The document discusses the filmmaker's original plan for an all-black cast and how changes had to be made due to cast issues. It also discusses the use of both male and female characters from different ethnic backgrounds. The filmmaker aimed to subvert stereotypical representations in British urban films by using a predominantly black cast and portraying females in typically male roles involving guns, gangs, and drug dealing. Music and props were chosen carefully to fit the film's genre. The combination of the main film trailer and ancillary texts of a poster and magazine cover were effective in reinforcing each other through consistent incorporation of characters, title, and themes.

2. Ethnic groups
and Gender
My original plan was to have an all black ethnic
group cast, however, due to all the let downs from
my original cast, a lot of changes had to be made
including my cast, their genders and also the ethnic
group. My decision to have an all black ethnic cast
was due to the fact that black people are very rarely
portrayed in the media let alone represented in a
good light. I wanted to subvert from the typical
negative representation of black people. I have used
characters of both sexes and different ethnic
backgrounds as it was easier to get them to commit
in order for me to have finished everything on time.
In a way, I think I have still subverted from the
typical British urban film as most have one superior
ethnic group e.g. Four Lions was predominantly
Asian cast, Kidulthood was predominantly black
cast…

3. Iconography
In most British urban films, weapons, including
guns, are a phallic symbol which is used to
represent a character in a macho way as a ‘bad
man’ and as someone who can shoot or kill
people and feel nothing about doing it. I used the
gun prop for this very reason, however, I
challenged this convention of a real media
product in that, normally its males who use this
weapon but in my film trailer it is only females
who use guns. The females are the superior and
the ‘bad man’ of my film trailer, not the males.
I also used ‘drugs’ (which were mixed herbs used for
cooking wrapped in cling film) as a prop within my
film trailer as the storyline behind it is that a young
female joins a gang to sell drugs in order to earn
some quick money to help her mother pay the bills as
her mother in on her deathbed and cannot work. In
most British urban films, the characters who sell the
drugs do it for reasons as sad as this but not
particularly the same. I just developed the idea by
adding my own twist and also using a female to be
the character in this trouble as it is always
stereotypically males who are in this situation.

4. Music
I got permission to use an artist that I knows music for
my film trailer in order to avoid copyright infringement.
I used hip hop music by the artist Denny Doze as my
non diegetic background music because it was
appropriate for my film genre and it fit in with the trailer
perfectly. I had to manipulate the song however, to
censor out the swear words in order to make it suitable
for a film trailer. I used gun shot sounds at each swear
word as the censor.

5. Conclusion
I used, developed and challenged some of the forms and conventions
of real media products by subverting the form of the typical film
storyline through the content I used, including the:
 use of both sexes
 variation of ethnic groups
 superiority of females instead of males through the use of gangs,
guns and drugs
And even though I have subverted and developed through the content,
I still used conventional editing techniques to appeal to, not only my
target audience, but also to a wider target group. (See feedback video)

6. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?

7. Main Product

8. Ancillary Texts

9. How effective is the
combination?
In my main task you can see that I have used different ethnic
groups and this is then shown and reinforced on the film poster.
In my main task, you can also clearly see the characters used
within the trailer, those same characters are shown on the poster
and where at least one of the main characters is not on the
poster, I’ve used them on the magazine cover instead so to
create some variation instead of using the same characters on
both ancillary tasks. I also incorporated the title of the film on
each product in order to ensure that it is all relevant and
combines. In conclusion, the combination of my main product
and ancillary texts is very effective as they reinforce each other.