Bullet Boy is a story of two brothers Ricky (aged 19) and Curtis (aged 12). Ricky has just come out of custody (due to him stabbing a boy) and is trying to stay good because he wants a better life for him and his family but returning home may not have been the best idea... What begins as something very little escalates into a series of retaliations all because of a broken wing mirror.


The conventions that are used in the film to make it fit into the urban realists genre is where some of the scenes in the film are located. The first time you see the main character is in prison which tells us that he has done something bad to deserve this consequence. The main location is East London which is one of the worse parts of London. Some of the main events happen in a canal, alley ways, the streets and even in the woods. It has a lot of gun crime happening around the area. It is based around the lives of a black family and one of the family members are involved in gun crime. They live in a housing estate which suggests that they haven't got a lot of money.


The iconography used to make it fit into the urban realist genre is that there are a lot of guns involved and bats (used as weapons). A lot of the characters smoke (what seems to be) illegal substances. The large amounts of money that the characters 'earn' are from 'dealing' (selling) drugs. Wisdom (Ricky's 'friend') is the cause of the troubles that happen with Ricky's return, and he takes Ricky's gun to scare the man that his car hit but ends up shooting his dog which causes even more chaos and havoc. Ashley Walters is Ricky, Luke Fraser is Curtis, Claire Perkins is Beverly and Leon Black is Wisdom. The characters are black and armed (which is a stereotypical thug or gangster).


The representation of the black community is contrasted in the film through the youth, the children the mothers and the community figures. The children try to copy the older boys and are very influenced by them (for example, Rio Tison, who plays Rio is influenced by the other boys because there is a scene where he tries to get Curtis to smoke 'dope' but Curtis refuses and asks where he got it from and Rio says that he got it from the older boys). The mother all go to church and try to be a better example for their sons and try to be good to their sons. They all love their mothers but get themselves into bad situations which is hard for them to get out of (as shown in the film). The priest is a community figure that is with Bev (Claire Perkins) in the film and he also tries to be a role model for the youth and tries to make the neighbourhood a better place. He is seen to be the righteous one in the film.


Some of the aspects of the youth are represented in the film in a particularly stereotyped way through clothes, music, behaviour and sexuality. The behaviour of the youth are portrayed as typical gangster type street thugs and have a poor performance to which involves morality. It's the stereotypical black behaviour. The black community are stereotyped as criminals and are always getting into trouble. Black people are always stereotyped as being thugs and it's shown in the film. The older boys in the film (that are actually involved with the guns) wear jeans hanging off their bum (baggy pants) and some of them wear hooded tops to cover their face, to hide their identity if they're going to do something bad. The music is hard music with black artists singing them or rapping, there are a lot of swearing on the music as well, which also doesn't do the black race justice. The 'dancing in the film is repulsive. There is one scene when Ricky comes home and goes to a party for the youths and it shows all of the boys rubbing up against the girls, which is also a negative side of the black community.


In my opinion the film shows negative stereotyping in the film because it only shows one side of the social group. It mainly shows a bad side of the group because it's all about the idea and visual effects of gun crime, it shows gangs and violence. The main good example that Ricky shows is that he tries to make a better life for himself and become a better role model for Curtis (younger brother) because he doesn't want him to end up like the older one. It also shows friendship and it shows friends being there for each other, and gatherings for celebrations and it shows how people still like to live by God and get rid of their sins by going to church. It only shows one side of the ethnic group and doesn't show any other ethnic group. It shows the 'black' boys that are all about drug money, guns and drugs. Not many movies are about the life outside guns or knives or all of the bad qualities if the black race. Not many films explore this social group.


The camera work has been used to reinforce the views of establishing shots, close-ups and two shots. It shows close-ups for emotions and expressions on the faces of the characters. It shows close-up to create impact and to have an effect to make us seem like we're there. Sometimes it takes shots from the direction of where the characters are looking so that we can relate even more. It changes from one scene to another to show the contrast between the two scenes. When Ricky goes to a 'vulgar' party it switches to his mum throwing a welcome home party for him to show her excitement.


The editing has been used to reinforce the views of the soundtrack, transitions and non diegetic sound. They make the songs at the right moments in the film flow with the mood of what's happening.