Anatomy of Dope - Tashon & Fudayl

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rgVA-_Bf0KIBbZGxrHmhGHokPlBEyIF0/view?usp=sharing

Tashon and Fudayl 5-20-22 Reel Reading Ms. Pahomov

Dope Scene Analysis

Hello, my name is Tashon and I’m Fudayl and today we’re going to review a scene from the movie Dope by Rick Famuyiwa.

Tashon: Dope is a film about a high school senior named Malcolm and his friends Diggy and Jib as they grow up in Inglewood, California. They aren’t your typical inner city teens however as they bond over things like school and good grades, old-school hip-hop culture, and their punk rock band. Things get real one day though when an encounter with the local drug dealer goes wrong and leads them on a wild adventure as they try to save themselves.

Fudayl: The scene we will be discussing today is the scene where Malcolm meets Nakia, another important character to the story.

Tashon: In this scene a lot of different camera angles are used to show the relationship forming between Malcolm and Nakia as they meet for the first time.

Fudayl: The scene first starts with a full shot of Malcom rolling with his bike into the apartment complex that Nakia lives in. Malcolm is shown to be pretty far away from where the camera is at but as he gets closer to the camera it immediately cuts to his perspective of him seeing Nakia which then cuts to a two shot of Malcolm and Nakia. (Cinematic)

Tashon: Malcolm’s outfit and hairstyle is a lot different compared to the other people in his neighborhood. While most of the men in his neighborhood wear dark t-shirts and have low hairstyles while Malcolm has an afro and plaid collared shirts which shows that he is out of touch with the society around him. (Theatrical/Literary)

Tashon: The scene then cuts to another first person view shot of Malcolm looking at Nakia with the camera tilting upward, which tells us about Malcolm’s lack of self confidence when it comes to talking to women. (Who wouldn’t be nervous though while talking to Zoe Kravitz?!?)

Fudayl: As Malcolm and Nakia have their first conversation, the movie uses over the shoulder shots to show how Nakia isn’t even batting an eye at Malcolm the entire time until he mentions Dom (the local drug dealer of the neighborhood Malcolm lives in)and his party. This shows us that Nikia really isn’t interested in Malcolm, at least for right now and maybe there is some sort of weird relationship between her and Dom.

Tashon: Once that conversation ends the scene then cuts to Malcolm talking to Dom again; this scene uses a combination of over the shoulder shots and shot reverse shots to show the conversation that Dom and Malcolm have. Malcolm while talking to Dom is shown to have a fear of Dom as he frequently looks away from the camera and stutters over his words while talking to him.

Fudayl: The scene then makes another cut back to Nakia’s apartment to where this time we see a close up of her hand holding a pencil writing in a notebook which shows how Malcolm is paying attention to what she is writing which he then tells her about on the next cut. There is then a series of shot-reverse-shots showing that she is listening to his advice which we can also see in the next close up shot as she writes in her notebook then shows it to Malcolm for confirmation. This showed us that she has some type of interest in him.

Fudayl: An over the shoulder shot was then used showing how Malcolm has now gained the attention of Nakia as she is looking at him instead of looking at her notebook. As Malcolm and Nakia continue to have their conversation about Dom inviting her to his party The film uses a series of shot-reverse-shots until the conversation finally ends on a two shot of Nakia accepting to go to the party but on the condition that Malcolm must be there showing that she has taken an interest in him.

Tashon: So this scene did a great job at using different camera angles and acting choices to convey several different emotions. It was a good segway into the plot of the film.