Antoine Fuqua...... Execution and project control ........ !

I read an interview on Antoine Fuqua, the director of Brooklyn’s Finest!
This interview discusses the creative direction and control that encompasses a Fuqua film.

For those of us who dream of making it big in Hollywood. We must acknowledge Fuqua’s efforts and allow ourselves to do the footwork if we hope to reap the benefits of a successful Hollywood icon and project manager.

If you are not familiar with the work of Antoine Fuqua his resume includes, Training Day, and is followed by Tears of the Sun, King Arthur, and Shooter. In 2001, his movie Training Day brought in $77 million at the domestic box office and earned Denzel Washington a Best Actor Oscar. While filming his latest movie, Brooklyn’s Finest, Fuqua involved the local community in the production by employing hundreds of residents of the Van Dyke housing projects, the central location in the storyline.  Prior to filming in Brooklyn, Fuqua started the Fuqua Film Program, a 12-week summer program for Brooklyn youth. 

The article can be found at:

Interview:
Nunziata, Nick. (2010, Mar. 3). Re:  Antoine Fuqua (Brooklyn’s Finest). Retrieved on Oct. 2, 2010. from www.chud.com. At http://www.chud.com/articles/articles/22772/1/INTERVIEW-ANTOINE-FUQUA-BROOKLYN039S-FINEST/Page1.html

You may also find more information on Antoine Fuqua at:

Talbert, Marcia. (2010, May). Re: ‘Backtalk with Antoine Fuqua’ Retrieved October 5, 2010 from blackenterprise.com/magazine. http://www.blackenterprise.com/magazine/2010/04/15/backtalk-with-antoine-fuqua/

Fuqua proves to his viewers that control and execution are key components that will make a project come to life. Fuqua stayed in Brooklyn prior to filming to prepare and get a feel for the characters, the neighborhood, the streets that he would reenact. This filtered the culture and the language of his project. He was prepared and did his homework and it obviously showed. Fuqua committed to the project but stayed true to his vision. He edited the project himself to ensure that he would get the ending that he wanted. “If it was a studio ending everyone would have walked away.”

With current television shows and films reinforcing the power of the badge and reflecting positive policing. Fuqua offered viewers a very different perspective. Shows today focus on the anatomy of forensics i.e., bones and forensic files. We also have options of shows that focus on old unsolved cases. Shows that find unique ways to solve cases and get in the mind of a killer to psychoanalyze criminals. The never ending re-runs of law & order and the new season openers for the show. Shows that follow and allow the focus to stay on different branches of law enforcement and focus on the police force itself. Of course we’d dare to forget the comedic shows that assist the police and its partnering agencies. The shows like medium, monk, numbers, criminal minds, the unit, CSI, NCIS, cold case, along with new shows such as Rizolli & Isles, Lie to me and the list goes on.

Fuqua releases a different frame of emotion with Brooklyn’s Finest. He executed this by putting the focus on the gritty, not so pretty action. Fuqua sold us with believable characters that dared to reel us in. Showing 3 different stories of men who served on Brooklyn’s police force. The film showed us a glimpse of the realities of the world behind the badge. Fuqua shares how he was able to present us with a raw street film and do it his way.

In the article he also shares his personal experience working with Ethan Hawke, Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Wesley Snipes.  Let his success be a lesson to us all. Taking a pay cut to get total creative freedom on the project is not an ordinary action. His methods of execution were successful and serve as a great example as to how much work goes into a successful project! Fuqua also contends that his next cinematic goal is to do a film about Pablo Escobar. He is blessed with the gift of storytelling and he is disciplined enough to execute the story with hard work and the drive to do what others wont. I’m sure Fuqua will give us a great story along with an excellent movie!

Tyler Perry’s secret to success is his ability to “involve” others!

I read an article that posed a question in regard to the current film that Perry is promoting.  “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” is the first movie from Perry’s 34th Street Films production company, which is distributed by Lionsgate. The project is an adaptation of the acclaimed Ntozake Shange play and serves as Perry’s directorial debut. “For Colored Girls” is also significant because it serves as Perry’s first time adapting another playwright’s work. The article asks its readers if this film will win Tyler any respect. Lets allow ourselves to reflect on this question....

The article can be found at:
Cummings, Jozen. (2010, Sept. 16). Re: ‘For Colored Girls’ Trailer: Will the Movie Win Tyler Perry Any Respect?  Retrieved Oct. 2, 2010 from wsj.com.
http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2010/09/16/for-colored-girls-trailer-will-the-movie-win-tyler-perry-any-respect/.

Perry’s work on screen serves as a spiritual medium to help shape cultural consciousness.  His actions to relay a positive spiritual message serves as the birth to a new era of film making. A new era of incorporating the church, a lesson, a moral decision, some type of climatic martyr to emotionally involve his audience. The greatest blessing that Perry has as a writer and film maker is his ability to involve others to help them relate to whats happening on and off screen. Ask yourself can a person with this work ethic and talent ever lose?

His reputation, connections, relationships with people also his incredible relationship with studios and in the film industry allow him these opportunities. With two sitcoms (House of Payne and Meet the Browns), airing concurrently on TBS, Perry has also been on the road doing broadway shows while casting for the film, “For Colored Girls.”  This dramatic project is yet another piece which allows Perry a stage to give battered, broken women a voice.

Directing an all-star cast of black actresses, which includes Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad, Janet Jackson, Anika Noni Rose, Kerry Washington, Thandie Newton, Kimberly Elise, Macy Gray, and Loretta Devine. Perry's work ethic shows that team work is an important quality to have. Without having effective abilities to work in a team, Perry wouldn’t have been allowed to work on so many projects. The truth is that Perry allows forms of creative expression to be exploited in his films. Offering music and spiritual themes to be included in all his projects.

In Madea’s Family Reunion there was the message that the elders gave to the younger generation as they danced and gambled not truly appreciating being in the presence of family. In I Can Do Bad All by myself there were several scenes where characters break out in song and where a preacher and his congregation relate to provide testimony of the events and trials that took place in the film. In Meet the Browns, Why did I get Married, Diary of a Mad Black woman, The family that preys, Daddy’s little girls, etc., there were life lessons to be learned. Of all the effective ways to get audience participation and include positive themes Perry has mastered the power of offering people something that they need to hear. It seems as if Hollywood is following Perry. He has a dedicated audience of church goers who support him by going to theatre’s in record numbers. They Load their church and community buses to go out and support him.  

A film maker with Perry’s resume must have the ability to effectively communicate with clients, investors and effectively manage to work with people and get his vision across to the rest of the team. Lack of team work wouldn’t allow Perry to be as successful as he is and he wouldn’t have such a rewarding reputation in hollywood.