Kidulthood Trailer Analysis

The representation of Kidulthood is about the lives of several teenagers growing up in the deprived areas of West London; the way in which the trailer is represented by this is that we see what kind of environment these kids are brought up in and some of the temptations that surround them.

The costumes that are worn in the film as you can see from the trailer are mainly hooded clothing, tracksuits and trainers, this represents today's youth in a huge way as many teenagers in today's society wear these sorts of clothes. With many of the characters wearing hoods, it represents the major issue of crime within today's youth as many teenagers wear hooded pieces of clothing such as jackets and jumpers

There isn't very much use of lighting within the trailer, but from what I could see, during the parts where crime or violence is taking place, for example, when Trife is getting beaten up the lighting is very dark and dim whereas during the parts where they are outside in the city, the lighting seems to be very dim which symbolises the darkness of the film and what is going on. Right at the beginning of the trailer it shows a party taking place where extra lighting has been added to show the excitement of being in that sort of environment.

Throughout the trailer you see that there are a lot of props being used, especially during the clips where violence is taking place, during these clips there are guns and baseball bats being used showing that even the easiest of things can be used as weapons, it also raises the awareness of the crime that is happening among teenagers in today's society where a lot of them are being attacked and even killed.

A variety of shots are used within the trailer; close up camera shots are used to provide a dramatic emphasis, highlighting characters' expressions which gives a sense into what will happen within the film based on their emotions and how they are feeling. Long range shots have been used to show viewers the environment and surroundings of which the characters are brought up in.

The target audience for this film is mainly aimed at people aged between 15-24, the film itself attempts to represent a serious number of issues of what some teenagers growing up in today's society have to go through; this explains why so many people who are in this age group may watch it.

Bullet Boy Poster Analysis

Bullet Boy

The ‘Bullet Boy’ film poster makes an exceptional and widespread use of contrasting a striking image of a close up of the main male protagonist (Ashley Walters). The actor’s brain area is edited in a way to fade in the image of the two other main protagonists, which was used to cover most of the space in the poster, this could have been used to attract the audience’s attention directly to image; which suggests what is happening in the mind and the life of the main protagonist which is that violence is happening in the lives of very young people.

The main image of the poster is blended with a scene from the movie, which is highlighted red; this could have been to centre the focus on the movie, giving audiences an insight on what occurs movie.  The mise-en-scene is also very important as the iconography shows a gun; which elaborates the name of the movie.

The background of the image is a lightly washed blue that overshadows the head of the actor, while the edges of the image is blurred, this was used to allow the text of the poster to stand out, the white font played a extra role in doing so, attracting attention directly.

There is a tag line and the main actor’s name above the film title and the director’s name and the credit block and three pull quotes from reviews in a white font which contrasts with the black face of the actor and the red of the images which suggest violence.

While analysing the poster, I have noticed that the tag-line for the movie ‘You only get one shot at life’ deeply symbolises the whole term of ‘Bullet Boy’ this is due to the imagine of the two male protagonists holding a gun, which makes audiences suggest that the firearm plays a key role in the success of this movie, making it widely intrigue.

From this poster, I have learnt that contrasting colours of black, red and white are effective to suggest violence in an urban short film and that shocking iconography is also effective.  There were also guns in many other urban film posters that we looked at.

KiDULTHOOD Poster Analysis

Star rating and a quote which uses emotive language is added on each poster to entice the audience to come and watch the film. Much more space is dedicated for the reviews instead of actors names. This is because the film had a low budget, meaning that the actors will be unknown and relatively new to the film world. Their names are not a major selling point of the film and neither are the institutional information which are produced in small print.

The medium long shot allows the viewer to see all the characters in full length as well as the majority of the background, ensuring that the audience has an idea of what sort of character and settings the film uses. The characters are looking straight down the camera lens making them seem intimidating and aggressive.

The costumes of the characters help us build a stronger idea about their lives. All the boys wear hoodies, which is stereotypical of teenagers living in urban areas. Such clothing is associated with gangs of young lads - this hints to the audience the possible themes present in the film (gangs, guns, drugs, violence). The girls haven't been over sexualised or dressed up, hinting that the film will focus mostly on the boy’s conflicts. All of their clothes look normal and worn suggesting that they come from working class background. 

In both posters, one of the characters (Sam) is clearly portrayed as an antagonist holding a baseball bat. This prop is conventional of urban dramas, it connotes violence and destructiveness. Having the character holding it provides an action code suggesting that he may use it in the film. He is also one of the two characters who are standing up, the other boy being the main character. This signifies their importance in the narrative.  To contrast, one of the boys is sat on the floor, looking defenceless. This suggests that the film also has themes of inferiority and vulnerability.

This image has been heavily edited to give the image a threatening feeling. High key lightning is used in both posters - the darkness and dimness indicates the darkness of the film and the constant struggles the teenage characters face. However, the sunlight is slightly shining through the clouds, reflecting the teenagers trying to break through into adulthood. The light also suggests their hopes of things getting better and their lives improving.

Shank Film Poster Analysis

This is the Shank Film poster and from analysing this poster what is shown directly is the colour which is used because it conforms to formulaic conventions of and urban drama film which is the use of the bold red font which symbolises blood which is a great part of the urban drama culture and is one of the main conventions of an Urban Drama. The main image which has been used is strong and this is because they have used an image of all the main characters running towards the camera this is good because it shows all the characters which would be participating in the film and this very much conforms to the stereotypes of posters especially Urban Drama posters because it is common for these posters to show more than one character it also illustrates the characters running which is common because others such as Kidulthood have more than one person as they like to show the whole cast because once again makes the product and image look like they are a part of a gang which is a vital part of the Urban Drama culture. The poster follows the main conventions needed from a poster because it contains the credits, film website, release date, title and main image. In terms of Mise en scene for this poster there is a great load of this and it is shown through many different ways. One of the ways that this is shown is by costume and this is important as it suggests urban youth. They are wearing jeans, baseball caps and sportswear.  One of the youths is holding a pit-bull dog which is now iconic to urban youths because in London there are a lot of youths which carry these dogs around. Another mise en scene which is shown is the background and this is because the background is as Estate Park and this conforms because this is the typical scenery that you would expect to see within the posters. Also within the poster they subvert to stylistic conventions and this is because in typical urban drama films the characters are usually dominantly black but in the poster there is a variety of ethnicities that are being shown therefore not imitating others. Overall, this is an effective poster for an urban film in that it attracts a wide target audience by using a variety of ethnicities and by using both male and female protagonists.  It adheres to the conventions of poster layout. We will use the conventions of violent contrasting colours of black, white and red when we create our own poster and make sure that our mise en scene is carefully thought out to reflect the reality of urban life.

Film Poster

Editing #1

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