Tuesday 22 January 2008

My first paragraph:

"Charlene: So what is it that you do? Marcus: I'm a gangsta."

'are young black males excessively stereotyped as gangsters, with reference to "Get Rich or Die Tryin" 20th January 2006'

In recent movies there are many black males being represented as gangsters, this is due to the changes of society, and that black males are always associated with gangsters, this convention was shown in many movies before and it was also shown in '50 Cent get rich or die tryin' mainly when 50 Cent(Marcus) himself is shown as being a gangster and there are many other black boys in the movie which are represented as gangsters such as Ashely Walters, this is another reason which shows that black males are most of the time stereotyped as gangsters. This is not only shown in 'Get rich or die tryin' but it is also shown in 'Bullet Boy' where Ricky(Ashley Walters)and the other black males in the movie being represented as gangsters, this again shows a lot of the times black males are represented as gangsters, this argument can be supported by the way Ashley Walters has been represented as a gangster in both movies. As one of the genres of this movie is biopic,"according to Hollywood, the gangster film could combine realism and popular culture because it has been very popular throughout the years and more films have been made following this type of genre" it is showing the real life of 50 Cent and therefore might show the real life of some black males as being gangsters, and it is at the same time trying to warn them and tell them if they get into crimes and situations as Ricky or 50Cent had, they might get shot or die at the end, and that is considered as one of the gangster conventions. as gangster genres are about "law , order, crime, but unlike other crime, but unlike othere crime and police genre, it focuses upon the figure of the gangster", this movie focuses on the gangster and uses the conventions of the gangster genre, but mainly focuses on the life of 50 Cent as being a gangster and that will appeal the audiences more, becasue he is a famous rapper and they will mainly want to see the movie becasue that is his real life,and taht will be realted to the auteur's theory because they will be more interested to see the movie because of him being the protagonist.
This gangsterism can be led by poverty because most of those males are looking for money, and this therefore makes them getting involved into crimes, robbery etc, which are causing them to be represented as gangsters, this can be related to the idea that most rappers are from a black background such as 50Cent, 2Pac, Lloyds Banks, these rappers might have been in the same situations as 50Cent, and the need of money might have led them to become rappers, and some of these rappers such as 2Pac being killed and 50Cent being shot nine times, this therefore shows that even though they are rich now, they still got enemies and still being tortured by other people.
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Sunday 13 January 2008

Feedback from the tutorial

On my turorial with Mr Bush, we have looked at my plan and discussed what needed to be added and what needed to be improved, and that i need to inclued footnotes and quotes in my introduction.
firstly we started by the title of my study and that the wording needed to be changed, and that i needed a quote to include from then movie, in order to start my essay, which i have added.
in orde to get some sort of idea,Mr bush gave me a suggestion to look at other people's blogs from the past years which had some issues which are similair to my issue, such as black stereotyping and black representations.
The other thing that i needed to add is to research on other movies which use the same issues as my topic and use the same types of representations, which is black representations as my movie uses.
i also needed to include in my plan, paragraphs which focus on representations and stereotypes of black people and use of theorists and things such as whether 50 Cent is real or weather his personality is being constructed in the movie.
stereotypes of black people:
what is a stereotype?
how are they used?
how do they come about?
and how stereotypes used in a gangster movie.
Then i will need to include a paragraph on black male stereotypes, and after looking at other movies which are quiet related to my text, and see if black males are always represented violent, and also do more research on the theorist Stuart Hall which investigated more on the black male being violent.
i will also relate my study, which black people face which is Racism and how this issue has been a big problem for black people and might have caused these males to become gangsters, and issues that have been a problem for black people from the past such as Colonialism/Slavery etc... and what are the reasons for those stereotypes.

TIPS to improve my study:
include quotes and footnotes in my introduction.
research more other texts which use nearly the same issues as my topic.
improve my plan in order to start writing my study.
do more research on books.
...and finally start writting my study as soon as possible and draft it many times, in order to have a good final piece of work.
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Monday 7 January 2008

TASK 13: DETAILED ESSAY PLAN

"Are most black youngsters always represented as gangsters as in 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' 20th january 2006(USA)"

Introduction:

i am going to focus on and explain further whether black youngsters are always represented as gangsters (relate to another text, particular reference to Bullet Boy) in order to support my hypothesis, and also see if they are always associated with crimes and drugs, i will also explain how these issues are related to the society, and also mention some reasons that is making those black youngsters become gangsters.
i will also be explaining in each paragraph the media language points and how the genres are used.

Paragraph1:

50 Cent "get rich or die tryin'" is a gangster/action/crime movie, so i will explain the gangster genre and how it is is used in the movie and how it developed/ changed throughout the years (refer to other historical texts), i will be using the book called An introduction to studying popular culture- Dominic Strinati, because it has a lot of information about the gangster genre and other historical texts. (talk about some shots that uses this convention)

paragraph 2: gangsters
using the SHEP concept, and mainly focusing on the social and economic concepts, and explain what are the problems, in this movie the main problems that are causing all of this gangster thing to happen is the money, poverty, racism etc... in order to support my view i will use the research that i found on gangsters in general and i will explain what are the reasons that is making these people to turn into gangsters, and i will also use the other research that i found which is about the establishment of gangster organizations and also try to see why is it that mainly black males which turn into gangsters.
in this paragraph i will be looking at 50Cent and how and why he started rap music, he started rap music at a young age, firstly by just practicing by himself for many years before releasing his first album many years later, the reason that might have caused him to start rap music is poverty or racism because of him being black and in order to have his voice being heard in the society, but mainly to escape poverty.
this reason may be the case of the other rappers such as 2pac , Lloyds bank as well which have faced poverty and racism, and also the other point that i will consider is the association of black people and gangsters with rap music, and i will also consider that most of this rappers have been punished in a way, for eg: facing prison as most of the rap black singers did and also being shot such as 50Cent being shot 9times and 2pac being murdered, so i might relate this issue to jealousy and enemy, because 50 cent was shot by one of his friends because earlier in the movie 50cent screamed at him and it can be also as being jealous, because after the robbing of the bank 50 Cent got all the money. in her i will use the binary opposition and the propp theories.
this link that i found which is about black rappers and gangsterism:
paragraph 4: black males in movies
in here, i will explain whether most black males are represented as gangsters and also show movies from people from other background being represented as gangsters, i will also see the type of issues that black males are associated with in movies.
in order to support my hypothesis i will use other texts such as bullet boy and the god father.
paragraph 5: the movie and the audience
as one of the genres that this movies includes is the biopic genre, it will have a different effect on the audiences, because 50Cent in this movie is showing his real life and what had happened to him in the past, and how he was able to become a rap singer and what difficulties he had in his life.
the audience and mainly his fans, will be so interested to see ow his life was and what made him become a famous rap singer.
in order to support how the audiences have reacted about the movie, i will be using some reviews that i found which is on my blog and i will also be using the other research that i found about the movie.
paragraph 6: ideology and the gangster film
for this i will be using the book an "introduction to studying popular culture" where i found some really useful information, Warshow (1964:84): the gangster is a product of the city and the gangster film is a the product of the imaginary city created by cinema "the real city produces only criminals but the imaginary city produces gangsters" which means that the gangster speaks out for the American people and rejects the qualities and the demand of modern life.
"the gangster is what we want to be and what we are afraid we may become." and this is expressed through the character of the gangster. i will use those quotes in the movie in order to explain the gangster personality in movies.
i will also talk about the different types of categories of the gangster genre and relate it to my movie.
Conclusion:
i will write what i came up through all my research and my essay and if black males are always represented as gangsters in movie and mention the other texts.
other texts:
bullet boy-2005
the god father-1987
Scarface-1932
shaft
Books that i am hoping to use:
Strinati, Dominic (2000) : An introduction to studying Popular culture
BLANDFORD, GRANT, HILLIER (Eds) Film Studies Dictionary
COOK AND BERNINK: Cinema Book
Sarita Malik (2002): representing black Britain, black and Asian images on Television
Pines Jim (1975): Blacks in film: a survey of racial themes and images in American film
representing men, madness and masculinity in the media
Robert Ferguson (1998): representing race




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Sunday 6 January 2008

TASK 14: first paragraph

"Are most black youngsters always represented as gangsters as in 50 Cent 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' 20th january 2006(USA)"

Recently in movies, there is a lot of use of black youngsters acting as gangsters, this use may be due to the changes in the society that are happening and how always gangsters are associated with black males, this was seen in many movies before and also was seen in 50Cent "get rich or die tryin'" which really showed this and might prove that this idea is true, as it is a biopic genre of movie, it is based on the real life of 50 Cent and other black youngsters that turn out to become gangsters due to poverty, racism and other issues that black males are facing in society.
This movie shows clearly what are those black males in need of which is money and that what makes them become gangsters and starts getting involved in crimes, drugs etc...
This convention and the use of black gangsters is supported also in "Bullet Boy" which shows that those black males are somehow in need of money and get involved into crimes and many other things that makes those black males become gangsters, which can be related to the society because nowadays there is a lot of racism against black people, and that might be the reason that makes them revolt and become the "bosses" of society, so they could have more power and get more attention when committing those crimes and using drugs and getting the money. so in this case for 50Cent to get the attention and become popular he became the boss and became also a rap singer, but then got shot, this now brings up the issue that most rap singers are from a black background such as 50 Cent, 2pac, Lloyds Banks etc... This therefore shows that those black males in order to get out from poverty and their problems they get into rap music , but still being chased as an issues of jealousy or racism, such as 50 cent being shot 9times and 2pac being killed.
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Thursday 3 January 2008

TASK13: DETAILED ESSAY PLAN

"Are most black youngsters always represented as gangsters as in 'Get Rich Or Die Tryin' 20th january 2006(USA)"

For my independent study i am going to focus on and explain further wether black youngsters are always represented as gangsters and if they are always associated with crimes and drugs; in order to support my hypothesis i will use other texts which are silmilair to my text or have nearlly the same issues; which will be contemporary and historical texts.

i will also use book research that i have gathered and the internet research that i have posted on the blog and other research that i found.

My text is 50Cent "get rich or die tryin'"; is a gangster/action genre; so i will investigate further on the genre and also explain its conventions and show how my text is related to that genre and also use other gangster genre texts which are historical and see how the genre has changed throughout the years.

GENRES USED IN THE MOVIE:
  • action
  • crime
  • gangster
  • biopic
  • music

Texts that i will focus on:



  • Bullet Boy (2005)

  • the God Father (1987)

  • Scarface (1932)


those texts that i have chosen to look at have similair types of issueswhih my text also inclues and some also use black youngster.



representation:



i am mainly looking at how black youngsters are represented and if they are always represented as gangsters; so i have chosen Bullet Boy as one of the most important contemporary text that i will concentrate on; as it includes many actors that starred in 50cent and also young black boys which are seen as gangsters; which is very similair to my text; in addition to similair texts.



Theories that i will use:




  • Propp_the hero and the villain: which is commonly used in the movie because when 50Cent is being tortued by other people; because he was the boss and those people are mainly his old friends and they turn against him because he gained the money and they wanted to kill him;which is shown in the movie when he was shot 9times and he wasn't killed; so that particular secene shows him as being the hero and his friends as being the villain.


propp theory is used mainly throughout the movie; because 50Cent had enemies throughot most of his life; when he was younger and his mother was killed he tried to do everything to find out who the murderer of his mother was and also when he grew up; he had his own enemies and people tried to kill him.




  • Binary opposition which nearlly uses most of the conventions which i have mentionned in the hero and the villain theory.

  • Todrov-non linear narrative: the movie starts with 50cent whne he was older and then goes back to his early years of life.


ISSUES AND TOPICS USED IN THE MOVIE:




  • drugs; crimes; violence; etc...


these issues are usedin most of gangster texts and they areone of the main issues and conventions in a gangster movie.

Books that i will use:

  • Strinati, Dominic (2000) : An introduction to studying Popular culture
  • BLANDFORD, GRANT, HILLIER (Eds) Film Studies Dictionary
  • COOK AND BERNINK: Cinema Book
  • Sarita Malik (2002): representing black britain, black and Asian images on Telivision
  • Pines Jim (1975): Blacks in film: a survey of racial themes and images in american film
  • representing men, madness and mascunality in the media
  • Robert Ferguson (1998): representing race

Websites:







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