Research - Posters - Adulthood

Cast are in line.

Uses same name as “kidulthood” but is shows that the characters have grown up.

Kidulthood grossed £100,056 (UK) (5 March 2006), whereas adulthood made £3,247,651 (UK) (13 July 2008), showing it was a cult film and got more attention.

Baseball bat is on the floor in this poster, suggesting they have left the violence behind and are more mature.

Dark clothing

Light in the background
City location

Title is bold and bright, standing out.
Hasn’t got any star ratings, unlike kidulthood.

Research - posters - Kidulthood

Dark colours.

Writing is bold and bright – stands out.

Cast – shows position in film and relationships.

Props define characters.
City location
Five stars at the top in the brightest part of the picture, making it stand out.
Quote is a bold statement, relates to teenagers.
Baseball bat shows immaturity and violence which are traits usually associated with teenagers.
Each of the characters are in couples except the one with a baseball bat, showing that he is left out which could be why he is violent

Research - Posters - 4.3.2.1.

Dark colours.

Cast in line, costume show personality of characters.

Title is staggered, draws people in.

Use an American actress to appeal to American audience.

City location, London eye and the statue of liberty in background, to define two cities.

Defines what 4.3.2.1 stands for which it makes the audience want to watch it, 1 chance shows something big is going to happen.

Research of Film Openings - 4.3.2.1

R	The main characters in this film are four girls. The start of the film, show that the white British girl is vulnerable, as she is about to jump off a bridge. The black and American girl are then shown as strong as they are telling her what to do, and are in control, as they are pointing a gun at her. This is different to the dominant ideology in films that the white people are in control and that the black characters are usually sidekicks. The film then goes on to show different activities that the girls do in their free time. This shows the upper class girl having a piano lesson and then getting in to a car that has her own driver. This is the stereotypical view of an upper class person, as she is playing the piano which is usually classical music, which is usually linked to upper class, or well educated people. One character is shown smoking, which the majority of teens do nowadays. The other girls are shown doing various activities that the average 17-18 year old girls does, e.g. driving lessons, swimming.
A	I think that the audience film would be 15 – 24 year olds. I think this because it has mature themes, such as drugs, smoking, and it contains sexual themes, such as the homosexual girl wearing knickers saying “eat me” on. I also think that this would be aimed at girl as the four main characters are female. There is no character for a male to relate to or empathise for, so boys may not find this interesting. I think that this filmed is aimed at the British culture, as it is filmed in Britain. It will contain some aspects of British culture that other countries will not understand. However, they have used an American actress, Emma Roberts, to attract a teenage audience from America as they will feel that they can relate to her. Emma Roberts has been used as an American actress for other films, such as ‘Wild child’ so that these films will be big productions in both Britain and America.
Id	The main ideology of this film is along the lines of feminism. All of the main characters are female, which shows that the characters are strong enough to control a situation and are able to be in charge through out the film. There are no main male characters, this helps to emphasise the importance of the females in this film, again this relates to the audience this film attracts. One of the distributers of this film is ‘Unstoppable Entertainment’. This company was behind the films ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’. Both of these films are controversial and make the audience think, which is what 4.3.2.1.
L	The language of this film is very modern. It is how youths talk to each other at the moment; this again relates to the age of the audience and lets them relate to the characters. The camera shots of this film consist of lots of close ups of faces. This conveys that what they are saying, and the emotion of how they are saying is very important, as close ups are used to show emotion. It makes the beginning feel more intense, drawing the audience in to watch the rest of the film. The location of the film takes place in various places, but all are where teenagers tend to go, such as a café and swimming pool.
In	The main distributer of this film is ‘Universal Studios’, along side a lot of minor companies such as ‘Unstoppable entertainment’ and ‘Retro Juice’. The main company is part of an American conglomerate, because this is American it helps to advertise the film for an American audience, making the film multi-cultural. The minor companies are mostly British; this helps to advertise to a British audience. With both the American company and the British company, the film would benefit as it would get a greater income from both countries.
N	This film does not follow Todorov’s theory. He believes that most films follow the same timeline; there is equilibrium, disequilibrium and a new equilibrium at the end. However this film starts at the middle of the of the film, so therefore it starts at the disequilibrium. The film then goes to the first equilibrium, completely going against this theory.
G	The genre of this film is a British, teen, gritty film. This means that it will contain stuff that is not shown in mainstream Hollywood productions, which tend to make a Romanticised picture of Britain. This film will probably focus on the bits of culture Hollywood leaves out of their films. The distributer ‘Unstoppable Entertainment’ usually makes films like this, ‘Kidulthood’ and ‘Adulthood’ are an example of this. This shows that this production company tend to make the same kind of film, which means that they will always attract the same type of audience.

Research of Openings of Film - Adulthood

 

R	Adulthood, which is six years in the future from the previous film ‘Kidulthood’, opens by representing the male characters, who are still involved in crime by showing them breaking into a car as an older male is still in it. They then shoot this dominant character. It then goes in to representing youths as the stereotypical view, which is all about clubbing, having sex and doing crime. This follows David Morely’s oppositional reading of characters, as the youths are involved in crime.
A	The audience of the film is a 19 year old male. This follows Betrock’s 19 year old male theory. The representation of the stereotypical youth helps to emphasise this theory. The film introduces the idea of the hypodermic syringe theory. This means that the audience will react to the stereotyped youths and then it suggests that the audience will fear this, and believe all youths are like this.
In	UK Film Council, funded by the National Lottery, Pathe and Limelight. By being created by the UK Film Council affects the text by suggesting that the film is responding to the perceived stereotypical views of the youth culture. By having a British production company and the content of the film means that this film will be aimed and made specifically for British audiences.
L	cutaway shots are used at a fast pace to show the individual characters represent  in the previous film as a type of flash back montage for the audience to remember what has previously happened, helping them to understand what is happening. During this flash back no sound is heard whatsoever, until the flashback goes into the fight scene where only diegetic sound of punching is used to show the damage and the impact of what has happened in this fight, this adds emphasise to the violence and makes the audience pay attention so that they will understand. A club is then superimposed to show its location six years in the future. The subtitle ‘six years later’ then appears on the screen, so the audience can understand what is happening and the diegetic sound of the music helps to reinforce this.
Id	Youths are shown in a stereotypical light (fighting, taking drugs etc) this is used to show previous views on youths and their culture, and does this by their clothes and how they speak to each other. The dominant ideology is that older people fear youth culture, and plays on their fear and portrays it in the film. This film exaggerates the fact that the media is suggesting that all youths are violent, and so more and more people are becoming afraid of youths and their violence.
N	This film shows what has happened previously with a fast pace flashback, it then goes six years into the future to where all the characters are now and whether or not their behaviour has changed over time. Todorov and the disequilibrium theory is used in the opening scene because it uses a flashback before the film goes into a equilibrium of six years into the future where the film begins.
G	I think this film is a teen gritty, social realism film. It emphasizes audience previous fear of the youth culture. Leo Baudry says that genres reflect the fears of society, in the case of Adulthood, the fears of the youth culture are emphasised and creates an idea of panic within a culture about gang and youth culture and youth culture.

Research of Film Openings - Se7en

R	The opening scene introduces a male character, who remains anonymous for the entire sequence, the rest of the sequences give the impression that the man is mentally ill and has created an obsession with violence and making books. His Obsession leads to him harming himself with objects such as needles, representing self harm. The obsession of his is also backed up with the amount of books he appears to have made all around him; however the books may also connote intelligence. Using David Morely’s Preferred, Oppositional and Negotiated reading, the audience would think that the preferred reading of this film is that mental people are scary. The oppositional reading would be that the audience would think that the criminal is “cool” and try to be like them, and the negotiated reading would be that the audience might think that the criminal looks cool, but he is also scary so would not want to be like them.
A	This sequence gives the idea that the film will be a violent and gritty film, because of this I feel that the BBFC would give this film an 18 certificate. Because of the age certificate and violence, I also think that the target audience will be 19 – 24 year old males. Using Blumler and Katz uses and gratification theory, it could be said that the audience would watch this film for entertainment and for social interaction.
Id	The Dominant ideology of this opening scene could be represented by the affect of mental illness. The entire sequence is jumpy and blurred, not allowing you to focus on any thing for a long a period of time. This could show that the person that we are focussing on is mentally ill and can also not focus on anything. The sequence makes the audience feel uncomfortable and scared, which reinforces the dominant ideology that all mentally ill people are scary and that you should stay away from them.
L	The sequence consists of extreme close ups of different objects, creating tension and the feeling that something is going to happen. The extreme close ups of objects during the sequence also created confusion for the audience and from the start of the film. An enigma code is created, making the audience question what is happening and what is going to happen. The sequence also has fast and loud non-diegetic sound in it, creating a tense atmosphere. The non-diegetic music also contains random sounds that are throughout the entire sequence, making the audience confused. The editing of the clip is very jumpy and the clips are put together in a way that makes the audience feel uncomfortable. The lighting of the scene is muted and there is a red tinge in most of the clips, showing to the audience that there is danger in that situation.
In	The institution for this film was New Line Cinema. The stars of this film are Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. Brad Pitt’s name appears first in the credits, showing that he is probably the main character of the film. Brad Pitt usually plays the good guy in films, and is not very famous for playing criminals; therefore the audience would believe that he would be the “hero” of the story. Morgan Freeman’s name is the next to appear in the credits, showing he is probably going to be the second most important character in the film. Morgan Freeman, again like Brad Pitt, is not famous for playing the criminals, so he is probably playing the hero’s helper. The difference in age between the two stars could show that in the film Morgan Freeman could be Brad Pitt’s mentor, teaching him the things he need to know to catch the criminal.
N	The narrative of this sequence uses a series of Enigma Codes to make the audience interested in the story and want to carry on watching. As most films do, this film starts with an equilibrium, however this equilibrium is completely wrong and twisted due to the dirtiness, death and confusion of the sequence this could show the audience that if this is the equilibrium then the film is going to get even worse than it already is, probably by killing or hurting someone, to make the new equilibrium.
G	The opening of the scene is quite intense and makes the audience feel uncomfortable, while creating tension and the build up to something bigger that is going to happen. This is very common in the thriller genre. The sequence also has the feel of a villain or criminal doing something wrong; therefore, this could also belong to the crime genre. The opening is very typical for both these genres, as both usually create tension and suspense.