Analysing the opening scene of 'Kidulthood'

Analysing the opening scene of ‘Kidulthood’

The film opens with a close up shot of someone playing football, the shot is match-o-action as the image is zoomed in, the shot suddenly goes slow then speeds up as the shots changes to a medium shot of groups of girls. The shot keeps speeding up then slowing down whilst the shots pan over to another group of ‘thug like’ boys. The opening scene shows no one main character, however it shows many. The characters introduced appear as ‘chavvy’ to the audience.

The setting is at a school, full of teenagers who look ‘rough’ which would make the audience feel insecure and uneasy. The lighting is quite low but natural, it is set outside. Setting the opening scene outside shows the audience all the characters in their ‘natural’ state. The colouring of all the shots are quite dark showing that the setting isn’t the riches of places and that it is run down.

The shot suddenly changes to a match-on-action shot, to someone putting together a drill, the shots keep cutting from being outside to the shot of a drill being made. This creates enigma as the audience don’t know why someone is putting a drill together or what he's doing.

The colouring of all the shots are quite dark showing that the setting isn’t the riches of places and that it is run down.

A medium shot introduces one of the characters, she’s on the phone talking to someone. A shot tie and the way she wears her hair, makes her come across as chavvy and intimidating. Close up shots of group of people talking about a party shows that they don’t have a care on who comes.

The non-diegetic sound is fast paced, and creates tension, however it’s not too loud so that the audience can hear the diegetic dialogue between characters. Other non-diegetic sound is the sound of children laughing and shouting in the background. Another diegetic sound would be the sound of the drill once its turned on, creating more tension as the audience don’t know what’s going to happen as the shots keeps cutting to close up shots of drills and the boy who’s operating it.

The scene ends with a bully type character coming up behind a girl and starts to bully her by spitting on her. The bully character is dressed in a dark hoodie which is a cliché as boys in hoodies are conventionally scene as quite rough.