Statement of Intent final draft

Truth Be Told

For my film production trailer, I plan on using a low-budget means of filming and distribution to promote my 90 second coming of age drama that I have called 'Truth be Told' which is meant to be able to be broadcast before the 9am watershed. This means I will have to ensure no sexual content, violence, graphic or distressing imagery and swearing are shown within the trailer. The reason behind the title is to shed light on the fact that not all stereotypes are negative (Perkins). This idea helped me form the slogan 'A day in the life of a young black male in West London trying to break away from the negative stereotypes'.  With the coming of age dramas I was inspired by I noticed they use cuts, speech from characters (diegetic) and fast/slow paced non-diegetic soundtracks to heighten or lower then intensity for the audience. I aim to ensure that the driving force behind my trailer is centred on the actors’ voices - due to the production being aimed at young black youth coming from a troubled background. i believe this would be an effective way to gain person relationships with the characters stated by Blumur & Katz as one of the factors that captures the audience’s attention. 

In order to engage my youth target market, I will be using elements of personal identity and diversion from Blumur & Katz: uses and gratification theory. I think it would appeal to more of a C2DE audience between 12-25 as I aim to explore topics that occur everyday life but seem to go unnoticed. However, the production could also appeal to an AD audience that are within the reformers category who may be interested in gaining further knowledge on how the youth of today think and act. Usually the best coming of age dramas use S. Neals 'Repetition & Difference' to show the same conventions but just in a different way. They usually do this by converging comedy with drama but I aim to use Commons approach in 'Letter to the Free' by sticking to the seriousness of the topic at hand.

As my media production revolves around the lives of young black men, I aimed to find inspiration from films that either/or subvert or reinforce typical stereotypes. Throughout the trailer I aim to use a multi-strand narrative in montage form to show how different aspects are linked together. The films that I found helped me to create a foundation for my trailer are: Baby Boy, Boyz In The Hood, Moon Light, Coach Carter and a British film production called kidulthood which was the first of its trilogy - also another West London production with similar genre conventions. Recreating a drama that both reinforces and subverts traditional black stereotypes that relate to ethnic backgrounds is my main focus, but I also aim play with stereotypes that are associated with today's youth. Within the media black youth are labelled as criminals, lairs and a nuisance to society but never seems to promote those who aim to break away from the cliché stigma given to young black youth. The 3 locations I plan to use within my production are: One, being a place where the youth can interact in a safe environment e.g. Football pitch. Two, being an area where the youth are being a nuisance to society which could be shown through the use of colloquial language and third one being the middle ground for good and bad (binary opposition - Levi Straus) not by choice, but by circumstance e.g. Council estate. In order to make full use of these locations, I intend to use Props character theory to assign roles to individuals within my production and Todorov's theory of equilibrium to create narrative for the audience. The roles that will be allocated are: the coach (helper), the opposing gang members who try to start on the protagonist (villains) and I aim to make the protagonists (the princess) as he's the one trying to not get caught up in the situations revolving his area - which is why he's the one that needs saving. At the beginning, the equilibrium of the story would be that the protagonists is joking about and having fun with his friends so the audience can identify with him and hopefully attracted to his persona. Then the disequilibrium would be that the villains try to scare the protagonists. As the trailer is only meant to be a short condensed glimpse of the film, I plan on leaving the trailer on a cliff-hanger to generate enigma codes that can help entice the audience so they want to watch the whole film and see what the full narrative behind the plot - a typical conversation within movie trailers.

In terms of distribution and funding, I believe the best chance if gaining a budget would be through the BFI's film programme to encourage young film makers in London. In terms of distribution, it could be broadcast by companies such as Studio Canal and Film4 as it would have more modern art-house feel that emphasis on narrative and cinematography. Also, I believe the best way to successfully advertise my coming of age drama would be through the use of digital media platforms like YouTube. YouTube would enable me to target a wider target audience so the film production gains more coverage on social media. YouTube is also a free easily accessible platform where producers can promote their productions and gain feedback and likes from views which could help to develop further production within my particular type of genre. Those who are intrigued by the trailer could potentially subscribe to my channel and promote my production through word of mouth or sharing the video. Using other platforms like Twitter and Instagram could also be a good way to promote the production as people are able to save and send things that that they like to friends and family which could boost the amount of media coverage my production has on these media platforms, they could put hashtags under posts which could go viral causing viewers to want to know more about the production.

Word count: 1,021 - paragraph words