Blog 20 - Research into Kidulthood

Kidulthood is an drama showing a day of a trouble 15 - year old boy who lives in the Streets of West London. This movie explores many stereotypes to do with the youth of today, exploring crime, sex and drugs. The movie had an estimated budget of £600,000 and was released 5 march 2006, the opening weekend gross profit was £100,056, its Box office was £453,876. 

Target audience: 

Kidulthood appealed more to a younger audience the reasons for the this is because in various of scenes it shows many teens in uniforms, which could suggest why Kidulthood has a younger audience because young teens can relate to the storyline or maybe some could relate to the lifestyle presented in Kidulthood as the teens in the uniform shows to the audience what age group the movie consist of. 

(UK 15)

Genre and Sub-genre: 

Indie Film

Teen Drama 

Themes raised in the movie:

Gang Violence: 

Gang violence is really explored in Kidulthood, it presents and shows to the audience some of the issues in London today. Trife the man character is used to demonstrate this gang violence in one day. Trife gets into trouble with a well known gang member in the Streets of West London and forced to earn a name on the Streets, which leads to violence and conflict. 

Sex, Drugs and Alcohol:

The theme of sex, drugs and alcohol is also explore in Kidulthood, as it is shown in the scene of the two girls becky and Alisa as they have sex with an older male in order to fund for their drugs. This is exploring a deep issue in the generation of today.

Relationships:

Kidulthood also consist of a love relationship through Trife and Alisa as in the film they are each others exs, however, down the line Alisa is pregent and they decide to get back together in order to give their baby a stable life by sticking together. 

Marketing Strategy:

The marketing team for Kidulthood went by advertising the film in way which isn't really costly as a servey showed that 33% of the people that watched the movie heard it by the word of mouth, suggesting the marketing team done very well in terms of advertising the movie with out using a lot of money, using things such social media websites, like, facebook, twitter and many more. 

The movie also consist of soundtracks by grime artists such as Shystie, Lethal Bizzle, Dizzle Rascal these are all well known grime artist wshich again is another way the marketing team for Kidulthood went by advertsing the film. 

Kidulthood distribution company, Revoler Entertainment also produced many copies on DVD, this is will be good for the movie as it means more people have access to the movie, also giving more people more options on where to watch the movie.  

Character Profiles:

Trife:

This character is an 15 teen year old, who grows up in which could be consider as the "hood". The character follows in the stereotype of young youths today. Trife is made to earn his reputation on the roads of London by his actions.

Alisa:

This character plays as trife ex girlfriend who then becomes pre gent with his child. This again can be consider as a stereotype of young teens now days. The writer also explores the theme of relationships through Alisa and Trife as they come together in order to give their baby a stable family and life.

Jay:

Jay is also one of Trife best friends. However, not like Mooney Jay tends to get into his own conflict within this movie. This character plays a major role within this film as many conflict scenes are explored by Jay as his character seems to gets into a lot of trouble but needs his friends to help him with his trouble, some may suggest he is a selfish character as he tends to do what is best for him.

Mooney:

This character plays as one of trife best friends, silimar to to trife he is bought up in the same "hood" as trife, they experience and go through the same troubles. However, out of the friendship group Mooney is the most humble as this character plays in the middle of Trife and Jay as they get into a lot of conflict whereas, Mooney is the one who is trying to keep the friendship group tight.

Becky:

" local slut"  This character is one who is seen as very weak mentality, as she is easily led by boys. She is seen as weak mentality because she is used by boys sexual and then treated wrongly. This character has no other interests than sex,drugs and partying. Therefore, this could be presentation a stereotype within in todays society.

Sam:

Sam is considered as your typically villain in youth dramas. Sam character is seen to be a boss or feared on the streets of London, who tends to cause a lot of conflict within this film. The character sam is really exploring some major issues with the youths today in London, Kidulthood presents these issues to a large audience of people in the UK in order to raise awareness in some of the issues today, this character explores and presents these issues very well within the movie.