Bayo Textual Analysis Adulthood

Name of Film: Adulthood

Director: Noel Clarke

Release Date: June 20 th 2008

Genre: Crime, Drama

The name of the film which I will be directing is titled Adulthood, a film written and directed by Noel Clarke, from the Crime and Drama Genre. This film was released on June 20th 2008. This film is a sequel to the previous film Kidulthood. The controversial contemporary drama that depicted inner-city London life for a group of adolescents. Sam Peel has just served six years for killing a youth and now he is a free man. But life isn't any easier on the outside, because on the streets he is forced to confront the people he hurt on a daily basis - and someone is after revenge.

Narrative:

Torodovs narrative theory.

Torodovs narrative theory outlines that most stories and films’ plot lines follow the same pattern or path, in this theory there are 5 steps.

1. The first part of the story is called ‘equilibrium’. This will begin with everyone and the equilibrium of the film calm and gently flowing, as with most movies. The majority of characters are content and everything is as it should be.

2. Second there is a disruption. This is the disruption of the equilibrium. This can occur by someone being killed in the beginning of the movie or a gunshot, an explosion etcetera. In explanation disrupting the calm flow of the films’ equilibrium.

3. Third is called ‘realisation.’ This means that everyone realises the problem and know which actions need to be taken to fix it in order to restore the proper equilibrium.

4. Fourth is ‘restored order’. This indicates that the characters attempt to repair the damage and restore the lost equilibrium. For example a hostage situation in a police movie, the police make take out or arrest the thugs in order to restore order a reset the equilibrium.

5. Lastly the equilibrium is restored and everything in the film is as it should be in explanation a ‘new equilibrium’.

Levi Strauss’s Theory of binary oppositions.

Strauss was a French anthropologist who lived in the early 1900’s. He believed that the way we understand certain words depends not so much on any definition, they themselves directly contain, but much more by our understanding of the difference between the word and its ‘opposite’ or, as he called it ‘binary opposites’.

Another example includes our understanding of the word ‘villain’ depends on the difference between that word and the opposing word ‘hero’. Within the media field, binary oppositions in the horror genre. Many horror films include sets of binary oppositions in their plots. Particularly good and evil, sane and insane, rational and irrational and human and supernatural.

Bayo Textual Analysis Adulthood

Binary Oppositions in Adulthood.

From watching the trailer of Adulthood we immediately see that there are multiple binary oppositions and they all include Sam. One example includes Sam and the boys who have been hired to kill him, another is Sam and Alyssa as she still hates him for killing Trife in the previous film. There is more such as Lexi and the girls who work with her insulting her and her cousin. Lastly there is binary opposition between Sam and Trifes uncle who wants to kill him and we see flashbacks of Trifes uncle hurting Sam while in jail and Sam displays the scars as evidence to show Jay what he has been through as there is also a binary opposition between Sam and Jay.

The narrative of this movie is open since the movie tells the story, however there are flashbacks throughout to show Sam’s time in jail and how he was abused by Trifes uncle and other inmates. Sam’s time in jail was difficult and is of course useful for the audience to see to give us a better understanding as to why Sam has a different mentality when he comes of jail compared to his previous years as a teen.

The narrative is restricted since we do not know who is killed or who commits suicide, since in the previous film a girl hangs herself and Trife is killed. So the audience follows Sam through the film and knows what he knows at the time he receives information or has learned something new.

Jay is immediately known to the audience as a clear product of the environment where this film is set, whilst he is selling drugs to a university student and his fiancé, his tone and way of speaking immediately highlights his character and attitude in the movie, for example: ‘Put your hand down, your baiting me out blud!’

Genre Codes and Conventions.

The characters of this genre are typical, since the way they dress, act, talk and their choice of slang. The film genre is also obvious due to the locations and setting of the film, this is location in an urban community where crime and illegal activities regularly take place. Also choice of clothing: such as dark hoodies and caps or snapbacks baggy trousers and low-batty (wearing trousers below the waste leaving their underpants visible) as this style is mostly practiced in London the way in which typical gangsters would dress. Also the constant use of the slang word ‘blud’ (most commonly used in London) suggest they are from a low class community.

The costumes of the characters are regularly worn by teenagers and young adults in London. The costume that Mooney (On the left) wears in this film challenges stereotypes and how young black adults dress. ‘Mooney’ is the only one from the original cast (Cast of Kidulthood) that appears to wear formal clothes while Jay (On the right) still looks like he has a childish mentality and hasn’t

really matured since leaving school.

The rest of the characters also dress in an informal way which is typical of the genre to have characters that are have an urban background.

Bayo Textual Analysis Adulthood

The facial expressions of the characters throughout the film are regularly angry and this is also typical of a crime/drama genre. Criminal activities often happen when feeling an emotion of anger or distress and these emotions are shown on the characters faces throughout.

The story line is also seen to be typical to some viewers since gangs and streets will revolve around murder and drugs, respect etcetera. The film genre is also typical to the way that the characters act for example, frowning, shouting etcetera.

The story line is typical in terms of the genre. Crime & drama genres are most likely to be set in the street and have weapons and dangerous people involved.

Analysis of 2-3 min extract.

The 2-3 minute extract I have chosen has a variety of shot types such as close ups, long shots, extreme close ups, tracking shots and point of view shots. There are also a variety of angles used in this extract such as eye level angles and low angle shots. Different close ups are very typical of the genre because they are regularly used when a character has a weapon in their hand and are about to use it.

Sam tries to run upstairs after breaking a former cell mates arm but then goes the opposite direction when he hears armed police burst into the house. He then run into the toilets and locks the door to prevent the police from entering. When the police enter the house and put all the people in the house to ground the angle changes from an eye level to low angle to show who is superior in this scene.

There is also an extreme close up of when Sam is trying to wipe his gun to get rid of his finger marks on it. This allows the audience to see his specific actions and how desperate and eager he is to get rid of his finger prints. Extremely close ups are regularly used in crime genre’s to particularly make the visuals clear because everything is happening at such a quick speed.

There is also a close up on Sam’s face when he is first enters the toilet and locks the door. From his facial expression we can see that he feels helpless and is in all types of destress. This shot was used to capture the

Bayo Textual Analysis Adulthood

facial expressions of Sam to represent and for the audience to interpret the emotions he may feel. This is commonly used in Crime/Drama genre’s so the audience know the state of the characters when participating in such an active scene.

This scene also contains POV (Point of view) shots when Sam first acknowledges the window and when he runs towards the window. This allows the audience to visualise being the character and feel participant in this scene. This is common in this genre mostly to show the characters sight and what is catching their attention at a particular moment.

During this scene there is a tracking shot when Sam escapes from the house and is running from the two officers standing the window. This shows the journey of his escape and how the distance from the police officers gets bigger and bigger. There is also a long shot that is used when Sam is running away from the police. This was used to show the distance from Sam and the Police. It also gives the audience an understanding of their surroundings.

During this scene there is non-diegetic music playing in the background. A mixture of guitars, drums and female vocals is present when Sam is running. This intensifies the situation. Non-diegetic music is typical of a crime & drama genre because it adds tensions to aggressive scenes.

The editing in during this extract is fast paced with each clip approximately lasting 2-3 seconds to show the intensity of the situation. This contributes to informing the audience about how dramatic and intense the scene is, for example, there is a clip of Sam staring at the window he is planning to use to escape. The camera zooms into his face after every loud bang made by the police when trying to break down the door which was edited this way to increase the awareness of how much tension there is in this scene. This is typical of a crime genre as intense situations regularly occur in this genre but mostly involving fire arm.

Bayo Textual Analysis Adulthood

The settings of this scene is in a house where drugs deals are made this is a location is typical for police to raid which was a good choice for the setting. The props used in this scene are guns which is extremely common for a crime & drama genre and this contributes to the codes and conventions of the genre.