Kidulthood: The Key Concepts

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Media Language

• Sound- Music used in the film falls in to the genre of grime and hip-hop, attracting the target audience of urbanites who experience similar situations as the characters. The music used is produced by urban artists such as ‘Dizzee Rascal’, ’Lethal Bizzle’, and ‘Shystie’

Language

• Language used by the characters is ‘patois’ or ‘Jafaican’ (a term coined to define a recent dialect of English, spoken mainly in inner city London).

• The word is a neologism and is a combination of ‘Jamaican’, ‘African’, and possibly ‘fake’.

• The dialect is said to contain many elements from the languages of Jamaica, West Africa, and the Indian subcontinent.

Mise-en-Scene

• The clothing worn by the actors is street wear commonly worn by the average teenager living in London. Teenagers can identify with the clothing and understand the ideology underpinning the text. Examples of clothing include hoodies, caps, trainers and jewellery.

• The settings in the film reflect the realities of inner city life: council estates, shopping arcades, public transport. Much of the action takes place on the streets and may give the text authenticity and believability.

Institution

• Revolver Entertainment is the distributor of the film, and received its funding from the UK Film Council.

• Revolver received £76,200, which supported the production of an additional 20 prints, as well as funding advertising specific to the teenage target audience.

• The funding from the Film Council was an attempt to bring a broader range of films to audiences across the UK.

Budget and Shooting

• The director and co-producer, Menhaj Huda used a budget of £600,000. He believes that the low budget adds to the authenticity of the film; each character has only 2 outfits, and there was no make-up artist working on the film.

• The film was shot in 4 weeks on 35 mm. As a comparison, most mid-budget films would take between 4-6 months to shoot.

Genre

• It is quite difficult to define the genre that ‘Kidulthood’ falls into, however, the following categories could be applied:

• Urban Drama- as the name suggests, a narrative with a city backdrop, usually dealing with issues such as crime, drugs, poverty etc.

• Arthouse- A film intended to be a serious artistic work, often experimental and possibly not designed for mass appeal.

• Tragedy- A text with tragic themes and/or resolution.• Social Realist- A text with subject or content taken from

the contemporary scene, usually focusing on people or groups who are socially, politically or economically disadvantaged.

Representation

• The film represents the not so glamorous side of West London, and the issues which are taking place.

• Critics have argued that the film promotes issues such as ‘happy-slapping’ and underage sex.

• Kidulthood also represents black youths whom are often unrepresented in the media, or are depicted using negative stereotyping.

• Consider the representation of women, age, class and race (revise notes already given).

Audience

• The primary target audience for the film seem to be urbanites and teenagers who will be able to relate to the content of the text.

• The secondary audience may be those who are able to change things in society in order to tackle issues raised in the film. This may be those with power in society such as those in government etc.

• Kidulthood and social groups:• Explorers- may be aimed at explorers due to their

interest in, and ability to affect social change.• Social Climbers- may view some of the activities

depicted (drugtaking/drugdealing) as aspirational and connected to a hedonistic/wealthy lifestyle.

Kidulthood and Uses and Gratifications

• Diversion/Escapism- could provide emotional release through close identification with the characters and tragic outcome.

• Personal Identity- could identify with the situations that the characters face.

• Social Interaction- may provide the audience with a ‘talking point’ especially due to controversial storylines and explicit content.

• Surveillance- gives the audience information about the issues and lifestyle that young people may experience.

Ideologies and Values

• Class- conflict between the working and middle classes.• The film begins with a middle-class schoolgirl being

bullied by working-class pupils. This contravenes the ruling class ideology, as the working-class are represented as having the power.

• Throughout the film, the characters are going against the values of the bourgeois (the Marxist term for the middle classes. The term has therefore come to stand for conventionality and normality). They do this by having underage sex, taking drugs, and committing criminal offences.

• Trife, Jay and Mooney are falsely accused of stealing by a white security guard- here, the ‘white ruling class’ is seen as wielding the power.

Narrative

• ‘Kidulthood’ follows the typical Todorovian narrative, with Katie’s suicide as the point of disequilibrium, Sam is the agent of disruption, and Trife’s death is a restoration of (an albeit tragic) equlibrium.

• The resolution or restoration of an equilibrium is tragic as the protagonist dies.

• We can identify Proppian characters: Sam is the villain and Trife is the hero.

• Narrative is non-linear (there are flashback sequences) and follows a realist structure.

• Strauss’s theory of binary oppositions is created between Sam and Trife - this helps the narrative to progress and the storyline to be resolved at the end.