Stomp the Yard: Difference between revisions

Stomp the Yard
File:Stomptheyardposter.jpg
Directed by	Sylvain White
Written by	Robert Adetuyi Gregory Anderson
Produced by	Will Packer Rob Hardy
Starring	Columbus Short Megan Good Ne-Yo Darrin Henson Brian White Valerie Pettiford Harry Lennix Chris Brown
Edited by	David Checel
Music by	Sam Retzer Tim Boland
Distributed by	Screen Gems
Release dates	January 12, 2007
Running time	115 min
Country	USA
Language	English

Stomp The Yard is a 2007 drama/musical film produced by Rainforest Films and released through Sony Pictures' Screen Gems on January 12, 2007. Directed by Sylvain White, Stomp the Yard centers around DJ Williams, a college student at a fictional historically Black university who pledges to join a fictional Greek-letter fraternity. The film's central conflict involves DJ's fraternity competing in various stepping competitions against a rival fraternity from the same school. The film's script was written by Robert Adetuyi, working from an original draft by Gregory Ramon Anderson.

The film stars Columbus Short, Megan Good, Darrin Henson, Brian White, and Valerie Pettiford, with Harry Lennix and, in their film debuts, R&B singers Ne-Yo and Chris Brown. Stomp the Yard was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia on the campuses of Morris Brown College, Morehouse College and Clark Atlanta University, and in the MAK Historic District of Decatur, Georgia.

Plot

After the death of his younger brother, a troubled 19-year-old street dancer from Los Angeles is able to bypass juvenile hall by enrolling in the historically black, Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. But his efforts to get an education and woo the girl he likes are sidelined when he is courted by the top two campus fraternities, both of which want and need his fierce street-style dance moves to win the highly coveted national step show competition.

Template:Spoiler A young man finds that the moves he learned on the street may help him make a better life for himself in this youth-oriented musical drama. DJ Williams (Columbus Short) is a 19-year-old growing up in Los Angeles; while DJ is at heart a good kid and a gifted street dancer, he runs with a dangerous crowd, and one night an underground dance competition turns into a brawl and DJ ends up in jail. DJ's younger brother Duron (Chris Brown)was killed the night of the brawl, and his mother, hoping to put him back on the straight and narrow, sends DJ off to Atlanta to live with his aunt and uncle to go to Truth University, a historically African American college. At first, DJ feels like a misfit at Truth until he meets his roommate Rich Brown (Ne-Yo) who is very stingy with his condoms but when he gets a chance to show off his dancing skills, he attracts the attention of two campus fraternities. Greek life is a major presence at Truth, and each year the fraternities take part in a "stepping" competition, in which the members show off their synchronized dance moves. DJ joins the ΘΝΘ Fraternity, and is eager to help them take the championship away from their campus rivals, ΩΝΨ, but in time he also comes to understand the brotherhood and community service that's a key part of his fraternity's background. DJ also has more on his mind than dancing and studying when he meets April (Meagan Good), a beautiful coed. DJ met her in the beginning of the movie, but April did not care about him until he impressed her at a nightclub by using his talent to dance. After they exited the nightclub, April's relationship with Grant (Darren DeWitt Henson) began to break down. DJ is still persitnent in pursuing April by signing up for history tutoring, after she told him in the morning she could not have lunch with him because she tutored. After DJ answered the question "What were the political differences between the democrats and the republicans during the Depression in the 1930's?" April went out with him. This made her ex-boyfriend and April's father (the principal of Truth University) angry. After April's ex-boyfriend Grant looked up DJ's criminal records, he reported him to the Ethics Committee. The Committee recommended that DJ be suspended for the remainder of the year. So the Principal of the university asked DJ to either leave April or the university. DJ responded by saying that it is April's choice. April confronted her father and eventually DJ wis allowed to continue his education at Truth University. The ΘΝΘ Fraternity, aka TNT, or Pythons eventually won the nation championship at a MTV presentation after DJ broke the tie with its rival step group with a long head stand.

Alpha Phi Alpha boycott threat

A boycott of the film was threatened by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and supported by Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority to protect the fraternity's history and its legacy. A conflict between the producers (Will Packer and Rob Hardy; members of Alpha Phi Alpha) and the fraternity stemmed over the unauthorized use of some of the fraternity's trademarks in the film. The trademark infringement is evidenced in the two versions of the trailer:

1. there is a scene clearly depicting the Alphas in organizational paraphernalia and colors and referring to themselves while stepping,
2. the same scene describe above is shown, but the same Alpha steppers are wearing plain black shirts and no dialogue is heard as they step.

The groups ended their threat when Sony Pictures and Screen Gems agreed to the removal of all references, in the film, to the Fraternity. Sony and Screen Gems made a decision for a donation to the The Washington D. C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, a project of Alpha Phi Alpha.

Alpha Phi Alpha was originally scheduled to make an appearance in the film, including a scene with fraternity members performing a step routine.[1]

Reception

Reviews for Stomp the Yard were mostly unfavorable, resulting in a 23% composite critical approval rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website. The general consensus was that, while the film's dance and stepping sequences were found to be impressive, its plot was seen as melodramatic. Regardless of the critical reviews, however, the film opened at number-one with a first-weekend gross of $22 million. Stomp the Yard was the first film in three weekends to beat out Night at the Museum at the box office.

Trivia

• The film was originally titled Steppin', but to avoid confusion over the 2006 film Step Up, the title was changed.
• Spike Lee's 1988 film School Daze also revolves around fraternity and sorority life at an HBCU, and also features a step show as well. That film was shot on three of the same campuses used in this film (Morehouse, Morris Brown, and Clark Atlanta). Members of Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc., who had threatened to boycott Stomp the Yard, appear (and step) in School Daze.
• Stomp the Yard shares similarities with the 2004 teen film You Got Served. For example, both films were released in January, both were made by Screen Gems, both films featured Meagan Good in them, both featured cameos by MTV VJs (You Got Served featuring La La and Stomp the Yard featuring Sway) and both feature high-profile competitions.
• Screenwriter Robert Adetuyi also wrote the script for New Line Cinema's Cedric the Entertainer comedy Code Name: The Cleaner, which opened a week prior to Stomp the Yard.

External links

• Stomp The Yard Trailer
• IMDB – Stomp the Yard
• IONCINEMA.com Preview Page
• Official Stomp the Yard website
• Official Stomp the Yard SIZZLE Reel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_blaxploitation_films