N.W.A - straight outta Crompton


How has it been shaped by economic factors:

  • Trailer - Uses remixed, modernised versions of the original songs, targeting not only an existing fanbase, but also a new audience. Primarily for financial purposes
  • Budget of 28-50 million is a mid to huge budget Hollywood film. High stakes in terms of budget
  • Trailer - 7.5 million views, indicates a viral online success
  • Targeting a mass, generalised audience, with particular focus on young, black men. 
  • Predominantly black cast, and a black director 
  • Teaser photos released days before the film's release, on social media. Downloaded 6 million times. Innovative marketing strategy and an example of viral marketing
  • Regulation: BBFC 15 certificate when released theatrically. Film was re-edited to ensure a lower age certificate to reach a bigger audience and teenagers with expendable income.
  • Film also released as an 18 rated directors cut
  • Distributed through Netflix reaching a larger home audience. Also Now TV
  • Produced by Legendary Pictures, a huge producer specialising in big budget blockbusters
  • Distributed by Universal pictures, a vertically integrated, international conglomeration
  • An international marketing campaign, targeting the big movie territories
  • Social media marketing, viral, hashtags...
  • Star appeal: sold through the likeness and appearance of NWA
Narrative 
  • A relatable narrative, a zero to hero, rags to riches story. Creates a sympathetic atmosphere for the members of NWA, their unfair treatment, and their arrest by the LAPD. Relatable characters, going through difficult circumstances. Downtrodden by the police.
  • A varied cast of different characters. Ice Cube, Dr Dre etc... Each character is identified through the name of the character rather than the name of the actor. No reference is made to actors or a director. The film is being sold purely on star appeal.
  • Themes of unity, teamwork and friendship. This potentially allows the film to target less typical audiences, to use a stereotypical example, older women.
  • Comedic elements, the guns in the bag. A ridiculous situation, and here played for laughs rather than as a sign of aggression. Comedic elements allow the film to be marketed in a softer, less confrontational manner.
  • Taps in to current events: police brutality, protest movements. Several scenes are evocative of and iconographic of modern scenes of police brutality against young black people. These themes have been depicted in other recent mainstream films, such as The Hate U Give (2018). 
  • The sex and violence is substantially toned down in the trailer. The word 'motherfucker' is censored through a dip in volume, and only the less swear-word filled verses of Fuck The Police are played.
  • Additionally, the two songs played in the trailer (Straight Outta Compton and Fuck The Police) are both 'jazzed up' with additional instruments, such as strings and piano chords. The result is that the drum heavy and intentionally ugly gangster rap now sounds more positive, optimistic and modern.

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