analysis of film opening

What information does the sequence give you about the film?
How does it do this?

In the opening sequence of Kidulthood (Menhaj Huda, 2006) there’s many sections that give away a particular amount of information for the film to come. The first, and most obvious would be right at the start, before anything appears on screen, there’s non diagetic sound of school children playing, shouting and laughing. This sound turns into diagetic sound, as we then see the establishing shot of the playground. This indicates that the children or “kids” will have to unwillingly grow up and mature. Such as children acting like adults, or going through adult like situations, which is what actually happens throughout the film.

There are shots of the main character, which then move onto the next ones, this is so the audience knows who to focus their attention on. There are also several still shots of the boys playing football, which is a child & adult game. For that particular shot the time is slowed down, this would show that the normal time for a child to transition from child to adult, may be warped, and not normal.

The shots flicker from the playground to a drill. There’s only close ups and extreme close ups of the drill and its parts. This emphasises what the character’s doing and makes the audience question that it may be morally wrong or illegal somehow.
One of the characters is handing out invites to his party; this is a typical thing for teenagers to do. He also mentions that his parents are away, which shows he’s rebelling, which is also a stereotypical trait of a teenager.

Adult authority is undermined by the children, as when the teacher is telling them to get inside, the protagonist merely looks at him, and the teacher grimaces and turns away. This emphasises the control they have over the authority figures in their life.

The group of boys start talking about sex, this shows that they’re already breaking the law by having underage sex, which is something you’re supposed to do when you’re “adult” enough. They also talk about girls in graphic terms, which’s similar to men, adults would think that young children shouldn’t be talking about things like that. This indicates that the characters sexual relationships will have a big role to play in the rest of the film.

The “bullies” of the film are purposely embarrassing their “victims.”
It flicks back and forth from the boys, to the girls, separating the sexes, which is what young children tend to do. There’s no satisfaction from seeing their embarrassment, it doesn’t achieve anything, which highlight the childlike trivial issues they’re fighting about.

Rap music is also used in parts, which is generally associated with violence and gangs. This indicates what stereotypical characters will be shown in the film. It also shows that they’re in a rough, working class neighbourhood