Reflective Analysis Urban Story

Taking inspiration from new wave film, our take on an urban story was predominantly based around 'Le Haine' as well taking knowledge from both 'City of God' and 'Chung King Express'. We took key themes of these urban stories and attempted to portray them in our own short film through cinematography, narrative, framing etc. In our film, there is a clear lack of narrative. In most main stream films, this would be a downfall, yet in Urban Stories the lack of narrative projects the fact that these characters have little to do and spend most of their time doing nothing. They are lethargic and lack motivation due to their situation.  In La Haine the three main characters are shown to frequently walk around without any specific reason, reinforcing the fact that these characters have little to do and are bored. Recreating this in our own film, meant capturing shots of the one character in our film alone, walking aimlessly through various urban locations. The shots used were a mix of long shots, midshots, and close ups which are all used in Le Haine throughout. Extreme close ups for example, can emphasise the concept of being trapped, as well as long shots projecting the emotion of loneliness. The choice of music for our urban story worked considerably well in my opinion. 'Peace-1998' being a psychedelic pop-rock song, contrasted well to the nature of this film. Much like the opening sequence to Le Haine where video footage of riots is accompanied with Reggae music. The messages and themes commonly associated with psychedelic music is freedom and peace, which are binary oppositions almost to the themes that run throughout Le Haine as well as other urban stories such as there lack of freedom and the lack of peace or harmony.