Social Action Media Production: Documentary analysis RIZE

1.     What is the social issue being focused on in this documentary?

The documentary follows the beginning and the evolution of krump dancing which started off in the Ghetto suburbs of Los Angeles as Clowning and how it has benefitted the community from whence it came.

2.     Summarise what happens in the beginning/middle/end of this documentary

Beginning

The film opens with the text: “The footage has not been sped up in any way.” The dance moves are aggressive and involves rapid body movements.

The director inserts actual footage from the Watts Riots, which took place in the 60’s in the Watts in Los Angeles. The rebels were oppressing the brutal acts used by the black police officers onto a black motorist by the name of Marquette Frye.  

The main character Tom Johnson who is better known by his dancing persona Tommy The Clown, grew up in Watts following the Watts Riots he was a big time drug dealer and after going to jail he decided he is going to turn his life around and that’s when he started Clowning. Clowning is a fast pace, high-energy dance style and it ended up uplifting Tom’s community from the travesties that they had faced. He became a Ghetto Celebrity soon having kids following him and clowning besides him on the streets.

     Middle

Clowning became something so uplifting and inspiring in the community. The film then follows the lives of some of the most famous krump dancers in the area such as Tight Eyes, Baby Tight Eyes, Miss Prissy, Lil C and others. They each tell there story of their life before Clowning and how clowning became an outlet, a platform on which they could express their pain and anguish. They all give thanks to Tommy for starting the clowning movement because most of them were Tommy’s dancers when they were younger. Tommy began another movement called the battle zone, where every krump dancer in the area is included, old, young, fat, thin, male or female anyone was allowed to take part. It became something so great it went national. And Tommy and his people performed for the prestige clowning title on a grand stage. Clowning verses Krumping the title is won by the team with the most individual wins, The clowns won seven to four, however their celebration was cut short as Tommy’s house was broken into and vandalised.

     End
The turn of events documented in the film, focused on the trials an tribulations that the people of this community face, which are getting harder and harder to over come. The director, focuses  on a police officer consoling Tommy who is broken up about his home. Telling him that these things only happen when someone is doing good. This ties into, other strong African American Leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. An interview is conducted with two dancers saying they saw a man get shot on a street corner just as they were turning a corner in a car.  They stress the fact that two them this is a normal thing in their area. Towards the vary end of the film a 15 year old girl by the names of Quinesha Dunford (other wise known as Lil' Dimples) gets shot and killed while walking to the grocery store as well as her friends. Although heartbroken, the family refuses to speak on their loss. There final minutes of the film brought the documentary to an end by tying all the dance styles together. As well as including dances from the spirit, to religion and spirituality. It is a known fact that the Church has always been a crucial part in the lives of African Americans.

         

3.     What type of documentary is this? Conventions used?

This is an exposure documentary. It documents the lives of people in the Ghetto suburbs of Los Angeles and how they use Dance as an out let to cope with their everyday struggles. Instead of joining gangs and committing crimes they dance to escape from the hardships they face.

4.     What techniques are used to maintain the audiences attention?

The clips of the dance battles sustain the audience’s attention by giving them something to ease the tension from a serious topic. Using eyewitnesses telling their own traumatic stories.

The use of music, also maintains the audiences attention.

5.     What is the purpose of this documentary? What change is it campaigning for?

This documentary is urging people to rise above their troubles, there is a lot of bad in the world, and these people see beauty in what they do, so the film encourages it’s audience to look past their struggles and strive for a better tomorrow.

6.     Who is the target audience? Age/gender/interests/location/language etc.

All age groups.
Male/Female.
African American History and Society, Urban street dance, Documentaries.
Initially; U.S.A, but suitable for any English Speaking Country
English

7.     How have they been targeted?

They have been targeted through cinema, producers (Lions Gate films), through dance.

8.     How is the audience encouraged to participate in creating change?
The audience is encouraged to follow their dreams and make a change in their community starting with changing themselves the way Tommy The Clown did. 

The Chase

The chase was a chance for us to practice various camera angels that we had learnt thus far. These included Long shots, Mid shots, Close ups, High shots, Low shots and various others. All these angels are necessary to amplify or add to the mood and meaning of the scene. For example; a high angle shot can make a character look inferior or vulnerable to the audience and a low angle shot can make them look superior and more sinister to the audience. We were also going to take advantage of the lighting to set the mood for specific scenes.
I paired up with Sabrina Yaacub and Isabella Francis for this task. The concept that we had in mind for the chase was a horror. The idea was a girl being stalked by a dreary suspicious looking stalker. This put in to concept the idea of someone being chased. We had no intention to use dialogue to set up the short film, we just wanted to use actions, props, lighting and locations to set the theme and tell the story. After agreeing upon a specific narrative for the film, I drew up a story board, consisting of various shots and camera angles in respective order of events in the film. The storyboard also consisted of various determining shots, fully explained on how they would be used, for clarity over poorly drawn images. Sabrina with assistance from Bella and myself drew up an action plan, this was a guideline showing us where and when specific scenes shall be shot because not all of the scenes were to be shot in college. The Climax and finale all take place off campus. 
We decided to film the ending shots first as they were being filmed after college. The main characters in the film were Bella and myself. Bella played the protagonist, and I the antagonist who murders her. We begin the scene with a high angle shot on the victim entering her house. This shows her innocence and her inferiority to her surroundings. The lighting that we used was quite dim to show that it was night time. We used a cut to go to the next scene. In the protagonists room, The lighting was very low, our intention was to suggest to the audience that something bad was going to happen. The camera would rapidly cut to a close up shot of the antagonist looking very sinister watching the protagonist. The following shot was a long shot so that the audience is able to see the antagonist emerging from the darkness stalking her victim. We used a luminous light from a cellular device to keep the room tone low and scary but in such away that the events could be seen. The final cut involved the killer emerging from the darkness from the room and staring into the camera smiling and the screen goes black. This is effective for an ending scene. 
The later scenes which we filmed all took place on campus. The opening shot was a long shot, we used this as the protagonist enters the room and takes her seat, This draws attention to her and she is seen as a main character. The next shot is a high angle shot of the protagonist watching the antagonist. Followed by a high angle shot of the slurs that she is scribbling in her book. The next scene takes place in the cafeteria, the camera focuses on the protagonist at the table with her friends callously minding their own and engaging in conversation. The shot features the the antagonist in the background. The protagonist is in the background, the camera focuses on her to show the audience is stalking that is taking place. The lighting is bright but the protagonist is dressed in dark clothing so that the audience is drawn to the contrast between the antagonist and the protagonist.
The contrast between the two main characters was very effective, in the sense that the audience knows who to relate to and who to oppose. The lighting sets the mood and creates suspense for the audience adding to the genre of the film. 

Confrontation Evaluation

The concept for this task was to get into groups and create a short drama skit of a conversation that involves back and forth confrontation. There is no drama with out confrontation, if characters in a drama do not disagree then it is not really a drama. I teamed up with Isabella Francis and Sabrina Yaacub for this particular task. 
Our initial narrative idea was three sisters who have a relative who has just passed and they are entitled to his inheritance but they are disagreeing on how to split it. Each of them want a larger portion of the inheritance.
To begin the project I drew up a rough story board, consisting of different shots and angels in respective order for the skit. Then we drew up a script, but as we never usually follow the script we drew up a guide line of cues to determine who comes in after whom. Each of the sisters differed in a way we used props and various acting techniques to separate the characters. To begin the scene opens with the girls saying a prayer with an envelope placed in the centre of the table. Two of the girls hands are joined in prayer while one of the other sisters hands are folded, she also happens to be wearing Muslim attire showing the audiences that she is different from the other two girls in terms of religion. On of the sisters is wearing a diamond ring on her left hand, suggesting that she is/may be engaged to be married. In this opening scene the camera starts at the centre of the table and zooms out to show all of the girls. This motion is called a zoom out shot. The envelope in the centre of the table is later on pointed out as their fathers will, suggesting that they are sisters and there father has passed on. When it comes to dividing the inheritance, using dialogue we are able to which of the sisters is older and younger. The youngest sister is proven to be the spoilt one as she is hardly paying attention to the conversation, she is socialising on her gadgets and her posture is to relaxed for someone that has just lost their father. 
The scene was shot in a cafe. It included various close up shots in order to determine emotion and reactions to statements and dialogue. This is because the conversation was going back and forth between characters. 
This exercise helped me better understand the concept of various camera angles and mis en scene to determine the mood and meaning of the clip. 

Incase the file is unable to upload it can be found in the Arts_Media drive

KONY 2012

Social Action Media Production KONY 2012

This documentary focuses on Jason Russell's reaction to the Kony Civil wars going on in East Africa more specifically Northern Uganda. Kony has allegedly been a threat to the National Security of Uganda for over 20 years. His crimes include but are not limited to, Kidnapping, Rape, Murder, Theft and Torture. his injustice has cost the lives and misfortune of many people across the nation.

In the beginning of the documentary, Jason introduces him self and his family to the audience, most especially his son Gavin Russell. I personally feel that he was making this documentary for his son so that when he got older he could understand what the world is actually liked. Jacob is a young Ugandan boy whose life has been horribly afflicted by the Lords Resistance Army(LRA) that Kony is the leader of. His own flesh and blood have been killed at the hands of the LRA soldiers and both him and his brother and friends had been kidnapped by Konys rebels. All this knowledge was made evident because Russell visited the camps in Northern Uganda and spoke to Jacob. This motivated him to start a movement to encourage the american government to administer aid to Uganda to help them capture and put Kony away for good. 

Unfortunately for Russell the American Government refused to help the country because Kony was not a threat to the United States government so he decided to take matters into his own hand. Using Social Networks Russell managed to reach out to the world as a whole to create awareness of the crimes committed against the people of Uganda. 

Finally he made a call to action for the people of the world to make Kony famous urging the public to spread his name and share his documentary as a means to help and support the Uganadan people. 

This documentary is a Social-Action documentary, this is because it involves the public communing with one another in order to take action to fight something thats affecting other people. It involves bringing people together to fight for justice any way they know how. His movement became a world wide phenomena.
This documentary is a Social-Action documentary and beneath that it is also an expository documentary. The evidence of this is found with in the documentary. The director involves the general public in the concept of the documentary. Russell puts together an organisation called The Invisible Children, to help raise fund and support the Ugandan Army in their pursuit to find Joseph Kony. The documentary also involved Archive footage, actual footage, interviews, images and facts.
The techniques used in the documentary to maintain the audiences attention include the following; the use of the clips of Russell's son Gavin as a reference point to add to the emotion of the film. The audience can sympathise with Gavin because he is a child and he is innocent. It also helps segment the audience, to appeal to the parents who want to protect there children from bad people. The use of eye witnesses like Jacob and various Ugandan politicians also intrigues the audience in such away that they are sure that what is happening is true and there is proof. 
The purpose of this documentary was to raise awareness to the audience about the Kony 2012 Campaign and to make him famous so that the whole world can know about him. They intended to get powerful figures both inside and outside of the government involved in the campaign so that people could copy them and support the movement. 
The initial target audience of this film is global, this is because the film was posted on facebook, anyone aged from 11+ is able to view this documentary with out any restrictions as long as they have an internet connection. In terms of personal interests the viewers have to be keen on social networking and social media since that is the means by which they have been targeted. The audience encourages people

Task 1: Initial Research

SHADISM
Over the years, Racism have been a problem in areas of South London, if you ask parents today 9/10 have been offended by people because of the colour of their skin. As the years have progressed so has the ignorance of the black youth today, most of there life they have taken slurs from one another but now they are taking that anguish and throwing it on one another, The light skinned verses dark skinned wars among the black people around the world have spiralled out of control. Instead of looking out for there fellow brethren they are criticising them for something that they cannot control. the shade of a black persons skin means nothing to someone who is not black but they are tearing each other down with insults, saying that people who are dark are less attractive and people who are light are vain. Obviously the black community needs to focus on lifting each other up and not tearing each other down, so that other people will see the unity and not try encourage the unnecessary banter.
What social actions would your documentary encourage:

My documentary will encourage people to stop discriminating one another because of the shade and colour of there skin and start uplifting one another instead of bringing them down. At the end of the day we are all one people.

Young Mothers
In society to day young women are having children left right and centre and it is a beautiful thing, bringing new life into the world is a Gift. But the age rate which females are having children is dropping. People have different opinions on whether it is good to have children at a young age or not but personally I think that people need stability in the life before they bring new life into this world. This will document the opinions of people who have something to say about teen mothers and how they are coping with it.
What social actions would your documentary encourage:
This Documentary will encourage people to be safe, if they are not ready to bring children into the world it would encourage safe sex and other contraceptive options. It will also encourage young women who have children and are struggling seek help from different organisations.  

Mayday Hospital
It has been said by a number of people that mayday hospital has become inefficient with health services to the public. The people of Croydon have separated opinion of how Croydon University Hospital treats people this will document the different opinions of the public.