Bullet Boy

Narrative Structure

• In Bullet boy, there was a lot of spectator invovlement, the same as Sweet Sixteen, where the spectator was like part of the family, or part of the gang culture with Ricky and Wisdom.


• I noticed that there was quite a few establishing shots, to show wide open spaces, in contradiction to the city where the feeling of claustraphobia is presented through the characters by using dialouge such as "I need to go, get a fresh start".


• When the film was shot in the night it could have been a reflection on what Ricky and Wisdom were doing, for example they were going to shoot someone, and so the night scene were reflecting the bad deeds they were getting up to


• When filmed in the day, it showed Ricky doing good things, such as getting his life bakc together, and helping his mum with the housework, helping out his friends, getting a job etc.


• Curtis had the same sort of friend as Ricky, sort of sa viscious circle aspect to it, where Rio and Wisdom has a slight bad influence on Ricky and Curtis, and Wisdom and Rio use the same dialouge which makes a connection between the two "You owe me big time".

Ideology

• Black Prisoners, Black criminals- streotypical of gang culture, and their clothes (gangsta clothing), single out the criminals from the people who don't involve themselves in crime


• White characters are mainly authority figures, such as white prison guards, probationary officer, teachers. on the rare occassion white characters mix in with the black characters as black people's friends.


• Working class citzens, living in run down flats and houses _ simialr to sweet sixteen


• Men are the ones mostly involved in the crime


• Women presented as sex objects, mothers, girlfriends and friends


• Men usually turn to the women for care and support and comfort

Genre features

• Mainly diagetic sounds such as Rastifarian music, R'N'B, car sounds, gun shots and silence


• Some Non-diagetic music, but quite rare - in reference to sweet sixteen


• Few balck screen tranasitions to shwo time passing


• Parellel action, such as the welcome home party for ricky whislt ricky is at a club


• Medium close up of the dog Wisdom killed to show their "dirty work"


• Close up of Curtis' eyes, to show realisation, about the dangers of gun crime

Characterisation

• Black people mainly the bad guys and the anti-heroes


• White people mainly in superioty roles e.g. prison guards and teacher always talking down to Ricky and Curtis


• The Preacher (ricky's mother's partner), show that when things got bad the mother turned to religion such as wehn Ricky died


• Ricky- just came out of prison, fed up of being labelled, trying to sort out his life, Wisdom- trying to act hard all the time, getting weaponry, shooting people -- completely opposite characters

Locations and Settings

• Prison- becomes big part in the film, as the crime realates to law and the law gets invovled with crime and vice versa


• The flat, Ricky's girlfriends house- a safe haven to get away from the crime, sense of security -- until interprted by the police when they search the flat.


• The back ned streets of London- in refernce to Sweet Sixteen- similar settings


• The wide open spaces, the forests and the parks, where Rio and Curtis went to escape the City, as forests and parks are a place of innocence and safety to children, where the City is a dangerous crime -ridden place to be.


• The Countryside - reflects the beautiful relationship between the two brothers Curtis and Ricky. However this particular scenery is contradictory to the film as it is mostly about gun crime and danger- Similar to Sweet Sixteen.