Sunday 14 October 2007

Close Textual Analysis

The text is the opening sequence from the movie Coach Carter (2005) which is a film made by MTV. The clip begins with the title sequence and whilst the clip is playing urban music is played. This music immediately hints out the audience which the movie is aimed at as it is urbanized and also hints the genre of the movie once the institution is shown. The first character shown in the movie is the coach himself; whilst the coach is shown the cinematography is shown as there a fast cuts between the scene showing the coach and the basketball team playing a match. These fast cuts are aimed at a teenage audience as teenagers are believed to have a short attention span and therefore these fast cuts will keep them occupied as well as the music playing.

As the coach walks into the gym to watch the match there are a number of different camera shots shown. One of these is a low angle shot, low angle shots of the coach are shown as he watches the team losing the basketball match. This kind of a shot is used to show the coach as the superior figure to the audience compared to the rest of the team and therefore again hints him as the teams saviour. Furthermore, through the use of the basketball game, this scene shows the audience that the genre of the movie and the narrative is going to revolve around this sport.

Alot of urban clothing is shown during the basketball match such as hoodies, baseball caps, baggy clothing etc. This could be argued to be expected whilst playing a sport but extra accessories such as designer head bands and sweat bands implicate that the image of these teenagers are that they are represented as urbanized youths who could possibly be carrying out deviant activities which would therefore disappoint the community. Another factor of representation is when during the match one of the players has a little bit of conflict with the opposite team and the rest of the team run in from the sideline to start a fight. This scene clearly shows how the teenagers have grown up and how they are following the stereotypical representations which have been labeled upon them.

These representations could possible create a moral panic in society as the teenagers would then lead to crime and deviance and commit anti social behavior. This would then make the society believe in these stereotypes of the youths and this would add to the history of young black males as they are known historically for committing crimes etc.

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