Text being analysed: Rize

Source of text: David LaChapelle (Director) – Lions Gate Films

Approximate date of broadcast: January 2005

Description of Text

The topic of this documentary film follows a group of young people that
are passionate about Krumping, Clowning and Striper Dance (dance
forms). The angle or area of this documentary is how black American’s
culture (Krumping, Striper Dance and Clowning) became so popular. The
location of this documentary is situated in the United States, the sub
urban cultures or ‘Ghetto’ of Los Angles. This documentary is not at all
biased of these dance forms, in this documentary everyone thinks it is a
good and positive thing. In terms of presenter, this documentary does not
involve a presenter; nevertheless, they have involved a narrator that
narrates the story to the audience. When looking at facts or figures at the
beginning of the documentary the narrator shows how many blocks in the
neighbourhood of the Negro section were decimated in the 1960’s. The
documentary interviews ‘Tommy the clown’, Tight Eyes, Lil C, Baby Tight
Eyes and people who admire ‘Clowning’. They have also associated
Krumping, Clowning and Stripper Dance with African Folk Dance (Black
American heritage). They have also shown the past history of these
people’s lives and what sort of neighborhood they live in.
Potential Audience for Text

This documentary is aimed towards 15 year olds and over and aimed
at both males and females; however the interviewees were mostly
males. The reason why I think they may have used more males is
because; Krumping, Clowning and Stripper Dance are mostly
aggressive and dangerous. The target audience will obviously be
interested in dance, Krumping, Stripper Dance and Clowning, Hip Hop
music and street music. And the location the potential audience will be
located in is mostly around the suburban areas of USA and London.
The audience's ethnicity is black, as seen in the video mostly black

Key Influences on your Idea - Content and Form

This documentary has helped and influenced my production quite a lot

as I can now use the key conventions from this documentary in my
work.

• The music of this documentary has helped me realise that

having music related to what you’re showing on the screen is
very important.
• The camera work of the documentary is also again very helpful
as it shows different shots of different people dancing. I could
also use this in my documentary, showing different shots and
angles of people dancing.
• The interviews in this documentary isn’t quite balanced, as
they have only shown black people who are interested in these
Use of Camera
- The use of camera in this documentary is quite
expressive as they have shown many different angles
and shots in different segments of the film.
- The documentary also shows many different shots of
different people dancing in different locations this gives
the documentary a mixture of different shots.
Content and Conventions
- The documentary does include a short period of
archive footage from three different periods, 1960’s
1990’s and 2000’s.
- The film also shows a competition between to dance
forms that have been found and expanded by
different people (Clowns vs. Krumpers).
- It also shows the past lives of the people who are
involved in the creation of these dance forms. For
example, some people were drug addicts or seller,
some people were shot as the live in the ‘ghetto’ side
of US and some people were parentless or orphans.
- This documentary shows people from different ages
performing different dance forms, people aged from 2
years to probably 40.
- These dance forms were heavily influenced by the
African heritage folk dance. This was shown in the
documentary, with archive footage.
- Some people involved in the documentary film,
expressed that Clowning, Krumping and Stripper
Dance is a way of showing the public your hatred,
Use of Sound

- This documentary contains many different R’N’B and

Grime music to fit and suit the text they are showing
on the screen.
- The dialogue delivery used in this documentary is very
Use ofrough
Editing
and informal, as the people shown as passionate
dancers and performer, are known to be from the sub
- When
urban looking at editing,
side of the US ‘thethis
hoodis or
a documentary
Ghetto’. film so
this hasn’t really been edited.
- However, the documentary does contain some subtitles
that introduce the interviewees.