Adulthood

The genre of this film is a British Gangster. We can easily establish this because in the opening sequence you see a couple of people rob a man in a car while their other gang mates are watching. Also a gun is fired at the man. The use of the gun indicates violence and gang culture. The audiences generic expectations are fulfilled because the opening sequence has strong connotations of gang culture. Their expectations could also be challenged though because it is not a typical gangster film, it is a film about modern teenage gangs in London which involves much more street crime instead of organised crime. The text does conform to the characteristics of the genre but the characteristics are much more modern than traditional gangster films as it represents what is going on now.
The use of mise en scene conveys strong meaning in this sequence because at the very beginning of the sequence it shows us flashbacks of what has previously happened and it gives up a brief look at the characters. It shows ambulances and police crowding around one person on the floor. This tells us that he is seriously hurt or dead. Now we have an idea of what the film could be about. Another scene is a party underneath a bridge. This has connotations of youths not caring about the law because it looks like an illegal party and because it is so blatant they know police will come buy they do not care. There is also a shot of two people smoking marijuana. This connotes to us that the youths of today do not care about harming themselves through drugs. This also reinforces the statement that youths do not care about the law because they are doing it when a lot of people are around. the location used is a very urban looking area. the set has been made to look like it is something that occurs reguarly. it is also made to look very grimey and street. The costume is very casual. It is either jeans and a t- shirt with a hoodie or a traksuit.This costume was chosen because the teenagers who have been in the media for antisocial behaviour have usualy worn clothes like this. Most youths that the media is aimed at are seen in this type of clothing that is shown so you can instanty tell that these people are going to be antisocial and break the law.
The camera shots vary a lot in the opening sequence. They use BCU shots of what is going on to give us certain images which we will translate to give us our view on what is going on. Also they use birds eye view shots to show us more generally what is going on. The movements are all very smooth and on the birds eye view shot, some of it is sped up to show us that what is going on is very energetic. They also move from shot to shot very quickly to add this feel to the scene. Sound anchors the images very well. At the very beginning there is only a light track played behind the shot. The rest of the sound is diegetic sound but it has been enhanced in post production. This gives us a more raw, gritty look towards the images. It also enhances their meaning and we think of them as being really important. Also British grime music is played which shows us the culture that we are looking at because this is what a lot of British teenagers listen to. We can learn that the characters have a very bad mentality because they are swearing, smoking and one of them is carrying a gun. Two of the character shoot a man and rob him just because he was looking at them. This is the mentality that many youths have today. Other non verbal language like very angry facial expressions show us that the characters may have something to prove because they are picking on people for no reason. The dialogue suggests that they are very aggressive characters because of the constant colloquial language and swearing. Also it tells us that these characters are street gangsters because of this. The director uses split images to show us more than one thing at once. This increases the energy of the scene and gives us more information in a shorter space of time.
The narrative is non linear because it starts with some shots from the previous film and then the real time scene is 6 years later. Also throughout the film there are flashbacks. The audience is positioned in the middle of the narrative even though the previous film shots are shown at the beginning of the film because they do not really find out what has happened until halfway through the film. We can tell that the characters are slightly alienated from society because they do not follow the law so they are looked upon in a bad light. The sequence also does not put us on these peoples side. The major theme in this narrative are modern youth mentality and how more and more people are beginning to follow this mentality. It also shows us that it is now getting out of hand and that we need to do something about it. Tension is created at the very beginning with the previous film shots. This creates a strong enigma because we want to know the result of the actions shown. The tension is then maintained by showing us the new characters and their mentality.
The social groups represented in this opening sequence is young, east end males. They are represented in a bad light because they are shown to be very aggressive and rude. They are criminals and they believe that people should share with them even though they do not even know them. The ideological discourse reinforces the idea of rising youth crime in the UK. It also challenges the mentality that youths have today and tries to tell people to stand up for them selves instead of following the crowd.
The target audience for this film is young adults and teenagers. This is because people will easily be able to relate to the film. The preferred reading for this film is that you do not have to follow the crowd and that it is probably better if you don’t. it is also that there are some youths who break the law and that they are a small gang. The aberrant meaning could be that these people are gang lords of organised crime. This would be wrong because the film is about street crime. I would read this text completely different to an older person because I will be able to relate to the film more because it is modern and about what is going on now with people my age. Older people may just think that it is another teen gangster film.