Group 21: Individual task/Holiday Task - Write up of teen film you have watched in the holiday

Brief description of 'My Brother The Devil'
During the holiday I had a task of watching a teen film and blog about my chosen film. The film that I watched was 'My Brother the Devil'. The film 'My Brother the Devil' is a teen film about two teenage brothers who are closely linked to the streets of London. As they are growing up in Gangland. Gradually the older brother really finds out his sexual identity being a 'gay' man. This wasn't socially acceptable with his peers. This lead's for his own friends betraying him furthermore looking for him to kill him and his family. The Film mainly focuses significantly on teenage boys in gangs roughly from the ages 13+.

There are many different conventions portrayed in the film which generally make the the film a teen film.

Themes explored in 'My Brother The Devil'

Violence
Drugs
Homosexuality
Love
Teenagers
Gangs
Families

Representations of Characters

In the Teen-Film 'My Brother The Devil' their are many characters which have different representations which gives them their characteristics in the film.

Rashid looking in the mirror, holding a gun- conveys gang violence in this image

:
Rashid

Protagonist in the film
Aspiring boxer
Heavily involved with Gangs
African- Creates a sense of deprivation
Older brother & Leader of gang
Portrayed as negative stereotype as he is the leader of the gang
Defeats the 'Macho man' stereotype as he turns gay towards the end.

Younger brother
Vulnerable - Always exposed to trouble
Disrespected character
Materially Deprived- portrayed through his clothes (hoddies)
Portrayed as a troublesome youth
African Ethnic background
Falls Under significant amounts of peer pressure

Mo- Upset, Vulnerable, wearing hoody- may link to the stereotype 'Poor Deprived Africans

Repo

Antagonist
Main Gang Rival- Leader
Aggressive
No morals- may convey the stereotype given to black teenagers in this day and age

Mise en Scene
There are many different elements of Mise en scene which allows representation. One of the ways in which mise en scene in represented is through the clothing of the characters .

Two gang members walking suspiciously past police men

In this screen shot the two teenage boys are walking; wearing hoodys, body warmers and tracksuits. a stereotypical view which could be made about the clothing is that 'all teenagers wear hoddies and tracksuits'. Furthermore in this shot there are two police men walking in the opposite direction. The police men (aged around 30-40) are rather dressed smart as it is their uniform. There can be a comparison can be made showing the stereotypical difference of teenagers and adults.

Mo (younger brother) consistently being looked down upon

Camera Shots/Angles
Camera and shot angles are also a good way of representation. the shot is of 'Mo' talking to his brother. A high angle with a slight tilt is used in order to show the hierarchy between the two characters. as Rashid is on top of a hill and Mo is at the bottom of the hill, it can show the audience that Rashid has more authority and power than Mo. this could be due to the fact that Rashid is older. However Mo is

consistently looked down upon due to his actions in the film due to his wrong and half hearten actions.

Sound

In 'My Brother The Devil' there is a use of sound to portray elements of representation. The sound track In the film is from a local ex-gang member from south London named 'Cashtastic'. The sound track could tie in with representation due to the fact that the artist had a similar experiences in the past. Furthermore the characters in the film are represented as Gang members. This can also tie in with the protagonist Rashid due to the fact that he ends up leaving the Gang due to his realisation of Gangs. Therefore he became an ex-Gang member.

Editing

In My Brother The Devil they use fast pace editing in order to make the intense scenes more up tempo and 'of the edge of your seat action' even thogh this film is very naturalistic. These screenshots are from the death scene from my brother the devil. There is a use of a quick and fast pace editing in order to show create a stimulating feeling for the audience.