Kidulthood Textual Analysis

Media forms: What techniques does the trailer use to persuade its audience to see the film?

The trailer starts with usage of explicit language and an image of a gun being directed at someone’s head. So we can infer that immediately the trailer try’s to engage us with the presentation of action although it does not give us enough clues as to what will occur in the narrative. Therefore this technique forces the viewer to find out and stay compelled. From the start of the trailer the producers and media institutions involved are shown to inform the audience of who it is that has produced this film and respectively what kind of background and experience they offer. Also the slogan at the end; ‘before adulthood comes kidult hood’ creates anticipation as well as excitement for the audience.

Media representation: How is gender represented in this trailer?

In this trailer, Males are portrayed as the dominant out of the two sexes because the trailer involves the degrading of women through sex and abusive nature. For instance we can see a woman being manhandled in the bedroom around the middle of the trailer. This can signify to us that the women have accepted the males as the imperative and in this trailer are being represented as a commodity rather than human beings. The trailer indicates to us that the males will be the ones causing the havoc in contrast to the women who are seen to play a sort of side role. A stereotypical technique evident in many gangster/youth crime related films.

Media audiences: What target audience would be attracted to this film?  

The main group of people who would likely want to view this film would be teenagers as they would find it informative and can relate to the events. Although adults would also view this film to develop a broader understanding of how youths related crime can affect their area or just to get an insight into young people’s lives. More reason for the likelihood viewer to be a teenager would be that the trailer adopts the use of colloquial language and again adults would love to gain further knowledge into ‘street life’.  The audience can be classified as being, a C, D and E socio-economic classification, as the types of characters and settings shown reinforce that it targets more specifically the lower income consumers. Additionally the psychographics shows that, the audience attracted to this particular film, share the same interests, for instance the use of the weapons, e.g. guns and knives, makes the primary audience more aware of the props included which will engage them.

Media Institutions: What low budget values and characteristics can you identify in this trailer?

The institution involved with the making of this film is SHNY media. Form this we can recognise that the institution is not well known and established as one that people may know of. The actors who play their roles on screen are also not very recognisable ones as they do not spring to mind when we first see them. This is one factor which signifies to us that the film was low budget as the directors were not wealthy enough to hire acknowledged actors. Also another factor which is significant is the lighting used, not very much which is typical of a low budget production.