The Brief

We enjoyed working on ‘Young Boys’ a music video for a Namibian band, SmallparkM4Band.

The song is centered around children in Africa, particularly teenagers, influenced by gang culture and drug abuse. We challenged ourselves and decided by crafting a story to address the challenge.

Case Study

Causes and effects of negative influences on teenagers in Africa

The Plot

Among the various pitches we proposed the client picked the one we named ‘The pen for the gun’

The pen for the gun

Focus on a rich family Mum, Dad and their son, where the father is the only bread winner (an entrepreneur). Son witnesses Dad dies due to an armed robbery in their shop. The boy now grows up in a more challenging environment, as he watches his mum struggle to maintain what they had. Due to societal pressure and increasing poverty he decides to join a gang. The child begins to indulge in drugs and alcohol and guns to numb the pain. A Teacher is worried about the boy’s bad performance in school and the boy later drops out to become a hoodlum. One day he holds up a man (his teacher) at gun point and in that moment the boy realizes who it is. His mind races back to the incident that he witnessed which took his dad’s life. That memory and the realization that he has become the very thing he has hated all his life brings him to tears and restores some sanity in him. He falls down on his knees and is comforted by his teacher. The teacher rehabilitates him by encouraging him to pick up his past ambition of becoming an author, to trade his gun for the pen. The boy starts to put his experiences into poetry and ends up writing a best selling book called ‘Young Boys’.

Dos of the story

1. Never lose hope
2. Love is shown through concern.
3. The character of a child is a result of the community
4. We all need each other rich or poor (Ubuntu).

Dont’s of the story

1. Don’t do drugs, guns or violence
2. Avoid depression, ask for help.
3. Don’t let the misfortunes of the past destroy the potential of the future.

Storyboard sketches