Audience Theory and Violence

^{Task 3: Audience Theory and Violence} 

^{Hypodermic Theory}

There are a lot of theories on how the audience take in the message of the film that is being watched. In this Journal I am going to be talking about how some of these theories apply to violence scene in some of the previous movies that I have watch, which are Scarface, City of God and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. 

The first theory is the hypodermic needle theory. This theory suggests that the violence in the film can cause anyone that watches it to act in a similar way and go and commit violence as well.  There is a very violent scene where Gina (Tony’s sister) has got shot after their sexual tension argument. You see a close up of Tony talking to Gina’s dead and then when one of Tony’s workers interrupts he suddenly comes back to reality and you get a medium shot of Tony getting angrier and getting his gun ready. You see Tony killing a lot of people and hiding and pushing around dead bodies. The final shot when you see Tony get shot numerous and is still stand then get shot and falls over the balcony and falls into the fountain. This theory suggests that people that have watched this will encourage people to do the same thing but I think that this is untrue because it depends on the maturity of the viewer and als o not everybody has the same mentality to do that. It also depends on how you can take violence as well so people don't like watching violent movies therefore watching a movie like Scarface wouldn't effect them to go and commit an act of violence. On the other hand, I think that this theory could apply to this movie because this movie influence a hip hop culture. Artist like Nas, Raekwon and Big Pun has even made songs inspired by the Scarface movie. Some people in the Hip Hop community might be inspired to go and live a life like Tony Montana because he is in a similar situation and he became wealthy, powerful and got the women that he wanted. This might encourage people to go into the drug business and also learn from Tony's mistakes like not getting high on your own supply. Ludacris, a Hip Hop artist said that "We were all living vicariously through your characters, as the whole rap community, we definitely support." This supports the idea in this case the hypodermic needle theory could apply to this film.


City of God was more realistic and actually use actors that were from the City of God to make the movie even more realistic for example the chase sequence at the beginning and end of the movie consist of fast pace and constantly shakiness which seems to have been done with a handheld camera and the combination with the raped editing created a realistic point of view shot of a chase scene. The violence was more life-like compared to Scarface which was more stylized for example . Therefore you could argue that people that it more likely for people to be influence to copy some of the violence in this movie. This theory suggest that everybody that watches this film will be influence to be go and commit an act of violence which is wrong because I for example I have watched this film twice and I haven't had the mindset to go out and start killing or shooting people. There are a lot of violence scenes in like when Knockout ned's brother tries to plead with Lil Ze and then we see a wide shot of Lil Ze's gang member shooting him, again we get this quite shaky to show how powerful the guns were. According to this theory everybody would want to go out and start shooting people which is untrue and we are amusing that everybody was born with a bit of violence in then.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking was probably the least violence movie compared to the other movies. In Scarface and City of God it was more gory and more serious whereas Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel are trying to make the film more comical. The way the camera is shot and the dialogue are the things that make this film funny for example the scene where the gang next door and Rory's gangster are in Eddie's house and even though there is a bit of tension in the room which is done by continuous cuts of each member of the gangs face expression and when Plank says 'What the f*ck is going on?" and let's off his gun was a funny way to let start the shootout which was comical way to start a shootout. Also the fast pace music leading up to the shooting scene makes it quite funny. This film is a bit silly so I don't think that people would end out going out to start shooting because they have watched this film because in compare to the other two films this film is not as serious and in some ways making fun of gangster films.

Reception Theory

The reception is about understanding how audience take in the message of the film. For example you background or past experience can effort how you take in the message of the film. In Scarface, Tony was an immigrant and was in poverty, they worked there way to up to achieve power and money might influence some people to go and do the same because they have been in that same position and they might be inspired by Tony to go and the same thing. If we going to applied this to violence, there is a scene when Tony shoots the assassin because he was going to bomb the car that had two kids and a women inside. We see a build up in Tony reaction when he realise there are children in the car and when he shoots the assassin we see a close up of the assassin face and the blood splatter on the car which made it a bit gory. Some audience might react relieved that Tony didn't kill the kids and wife because since this film is mostly aimed at males, there might be males in the audience that have wife and kids and might have had an emotion connection. When I watched this film I was very relieved when Tony didn't blow up the car but if he had did I don't think I would have been effected as much because I know that this is a fiction film and no one is really getting hurt and when I ask a few of my family member this, they agreed with me. Some audience member might take on the message of this scene that even though you have made mistake you have to stick to your moral which can influence some of the audience.

In City of God, there is a lot of scenes that the audience may react different towards for example when Lil Ze rapes Knockout Ned's girlfriend. We see Knockout Ned on the floor while one of Lil Ze gang member make him watch. We also he a diegtic crying and screaming from Knockout Ned's girlfriend. Even though we do not see the rape scene, some audience members might be affected because this might have happened to them or they know somebody has been rape so this can cause an emotion response or might be uncomfortable to watch. Some may argue that because you can not see what is happening it is not so bad to watch. There is also another scene where Lil Ze catches two of the runts and makes 'Steak with Fries' a boy around the same age as the runts choose which one to kill. There were two runts one look around 10 and the other around 5 because we hear and the camera is more focus on the 5 year old I felt more sorry for him and didn't really care about the another runt which is what the director intend to do. If members of the audience have children or even little siblings, you will be more effective because you wouldn't want any of you family member to be in that situation and also it is disturbing to watch because everybody participating in this scene are under the age of 12 and we see children to be very vulnerable. 

In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels the audience response is going to be a bit different from the other two films because the violence in City of God and Scraface is more raw and also Lock, Stock.. is also a comedy film so some of the violence scene will find a bit funny. For example the scene where Rory set the guy on fire because he turn off the TV. The narrative from the bartender made this scene funny because of the cockney slang he was using to describe what was going on and also how calm Rory was once he set the guy on fire. The whole scene was over the top which I think that is what the director wanted to show. Unlike City of and God and Scarface I don't think they is going to be any emotional response because everything was done in a comical way. The audience may have a connection with Big Chris and his kid because even though he was committing crime alongside he kid, he was also trying to be a good father and teach he son some morals and manners, which I think some audience may relate too.  

Hyporermic Needle Theory

Hypodermic Needle Theory.

The Hypodermic Needle Theory is when the mass media messages makes the audience react in a certain way especially to violence. This theory has some problems. The first problem is that if everybody was influence by what the watch for example violent films could affect people than why are violent movies being made. This is we be a problem and we are also suggest that the audience all react the same. 

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

In this journal I am going to be talking about the target audience, genre conventions, representations and narrative of Lock, Stock and Two Barrels. This film is about a group of friends who put money together so that the card's genius could win at a card game of three card brag. He lose his money to a £500,000 to a powerful crime lord and has to pay it back it in a week. So they decided to rob a small gang to lives next door in order to pay them back. The main target audience for this film would have to be British audience because this film uses a lot of cockney slang which international audience would not be able to understand what they are talking about. 

There is a scene where Big Chris played by the actor Vinnie Jones is a pub which has low to lighting to make the scene more intimate, asks the Bartender about Rory Breaker. The dark lighting in this scene made the conversation between Big Chris and the bartender seem more private. The bartender starts telling a story about how Rory set a guy on fire for turning off the TV. When telling this story the bartender uses a lot of cockney slang like "He heads down to the local battle cruiser" (battle cruiser meaning Pub), "The fat geezer´s north" (Geezer means man and north means mouth) and He throws a flaming match into his birds nest" (Bird nest meaning chest). This scene repeatedly cuts between the bartender and Big Chris to the story of Rory setting the guy of fire. The story of Rory is a medium shot and seems to be in the point of view of the bartender then when Rory says 'That's fucking what?' you get a close up of Rory and the guy (Rory is about set on fire) face to face. This scene included subtitles which could suggest that this is also for an internationally audience as well because they might not be able to understand what was being said in this scene. The sound in this scene was ambient sounds so you could hear people talking in the background so the scene would sound more realistic. 

Scarface didn't use as much slang as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking barrels did but it did use one slang word that was use a lot by the Hip hop community after Scarface was release, which was 'Yeyo' which means cocaine. The fact that Scarface didn't use a lot of Scarface didn't use a lot of slang word suggest to me that this film was meant for a broader audience and Scarface markers wanted the audience to understand what was going on and what was being said. Tony Montana did have an accent which made it clear that he wasn't from america but he spoke in English through out the whole movie. Whereas Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and City of audience were intend for a more regionally audience. City of God was filmed in Portuguese which tells us that it wasn't made more a international audience but when it started receiving international audience they added subtitles so that we could understand the dialogue that was being said.  

The card game 'three card brag' is a popular British card game that was played in the 16th century. Guy Richie the director probably used this game so it could relate more to the British audience which suggest that he was aiming for a British audience. This film is also targeted at gangster fans as well because this film has some of the gangster convention like the all male lead, gangs, masculine males and rise and fall of characters. Even though Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in a gangster film it is very different to Scarface and City of God. Scarface and City of God are very serious gangster movies however Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is also a comedy movie as well. 

A genre convention that there is a rise and fall of the characters. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels shows the rise of fall of many of the characters in the film like the City of God. Unlike Scarface and City of God, the character do not really come from a poverty background, which means that it has some unconventional qualities about this film. They might not be the riches but they had some sort of money. Also the rise and fall mainly happened to the gangster in the movie. Even though Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was quite comical it has the same type of message that City of God and Scarface had which is that the gangsters always dies at the end. There was also a lot of violent and bloody scene which is major convention in a gangster movies. In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel it is not as gory as other gangster movies. In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels there is a scene where the two different gangs are looking for Eddy and his friends but instead they met each. It cuts from one gang member to another to show the emotions on their face. When the shooting scene happens you can only hear diegtic shooting sounds and glass being smashed. You can tell that this was violent when one of the gang leaders opens the door and a shot of blood comes on his face. In this scene you hear non-diegtic up typo music which is very unusual in a gangster movie and made the scene a bit funny because it didn't seem serious. Whereas in Scarface, the last scene where we see Tony Montana get a shot numerous even though it was extremely stylize it was seen to be more serious than the other film. In gangster movie we normally watching the anti-hero lives but in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel and also it City Of God it's about how these protagonist are trying to survive and escape the gangs around them. Both films also use narratives to explain what is going on in the narrative. In films like Scarface and New Jack City, the gangsters are the main focus. 

Males in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are represented as very masculine which is a another genre convention. In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels you see Big Chris, Barry "the Baptist", Diamond Dog, Harry and Rory were all gang leader and were the most masculine characters in the film. Males in the east end are stereotypical seem to be masculine and hard which Guy Richie brought to this film to convey the type of area the characters are from but also in all gangster movie the gangster have to been very masculine or they wouldn't be gangsters. Guy Richie plays around with this theory with Vinnie Jones' character because even though you see him to be very tough and violent you also see him teaching his son moral but in a firm but caring way for example after Vinnie Jones' character hand butts the gang leader and takes the guns it cuts to him telling being a concern parent and telling his son to put on his seat belt whereas compared to JD he was very aggressive and quite abuse to Eddie which is his son because he didn't want to show any emotions towards him. There was only one women in the film (Gloria) and she was portrayed different to the other women in gangster movies. Women are seen to be very sexulise and seen as objects. Gloria seem very intoxicated and lifeless like she was an object but whereas for example Elvira is as prize for being successful whereas Gloria is just there and is pretty much useless until the scene where we see her stand up and shoot the small time gang in slow motion. If I was to compare the two scene when Gina has a gun and Gloria has a gun there is some differences. Gina is wearing a bathrobe which is showing cleavage and she walks in flirty.You also hear soft romantic non diegtic music playing in the background and then you see a long shot of gina walking towards Tony with her bathrobe basically open. Even though this was quite a serious scene they sexualise and made it more appealing for male audience to watch. But In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Gloria was full clothed, in a jumper and a maxi skirt and she shoots some of the member in the small time gang. You actually see the more aggressive side of females which is something we don't really see in gangster movies. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels has some very unconventions characters and story line.

Normally in most Gangster narrative, the main concept is to get rich off doing drugs gain power and wealth but in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrel it is mostly about a personally goal to pay back Harry in a week. Even though drugs are shown in this movie it is mostly about getting money to pay back the debt. In Scarface you see Tony become rich and move to a different part of the city to get away from poverty whereas In Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and City of God they stay in their area because the gangster love the power that they have in that area. In gangster movies the character are all trying to escape something Tony was trying to escape poverty, Rocket was trying to escape for the City of God and four friends (eddy, soap, bacon and tom) where trying to escape harry. In gangster film we also see the rise and the fall of the character but in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking the gangster (Rory and Harry) already seem to be at the top we don't get to see how they get to they get to the top but we see their downfall which is death which is always the main message in gangster films. It tells you that when you do bad, bad will happen to you which is death.

Bill: Discovery Evaluation

In this evaluation I am going to be talking about the different editing techniques and audio sounds that I used in this short drama.  My groups included Jazz, Tom, Tyree, Barney and Josue. We decided to do a continue of our another short drama (Chase). We get to see what happens to Jazz (Who gets kidnapped in the chase drama). The plot of this drama was boy (Josue) walking through the woods and he feels that somebody is following him as he gets deeper into the woods, he discovers the hand of Jazz and the kidnapper that was following him hits him with a massive stick. 

The first shot we had was a point of view shot of the main character (Josue) scanning the area which was a forest. I started of with no sound at the beginning. The next shot was a low angle shot of Josue's footwear and him walking and the first sound you hear is a diegetic twig snapping. I done this because I wanted to build up the tension. After this it cuts straight into a point of view shot of Josue quickly looking around and we start to see that he is becoming a little bit paranoid. In the next shot you start to hear diegetic ambient sound of the forest to make it seem more realist and also to build up more tension, and to create a dramatic mood. The next shot is a long distance shot of Josue looking around. We filmed this behind the trees because we wanted it to seem that somebody was looking at him and you also get to see the view of the gritty forest. Then it cuts to another long shot of Josue walking and it also in the bushes so it seems that somebody is watching. The next shot cut to a low shot of his hands which shows that he is becoming uncomfortable and a bit worried. The next shot was a still long shot of Josue walking deep inside the words and you could see the tension in his body and also he looking around to see if anyways there. Next we had a close up of Josue's face expression so we could see how worried and scared he was through his face. In this shot I want add  heavy breathing so it seemed that he was proper scared but the soundtrack didn't go with video so I decided to leave that out. The final shot is of a pale hand on the ground and the camera vertically panning up so we could see Josue's face express and then the antagonist who was Tom emerging from the background with a stick to attack Josue then just when Tom is about to hit Josue it goes to black and you hear diegtic bang sound. This is to suggest to the audience that something has happened without them actually seeing what has happened.

My role in this project was camera operator alongside Tyree, I also did a bit of directing and suggested different angles and shots that should be included in this drama. Even though we used the storyboard, when we got to the location they were so many places we film from so we decided to use different shots because of how big the place was. We received a lot of positive feedback from this drama. We got feedback saying that they liked the narrative of the story and the different amount of angles that we used. This drama was a success because people understood are concept and also we use a range amount of angles and shot which made this drama more interesting and also the choice of the soundtrack helped build up the tension we want to show in our drama. If I was to do something different in the future I would probably used a better quality camera because the end result came out a bit blurry.

Summaries Theories.

Uses & Gratifications Theory

The uses and gratification an approach to understanding why and how people actively seek out specific media to satisfy specific needs. The driving question of UGT is: Why do people use media and what do they use them for? Beginning in the 1940s, researchers began seeing patterns under the perspective of the uses and gratifications theory in radio listeners. The modern ways of using Use and Gratifications are:

Internet uses

Content.: Uses for the Internet include the need for researching or finding specific information or material, which are gratified with content..

Process: Users gain gratification from the experience of purposeful navigating or random browsing of the Internet in its functional process.

Social: Uses encompass a wide range of forming and deepening social ties.

Social Networking like Facebook and twitter. With Facebook they research the uses of Facebook groups, including information acquisition about campus/community, entertainment/recreation, social interaction with friends and family, and peer pressure/self satisfaction. On twitter they research how long people spend on Twitter. The amount of tweets they use to socialise with each other and public messages/

Hyperdermic Needle theory

This theory suggest that a mass media could influence a large amount of people directly like it is injecting theme with an appropriate message designed to trigger a response. This could be a positive and negative thing depending on the message. 

Reception theory 

This more generally called audience reception in the analysis of communication models. A basic acceptance of the meaning of a specific text tends to occur when a group of readers have a shared cultural background and interpret the text in similar ways. It is likely that the less shared heritage a reader has with the artist, the less he or she will be able to recognise the artist's intended meaning, and it follows that if two readers have vastly different cultural and personal experiences, their reading of a text will vary greatly

Passive/Active
An active consumption is when the audience  will engage and discuss media messages that comes across to them and some times question the media messages through life experiences. Others may interpenetrate the message in a different way or question it, by doing this the audience won’t be as suggestible to tell them what to think.

Encoding/Decoding

1. Production- This is where the encoding of a message takes place. By drawing upon society's dominant ideologies, the creator of the message is feeding off of society's beliefs, and values.

2. Circulation- How individuals perceive things: visual vs. written. How things are circulated influences how audience members will receive the message and put it use.

3. Use (distribution or consumption)- This is the decoding/interpreting of a message which requires active recipients. This is a complex process of understanding for the audience.

4. Reproduction- This is the stage after audience members have interpreted the message in their own way based on their experiences and beliefs. What is done with the message after it has been interpreted is where this stage comes in. At this point, you will see whether individuals take action after they have been exposed to a specific messag

In scarface there are a lot of different messages that the director showed. A message that Scarface shows are that you should not let your background or where you are from you should not let that stop you from being big. Also you can achieve what you what with street smarts and determination because Tony was living American Dream, he had money, power and respect. But also that everything that is done comes at a price and eventually all the bad deeds that you have done in you past will catch up to you and you will have to pay for it, which Tony paid with his life. Also there were two messages we learnt from Frank which was don't underestimate other man's greed and don't get high on you own so supply which Tony ignores and these were Tony's downfalls because drugs made him become paranoid which lead him lose his wife and by saving the wife and children he didn’t kill the politician so Sosa threaten to kill him which at the end he gets men to do for him.  We also learn that we should stick to our moral. There are a lot of different messages that came across in this film.

I think that it depends on the person if there will get these messages. Some may only get a few or none. Scarface could inspire people to be more determined to get what they want in life even though this film is talking about drugs. Depending on the age and the mature level of the audience scarface could also lead audience to pursue Tony Montana lifestyle even though the character dies at the character dies at the end. Scarface has also influence a whole hip hop culture and some of the rapper have used some of Tony Montana values in their lifestyles and also in their music which their fans will listen and also try and copy. So I would say that even if you didn't get every message and meaning of this film you would at least get one. 

City Of God: Journal

City of God: Journal

In this journal I am going to be talking about the target audience, genre conventions, representation of characters and the narrative of City of God movie. The city of God is told from the viewpoint of a boy named Rocket who grows up in the slums of Brazil called Cidade de Deus, which is Portuguese for City of God and is trying to get out of the slums. This movie shows different characters trying to become rich and powerful and the results that could happen. I feel that this movie is general targeted at males because of the character Lil Ze. Even though Lil Ze is the normal anti-hero, I think a lot of males would like he character because of he’s malicious, cool blooded, ruthless, very violent and also his determination to become powerful no matter what it takes. We see this in many of the scenes in City of God for example when they caught 2 of the runts and forces Steak n Fries (a young boy who hangs around with Lil Ze gang) to choose one of them to kill. We see a low angle of Steak n Fries holding the gun to show that he has power over the two runts lives. This is shows that he has no remorse and no morals whereas in Scarface, we see that Tony has some morals when it comes to children for example when he shoots the guy that bomb the politician car because there were children and a women inside the car. This movie was originally target at a Portuguese audience but then when the film became internationally popular. I know this because of the fact that the filmmakers added subtitles so that international audience could understand what was being said.

This film is also targeted at gangster fans because it has some of the typical gangster conventions like rise and fall of the characters, it’s about an ethnic minority, poverty and etc. Even though this is aimed at gangster fans you would have to like foreign movies because City of God is in Portuguese and sometimes this can be off putting for some people but this movie made $114,442 in the USA, £307,177 in the UK, €41,350 in Italy and €169,797 in Spain meaning that even though this film was made for a niche audience, the narrative of movie appealed to audiences all around the world even though there was a language barrier.

The rise and fall of the gangster is convention that is in many gangster films. This is when the gangster starts from being poor than slowly starts to gain wealth and power then slowly things start to fall apart and the gangster dies. This happens in City of God but not as large scale like New Jack City or Scarface. In Scarface and New Jack City, when they start getting wealth and power they buy bigger house, flasher clothes and move out of poor area they used to live before whereas in City of God the character don’t seem like they want to move out of the area and buy bigger house but instead are more interested in being in control and having the most power. They do show a bit of wealthy by wearing chains, clothes and cars; we see this in the scene where all the big drug lords in the City of God are all gathered at the bar. Normally in gangster movies we focus on the rise and fall of one gangster but we were introduced to many character rises and downfalls for example we see the rise and fall of the ‘The Tender Trios’ this included Rocket, Lil Zë and Benny’s older brothers, knockout Ned, shorty and the main character Lil Zë. These little stories on these characters were done so we could build up a clear story on the main character.

Another unconvential aspect of the film is that we had two main characters, which were Lil Ze and Rocket. Rocket is a very unconvential character in this film, he had nothing to the with the gang life and had a completely different social group to the gangster. He would hang around with the ‘hippie’ group. The only ‘gangster’ he really associated with was Benny but he became more of a hippie than a gangster. Rocket balanced out the film and showed that there were also good people with good morals that lived in the slums. Rocket is also the narrator of this film and even though he wasn’t involved in any of the violence going on in the story, this all builds to how Rocket escapes the slums. We see in the movie that things wasn't going too well for Rocket (the girl he liked, like somebody else, Lil Zë picture got release to the newspaper without him knowing and living in the slums) whereas Lil Zë was becoming more power and was gaining the residents respect and as soon as things we going bad for Lil Ze things started going good for Rocket and eventually when Lil Zë dies that is when Rocket gets the job at the newspaper because he gets a close picture Lil Zë’s body. Another convention of this movie is that this has a male lead character, which is a key aspect in a gangster movie. All gangster movies have male leads example American gangster, Goodfellas, Godfather and Get Cater, this lets the gangster movie fans that this is a gangster movie and also appeals to the male target audience.

In this movie you see the men in this movie represented in two different ways. Lil Zë is the typical gangster, he is very powerful and feared, extremely violent, aggressive and mentally ill which is very similar to Tony Montana but Tony had more morals because even though he killed a lot of people he would not kill children whereas Lil Ze didn’t care anybody that got in his way would die, I know this because he shot a child in the foot and got the another child killed whereas Tony killed the guy that was about to kill the children. Lil Ze is a cold blooded killer and has no remorse for anyone because he has enjoys killing people which we see when we see him as kid and he kills everybody in the hotel for no reason.  The other way men were represented in movie is for example the way Rocky and the ‘hippies’ are. They are more relaxed and like to enjoy themselves. These characters are for fearful of the gangster and want to escape the city of God. An example of this is when Benny and his girlfriend wanted to leave the city of God and start a farm but then benny gets shot.

Lil Ze had been represented to have mental issues because he had no remorse when killing people. The fact that he was ugly and couldn't get girls was why Lil Ze was like this. The war between knockout Ned and Lil Ze started because of the fact he couldn't get girls. An example is when Lil Ze gets rejected twice by a girl he liked and she was the girlfriend of knockout Ned who was more handsome than Lil Ze. This resulted in Lil Ze getting angry and making Knockout Ned strip in front of everybody, raping his girlfriend and killing his brother and uncle. In Scarface we also see Tony to have mental issues, as well he is very paranoid. Tony had many cameras inside his office which he also over analysis a lot which supports that he was paranoid and taking drugs made him even more paranoid In every gangster movie, the gangster always has some mental issues. 

In the narrative of gangster, there is always an older mentor teaching the gangster and then the gangster then kills their mentor. In the beginning of City of God you see Lil Dice (Lil Ze) and Benny following the The Tender Trios, which were their older brothers plus rocket's older brother. After the killing at the hotel, Goose (Rocket's older brother) sees Lil Dice and Benny and takes their money and then Lil Dice shots him multiple times. This theme is also seen in Scarface, when Tony kills off Frank because Frank tried to get Tony killed. Another narrative is when the character always starts off poor then gains power and wealth then slowly things starts to get bad and the gangster dies. In City of God you do see this but in a different way. Lil Ze gains power and wealth but unlike other gangster movies he doesn't show the wealth because he still wears normal clothes and is still living in the City of God whereas other gangster would have moved out of their area and got a bigger and better house. Normally with the power the gangster would get a girl because girls were seen as property that came with wealth and power like Tony got Frank's girl when he killed Frank and became powerful. But in City of God didn't use this convention because that was the main problem for Lil Ze he couldn't get a girlfriend no matter how powerful and rich he was Tony Montana fall was more dramatic and large scale because he had a shot of in his mansion whereas Lil Ze fall was a bit more realistic because everything turn on him the guns that he gave to The Runts to kill Knockout Ned with turn again him because he killed one of their members.

Menace II Society

Menace to society is a gangster/hood movie set in 1993 in the South Central Los Angeles. It follows the life of a boy who is trying to escape the hood life but gets sucked in. This movie is known for it’s use of extreme violence and drug related content. The main colour in this poster is blue which is quite similar to New Jack city. The colour blue seems to be a convention in gangster movie and could also suggest that this poster is aimed at the male gender because the blue is seen to be more of a masculine colour. This poster also suggest that this film is aimed at young males because the poster shows about 5 young males but you can mainly see the faces of two boys at the side of the poster. The two boys at the side of the poster are the main focus because they are bigger than the rest of the people in the poster and the also facing towards the audience. This suggest that these are going to be the main characters of the film and the two main characters are young males which also suggest that this is going to be based around young males lives so the young males can relate more to the film whereas films like The Godfather, Goodfellas, Miller’s Crossing and Pulp Fictions are more targeted at a older audience.

The title ‘Menace II Society’ is in red, which is a gangster genre convention. The colour red is seen in a lot of gangster movies like Donnie Brasco (the actors names are in red) and Mean streets (title is in red). This colour automatically tells gangster fans that this is going to be gangster movie. The connotation of the colour red means blood so this tells gangster fans that the movie is going to contain extreme violence. The poster seems to be set in an urban, quite poor area, which is quite common for a gangster poster because most gangster movies are based around the characters poorest and how they try to get out of poverty. The actors of this film names are not large in the poster so this means that the actors in this film haven’t got a big fan base. This poster shows that this movie is going to be based around racial minority, which is also a typical convention in a gangster movie. This movie seems to target more at black Americans because it is showing the life and culture of black Americans and it’s also aimed at black Americans in the 1900s because of the type of dressing the characters are wearing in the poster.

Even the title ‘Menace II Society’ suggest that this is going to be a gangster movie because gangster movies are about people that are going against the law and causing trouble in the area. Menace II Society suggests that they are going to be doing this and the title itself can target gangster movie fans.

The setting of this movie is in different parts of South Central Los Angeles, which is known for high crime rates around 1900s. The beginning of the trailers shows the teacher advising one of the main characters Caine about the hood life and shows different clips of a gang about to shoot a little boy in a drive by, someone holding a gun, a funeral and Caine’s family hugging. This shows the different topics that are going to be shown in this film. The movie is filmed in natural lighting to make the film seem more realists. The clothes in this trailer are casual clothing that would have been worn in the 1900s. The actors were not really famous at this time which I think was done of purpose because it makes the characters seems more realist. The dialogue in the beginning was a diegetic sound because the character in the film can hear the teachers speaking and evens replies back to the teacher but then the clip changes and we can still hear the dialogue but can't hear the source of the sound which is non diegetic because the characters in the sequence at that time couldn't hear what the teacher is saying at that time.