GENERIC CONVENTIONS

Analysing opening 2 minutes of a British Social Realist film’s use of conventions !

By James Labadie
 KIDULTHOOD

 This is the opening sequence I will be analysing.

 The themes I will be looking at are: Social class, gender roles &
relationships, sexuality and gangs.
 I will also be looking at Mise-En-Scene, Dialogue, Camera(shots
&movement) and Editing.
 I will do an analysis of how the film uses it and its appeal to a British
Audience.
 The film was directed by Menhaj Huda.
 KIDULTHOOD OPENING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=shsBkmx5oQY
 SOCIAL CLASS
 The opening sequence we see young working class school children before school.

 You see the boys playing football in there school shoes and they are all muddy and dirty.
Showing the stereotype that working class people don’t take care of themselves.
 Also the boy who is inviting people to his party says ‘You girls gotta come to my party its
gonna be heavy’ He doesn’t speak like the rest of them and he says it going to be ‘Heavy’ and
this is an out of date slang word which no one else says in the opening sequence and in real
life. This shows that he might come from a different background then the rest of the children.
 The white girl speaks very ‘chavy’ showing that she is from a working class background and
isn’t very educated. Also she says that she will sort out the money for them to go to the party
showing she could be up to no good.
SOCIAL CLASS CONTINUED

 This conforms to the social realist genre as the audience who watch this
will be from a underclass and working class background and they will
be able to relate to it. We see that the school is many full of working
class children. It shows social class in school from a realist prospective
so that its easier to relate to because its like that in real life.
 Middle-class people may also watch this so they can see how school is
London fore the majority of people.
SOCIAL CLASS SCREEN GRABS
 Gender Roles &
Relationships
 In the opening sequence of this we see a lot of relationships between people.
 The two girls the white and mixed raced one we can tell that them two are good
friends as they are together and how they talk to each other.
 Jay and Claire are kissing we can tell that they are in some sort of relationship
because they are kissing.
 We see Moony playing his game boy we can tell he is close with the Jay because
he is keeping watch for him.
 We see Sam who appears to be Claire's girlfriend and Jay is scared of Sam.
From the opening sequence we can tell that there is already cheating going on
between Jay and Claire who is cheating Sam who appears to be the bully.
 Gender Roles &
Relationships
 We see the white girl and the Asian girl are being bullied as
they look upset and they talk about doing the girls coursework.
 Also males are seen to be more dominant in the opening as
everyone is scared of Sam and his gang.
 The gender roles & relations in this opening sequence appeals
to a niche British audience. As it shows the everyday school
life relationship between the students and how they treat and
act towards each other.
Gender Roles & Relationships
Screen Grabs
 Gangs
 In the opening sequence the only gang we see is Sam and his friends
but they appear to be the dominate one. They seem to run the school as
everyone is scared of them.
 We see Jay and Moony who are may be in a gang as they look and act
like Sam and his lot.
 Because gang trouble and violence is a big issue in Britain currently
this has a big appeal to the niche British audience and not just for
people in London but for all over the UK even though they may not
understand the slang language.
Gangs Screen Grabs
 GROWING UP &
ASPIRATION
 We see the children playing football this shows they are
aspiring to do better by doing football.
 The two white boys who have the party are aspiring to
accepted by there school friends so they hold a party and
invite everyone to it.
 The fact that they are in school shows that they want to learn
and this means that they must want to be better so they are
going school.
 This appeals to a British niche audience as they can relate to
the day-to-day struggle of life and aspiring to be better.
Growing up & Aspiration
Screen Grabs
 Dialogue
 The dialogue is ghetto slang language and this conforms to
genre of social realism and also the sub genre of Gangs and
violence as the language is usually associated with it.

 Words like ‘Wicked’ ‘Grimey’ ‘Buff’

‘Safe’ ‘PussyHole’
 Mise-En-Scene
 The main is the school uniform that they are wearing.
 But the fat girl is wearing tracksuit bottoms showing she is ‘chavy’ and
working class as everyone else is wearing uniform.
 Also Sam and his friends aren’t wearing uniform meaning that they
might sixth form or that they just don’t want tot wear uniform.
 It’s in a school playground and the school looks rundown and gritty.
Showing that its probably under funded and for underclass and
working class children.
 This appeals to a British audience because they can relate to the
surroundings and environment.
Mise-En-Scene Screen
Grabs
 Editing
 We see some slow motion shots this emphasis what they are
doing and makes it more clear.
 Also some children walk past the camera showing that its still
a playground and there is a lot of people in it.
 Sam gets a lot of screen time this shows that he is a man
character.
 Also Jay , Moony and Claire get some screen time showing as
they are main characters and also Trife as well.
Camera (shots & movement)
 We see a close up of Jay and Claire showing them two kissing
this shows there relationship.
 We see a Long shot of the gang of girls showing them looking
mean and menacing.
 We see a Close up of Trife drilling something this shot shows
his face but we don’t see what he is doing and it makes me
wonder.
 The camera moves fast to different people.
Camera Screen Grabs
What impact has this research
had on the development of
your ideas?
 This research hasn’t had a big impact on my development
ideas because all it did is help with the little things. Because I
was looking a this opening sequence in detail I got to see more
details about what makes a good opening sequence. The little
things like how the camera moves i might use the fast sweep
in the sequence. But apart from that the sequence didn’t have
that much of an impact on my ideas.