In the lead up to shooting on Thursday, I took time to watch the text inspired by Willy’s namesake. Willie Dynamite is a 1974 blaxploitation film which came out of New York City that follows the story of an entrepreneurial pimp trying to make his way up in the city. Willy holds and controls a specific block within New York. It is situated within a high earning hotel area and neighbourhood, however due to increasing police pressure and rivalry from the other Pimps, Willys’ control of the neighbourhood and his respective women slowly deteriorates. The main focal points I took from this movie were in the colours and textures used. I wanted our piece to translate these tones across properly, which inherently was hard to do considering our limitation of budget and props. Below you can see one of my favourite locations within the film, Willy’s apartment living room. I loved the constravitive elements of the furniture, clothing and especially the walls. To push this within our piece, I felt it was ideal to up the contrast much more than I usually would, and then wash it out slightly to achieve a film quality.

Another element within Willie Dynamite is the costume choices made, His outfits quite often popped out from the screen! The shine from some jackets would overstate the other elements within the frame, placing a heightened importance within his character. Luckily Willy had a few outfits with these qualities we could draw off within our MV.