and are angry about something that may have occurred earlier. They seem to get into a car and gun shots are heard with people screaming. While this is happening the shot changes so that we are shown the title of the film. While we are shown the title the gun shots are heard which shows to us the audience that the film will contain violence. Also, as the shots changed a sound bridge was used in order to hear what was going on in this background.

The next shot is a quick shot of statistics about black males and violence. This also hints to the audience that the film is about black males and violence thus showing us that the genre is gang violence and action. In the background there is a young child saying ‘they shot my brother’, this shows the consequences of the violence and gang violence. It also shows how gang violence affects many other people around them.

The next shot is a medium shot of a young black male waiting for his friends at the bus stop. The shot is a tracking shot to show the young children walking and talking. Also, the young children are wearing casual clothing which seems to be cheap. This shows that they are working class and are not rich, this is also backed up by the neighbourhood they are in. At the bottom of the screen it says South Central Los Angeles 1984. This shows the audience where the film is set and at what year. South Central is known for its high crime rate and violent history. There is a medium shot used to show the surroundings and also how run down the community is. The lighting is high key to give the sense of daylight and naturality. This shows to the audience that the scene is in the daytime.

The shot then cuts into a close up of a wall with bullet holes next to a poster. This shot is a close up to show us how many bullet holes there are and making the audience wonder why there are bullet holes there. This shot is very quick and there is a big close up which follows after that with a non-diegetic gun shot sound at the same time. This effect is used to show the audiehow fast the bullets are ad how much damage they can cause. It is set in an alley way with lots of rubbish on the floor and old sofas on the side. This shows that the community is poor and seems to be a run down area. Also, the yellow police tape around the area with the gun shots shows to the audience that it may have been a gang related attack and that the police have been to the scene. It also gives the hint that the area has a high crime rate. A slow beat comes into the scene which build up tension for the audience as they will be wondering what is behind the tapes. The close up shot of the young girl and boy shows their facial expression when they see the blood on the floor. The girl seems to be scared and this is shown through her being behind the boy. The boy’s facial expression shows him not to be scared as has a straight face and seems not to care. This shows to the audience that he is cold hearted and may have seen this before. Furthermore, the diegetic sound of the girl asking is that blood shows that she is innocent and that she may have not seen this before.

There is then a straight cut which is a close up of the blood spot. There is a big patch of dark red blood which connotes violence. Also during the shot we are able to hear flies flying around the blood which usually happens when the blood has been there for a while. This indicates to the audience that the incident happened a few days ago and still no-one has bothered to clean it up. The shot then dissolves into another shot which shows a drawing of a man in a coffin. We are able to identify that the drawing was done by a child because of the coloring and style. During the shot there is a woman talking in the background and a sound bridge is created because the shot then dissolves into another drawing of a black man being arrested by police and then after the shot dissolves into another picture of a police helicopter shining their light. The shot then zooms out and we are able to see that these drawings are on the walls of a classroom and are likely to be drawn by the students. The camera then tracks around the whole classroom to show us the students and we are able to see that the majority of students are black which indicates that they are living in a highly populated Black area.

From this clip we can see that the primary target audience is teenage males between 16-25 years old. This is because the audience can realize that there will be lots of violence and may even contain racial comments.