Blog Task 15

'Kidulthood' Title Sequence Analysis - Blog Task 15

Camera

At the beginning of the sequence the camera is panning around from each main character to the next. This is done to show which characters are important to the story of the movie. Also, the movement of the camera suggests that the camera is almost like a CCTV camera looking out for trouble. This connotes that the characters that the camera is focusing on are 'bad' or criminal like as it does not focus on any other characters in the background. This movement of the camera is also quite shaky which gives the illusion that someone is filming them rather than being a professional production, which fits into the theme of a urban youth drama. The camera also zooms into a drill at times. This was done to show that the person doing something with the drill is off importance to the main story of the movie. The close up makes the audience question what he is doing and why he is doing this. This engages the audience in the film as they will want to find out what he was doing. The camera pans around most of the main characters to introduce them into the movie. This gives the movie a urban school feel as all the characters go to the same school meaning that they will all be together at one point, in this case during lunch. In one of the scenes a drill is shown. This is a extreme close up that pans up. The panning happens to show that this is a drill as the close up is so close that the whole drill part is not visible in the frame and may confuse the audience as to what that object is. The camera follows the girl as she walks. This is done to focus on her as she is talking. She walks past another girl and then the camera stops to focus both of the girls in the frame. The camera stops moving when she stops talking on the phone, this is done to show that the two girls in the frame are going to talk to each other. There is a shot of a boy playing a video game. This shot is done with two irrelevant characters  in the front of him, out of focus, to show distance and that he is far away from other people. There are multiple shots where the camera pans around the school's open ground to show that this is a urban school environment. The camera is shaky and zooms into another pair of characters. This effect makes the shot seem like it's being recorded by someone watching them as the camera pans left and right before zooming in. This represents a urban environment as this is like a CCTV camera spying on specific people.

Editing

There is a high contrast visual filter applied to the beginning of the film. This in combination with the slow motion gives a clear visual representation of the main characters. There is a slow motion effect whenever a main character is the focus of a shot to show that they are important in the movie. When the camera pans around the less important or background characters they are not in focus and sped up to show that they are just normal kids that are not relevant to the plot.

Mise-en-scene

There is a contrast between the 'bad' and the 'good students. The 'bad' students wear badly tied ties, undone collars and such. The 'good' students are the opposite of this. This is done to show a separation between the good and the bad people in the plot. There are people on BMX bikes and hoodies on the school's open ground, showing that the environment is urban and they don't care about the rules even though hoodies are most likely not allowed. The BMX bikes show represent urban youth as the 'bad' urban youth are commonly found on BMX bikes and hoodies. At the beginning of the sequence there is a shot where some people play football. This is shown as football is probably the most popular sport in urban areas, once again showing the  movie is set in a urban surrounding. There is a drill shown in some shots. The drill is used by a student showing that the school is careless of who uses industrial equipment like that, once again showing that the school is stereotypically urban and careless.