AS Media Urban Issues Source Of Inspiration

Urban Issues Source Of Inspiration

Brief

In my previous blog post I deconstructed a psychological horror which includes urban drama elements. In this film the antagonist and main character was a male young adult person. The young antagonist killing vulnerable females in an urban city inspired me to focus on problems associated with youth in urban areas. This further allowed me to research into urban dramas specifically, which usually use urban struggles to portray the main characters in a situation and is vulnerable. Urban dramas always seem to raise awareness of an issue in society revolving around urban areas. For instance, below are examples of some of the following issues seen in this genre of film.

In order to conform to psychological horror conventions, we can use some of these issues to help depict and convey a motive for an obsessed killer, which is a common convention in this sub genre of horror, as explored through previous blog posts. However, I felt that this was not executed well in my practical blog, so just to portray an issue that makes the audience comfortable without gore etc. would be successful and 'gritty'. This is similar to social realism films like "Trainspotting" and other dramas.

Genre

In the majority of films of the urban drama and also crime genres, there usually is a criminal involved in the drug industry or supplying banned substances. If not, the characters seem to be influenced by drugs and alcohol, especially in urban dramas. To depict a character being on drugs or drunk in a scene methods for distortion are used, this can include:

• Filters and effects like ghost trails are used in conjunction with the manipulation of lighting, saturation and hues. These depend on what drug was taken or the state of the character. Below are some examples from "Skins" and "Project X":

From top left to top right to bottom: A low angle mid shot, an over the shoulder shot and an extreme close up.

• Disobeying the 180-degree rule for more 'jumpier' cuts and making the audience aware of the camera flicking around and them being a voyeur, hence, making them uncomfortable.

• Shakier pans and tilts or handheld point of view and reaction shots to put the audience in the characters condition, as seen in some of the shots from "The Wolf of Wall Street":

• Sound can be manipulated to perceive the character as vulnerable etc. For instance, if diegetic sounds are distorted by non diegetic sounds like ringing etc. which parallel the character's state, the audience can further understand the situation. Non diegetic sounds can be parallel or contrapuntal to further represent the character's state, for example in the below "Breaking Bad" clip:

• Well planned mise-en-scene, as with the use of props, costumes and make up we can see the character's state. In the following clip of "Forrest Gump", the character is skinny and pale with prominent eye bags, we associate that this is because of the drugs she depends on as we clearly see props of needles, pills, cocaine lines etc. to depict this:

These can also help show the vulnerability of the character in such an intoxicated state. Especially casting an already vulnerable young minor as the character intoxicated, then it makes us worry for the character.

In the film industry, we can either see these characters as vulnerable but we can also seem them as disrespectful and aggressive similar to how we stereotype the modern working class, drug addicts and alcoholics. However, in the media industry, clips etc. are purposely manipulated so a common representation of a character is conformed to/subverted. This forces us to decide what we feel for the characters. This is done by the how the techniques bullet pointed above are utilized.

For example, if the intoxicated character is a troubled drug addict, the directors could portray them as vulnerable and struggling with addiction by using colder hues, shakier pans, high angles, more muted sounds to present that they use drugs/alcohol as an escape from the world and perhaps shots of them desperately collecting money on the streets. While, if they want to represent the addict as disrespectful and aggressive they would involve them with violence and could use red hues and the sound of smashing glass etc.

For our film opening, if we chose to include the plot of an attack by a psychopathic killer, we could portray the targeted victim as someone 'who deserves the impending attack' by showing them dealing drugs and making them seem 'shady' and criminal through dark exposure, disrespectful diegetic dialogue, stereotypical gang costumes and them actually supplying drugs. Or we could make them seem vulnerable and innocent perhaps of high angles, them being peer pressured into drugs, cleaner more formal clothes.

In order to have a complex motive for the killer we should probably portray the victim as what real people see as 'scums' as if the killer has a real hate for the representation of the modern working class and gangs. As an audience we would feel some sort of pity or grief for the victim, despite, many usually looking down on the misrepresented modern working class and gang members. Doing this would be like criticizing society and the media's prejudice.

If we were to chose this plot, we would have to include violence. We could also include violence to make the victim seem like a deserving, stereotypical modern working class target that is violent.

Although the below music video for "College Boy" by the French band "Indochine" is not an urban drama, its meaning, symbolism and graphic crucifixion of the bullied victim has inspired me to explore targeted assault. This is linked below:

This video was directed by Xavier Dolan, who in films like "Tom at the Farm", "J'ai Tue Ma Mere" and "Laurence Anyways" stirred up some form controversy. The director is known to be blunt about issues. However, in some movies he uses techniques like aspect ratio etc. to covey issues more subtly. This music video is censored in France, however, holds a lot of meaning and emotions towards bullying. In response to the censorship, Dolan replied with:

"It seems absurd to me that the clip is censored,” said Dolan. “Is it really more violent than all the movies that arrive on our screens every day? The question shouldn’t be – did I go too far? It should be – what’s stopping a group of teenagers from going this far, given how powerful the gun lobby is in the U.S."

This made me query the abuse of young targets specifically in gangs. As mentioned above, in most films violence is shown very swiftly yet powerfully with guns and knives. If we were to create a fight scene we could draw out the brutality of the situation by making the audience watch a longer fight scene, where by the victim is beaten or strangled etc. Done right, this would not only heighten the fear of the audience but also, to link to psychological horrors, show the killer's need for pain.

In this video the group of bullies crucify their victim. This is similar to an opposing rival gang and their conflict in urban dramas. The use of an old method of death relating to Jesus contrasts the relatively modern setting. Thus, this contrast is so intense and effective that the torture becomes memorable. For our film opening, if we chose psychological horror I would like the killer to have a memorable and effective signature way of killing, this would conform to the conventions of psychological horrors explored previously.

The symbolism of the witnesses of this crucifixion wearing blindfolds and filming the abuse can represent the fact that people refuse to speak up about the issues and instead blindly watch it develop. This idea of unusual but thought provoking props to symbolise a powerful message is something we can plan around for our film opening. Due to previous posts, perhaps this could include the removal of eyes suggesting 'see no evil'. Furthermore, this would add to the killer's motive and make them a more complex character, which as mentioned earlier is a common convention in psychological horrors.

On the other hand, as the props I created were poor quality, perhaps we should scrap the idea of a psychopathic killer to get attention on the unfair stereotypes of modern working class and instead just focus on the power of sympathy. We could focus on an abused young gang member or a homeless teenager etc. Urban dramas are usually character driven so this would make the film opening easily identifiable rather than having the confusion of a combined horror and urban drama.

Furthermore, I found research to show what life is really like for youth in gangs. The above examples of violence and drugs etc. in gang culture can lead to struggles with mental illnesses, as highlighted in Sarah O'Connell and Sarah Bell's 2016 BBC article. They commented that there isn't enough education and research specific to the mental stability of members of gangs etc. Perhaps, this is because of the stigma towards them, that many see their aggression as threatening rather than understanding that it could be due to their mental state. Within the article there was the following comment:

"There is very little research on the mental-health impact of gang violence, but a 2013 study of 108 gang members found half had an anxiety disorder, more than 85% a personality disorder and 25% screened positive for psychosis."

This evidence came from Professor Jeremy Coid, "lead study author" who stated "exposure to violence was the likely cause of their mental-health problems."

This is a very real issue that I would like to address due to people's dogmatic prejudice to the idea that gang members are aggressive 'CHAVs'. So, as we at first wanted to include psychological horror elements, if we were to portray the killer as completely 'insane' and brutal this would only encourage the aggressive stereotypes. Therefore, I believe the idea of focusing on a young victim is more suitable.

If my group still wish to do a psychological horror, we could do this by actually making the killer a vulnerable protagonist instead. The character could perhaps be even unaware of, say, a violent alter ego created by their fears and paranoia from being caught up in gangs etc. This has somewhat been utilized in iconic films like "Fight Club", " Donnie Darko" and "Shutter Island" and TV dramas like "Mr. Robot", which are very successful in intriguing the watcher and playing with their thoughts, like a psychological horror should do.

Some of these even break the 'fourth wall' to further this interest and ambiguity with the audience by presenting ideas and the characters' thoughts. Doing this also presents the protagonist's psychosis and displays their vulnerability as they rely on gathering their thoughts and analysing situations with us. This can develop a bias towards certain characters as we are forced to listen to the protagonist. I hope to use this for our film opening if we still wish to do a psychological horror. This idea would conform to conventions of psychological horrors due to the strange mind set of the killer.

Further studies show that the following mental illnesses and disorders are common for young people involved in gangs. This is evident in the August 2013 report "Understanding the Mental Health Needs of Young People involved in Gangs" mainly written by Doctor Vaishnavee Madden. This explained the issue and the report's purpose in the following summary:

"Street gangs and associated serious violence have been a growing concern in the UK over the past decade. They are concentrated in poor, urban areas with high crime rates and multiple social problems. The mental health needs of young people involved in gangs have until recently been overlooked. This report is an attempt to address this situation, and to provide recommendations for local commissioners."

The following statistics were published in this report:

"In a sample of 100 young gang members, it could be expected that:

86 will have conduct problems (<18 years) or antisocial personality disorder (18+ years)

67 will have alcohol dependence

59 will have anxiety disorders (including post traumatic stress disorder)

57 will have drug dependence (mainly cannabis)

34 will have attempted suicide

25 will have psychosis

20 will have depression"

As 86% are to have some form of conduct problem or personality disorder, I would like to mainly focus on this, and other symptoms like insomnia, depression and psychosis, as a result its consequences whether that be through violence, drugs, alcohol or homelessness.

Perhaps, we could focus on the aftermath of something, where the protagonist is in a bad place. We could use homelessness to convey this.