Teaser Trailer Deconstruction: Brotherhood

Genre Deconstruction of urban drama 

• Urban dramas are known for their realistic interpretation of society and for their ability to express their views on societal issues in history and in the modern world while at the same time also providing an entertaining outlook on the topic. 
• Stereo-typically most urban dramas are set as 'hood/ghetto films' which show the media's interpretation of the 'Black culture' which explicitly involves aspects of activities such as: gangs, rap, drugs, racism, violence and profanity. 

Brotherhood Teaser trailer - 1 minute 23
Brotherhood a British urban drama is the trilogy to the series of films, 'Kidulthood' and 'Adulthood' created, directed and written by Noel Clarke, who also stars in the film as a lead character. The movie is about the gang life in the UK and also shows views on current big topics such as racism and the tension between white police officers and black men.

The video can be found down below:

Deconstruction:

The trailer starts of with the view of the city. We can already see that it is an urban area and a busy area. 

We then see a birds eye view shot of the main character walking next to a police van which foreshadows the next events of the trailer/movie. 

Shot of police taking the character to the ground, showing the relationship and negative tension between the police and the urban community. 

This screenshot shows the common representation of gang members, we see them wearing hats and hoods which is seen in society as the dress code as thugs, hoodlums and gang members. I can further see the gang culture due to the blurry shot of the man in front pointing a gun at someone.

This picture shows the gang members weighing the drugs they are going to send off to be sold, with drugs and alcohol spread over the table. This is a common representation of urban dramas due to the drugs. The location is messy and is known as a 'Trap house' where the drugs are packed ready to be distributed.

This image shows a close up view of the previous scene, showing the dealer with a spoon filled with cocaine, scooping the cocaine into little bags and being weighed into the correct sizes, ready to be distributed.

This snippet from the trailer shows the common convention of death being represented in the movie, by the facial expressions of the main character we can see that death is a common occurrence in his life and that he is conditioned to not showing his emotions due to his gang lifestyle. Being numb to showing emotions is a common representation.

This shot shows another instance of violence in the trailer, where the passenger is holding a hammer to the face of the driver.

This scene further proves the representation of violence as the man with his head on the table is being threatened by the shop owner with a machete whilst his head is being forcefully pushed against the table.

The film clearly acts as a social commentary and modern representation of the urban society, and the hood lifestyle. This screenshot shows the characters wearing masks to disclose their identities as they are criminals, and we see the members carrying weapons such as guns and baseball bats, almost as if they were about to cause max destruction. 

Editing of this film is extremely fast paced. There are many shots which jump from one to another scene which do not last for more than one second each. This gives the viewer more of a mystery as full sequences are not really shown, making them have to fill in the missing gaps until they can watch the full movie. There is also good flow and continuity in the editing.

Evaluation:
Teaser trailers for urban dramas