Mise-en-scene in Kidulthood

In looking at the Mise-en-scene in the film Kidulthood, areas such as positioning of the characters/objects, set/props, facial expressions and body language, costumes and lighting/colour were looked at. All of these contribute into the making of the scene.

When looking at the positioning of characters and objects, in the first few minutes of Kidulthood it was easy to see that all characters were in particular groups, as they were all standing in groups in the school play ground. The fear coming from some characters is shown and focused on, for example when one male character spits in a girls hair. The girl comes across as weak, as she does not stand up for herself. This shows the social hierarchy and grouping in the school. Dominant characters of the film are shown a lot, you can see they're dominant as they show it in the way they stand and their facial expressions.
When a character is being beaten up, a high angle shot is being used. This is to show the power the dominant character has over the other character.

The set of the first few minutes of Kidulthood is at school. This is clear because of uniform, people playing football and a teacher being shown. It is also apparent this is set in London as the characters have accents to make this clear. Using a football as a prop shows something every day and normal that is going on at the school, people playing football.
There are also phones shown, and people smoking. These two props show the rule breakers clearly against the people who are not rule breaking, so it is easier for the viewer to see who the bad and rebellious characters are.

Facial expressions and body language are important in the first few minutes of Kidulthood as it shows the social hierarchy of the school. The fear of characters who have lower social status is shown by people walking away from the rebellious characters. Also, the characters who have lower social status keep a straight face when near to the rebellious characters, as if not to cause any trouble with them. They also look at the floor a lot, showing lack of confidence and fear to the audience. Rebellious characters are shown with facial expressions showing they have attitude and are angry, as if to strike fear into others, to show they're important.

The main costumes used are school uniforms. As the school uniform is quite scruffy looking, this shows how the school is not a private school. Rule breakers and rebellious characters are shown with costumes which would go against the school rules. For example, girls with gold earrings and high up hair. These aspects of the costumes makes it clear these characters are in a particular group. Another group of boys is shown wearing hoodies over their school uniform. They are shown as a separate group of their own as they all wear hoodies and all stick together.

Colour and lighting is used to show the mood of the first few minutes of Kidulthood. The colouring of the scenes are not bright, they are quite dull. This could represent how the characters think that school is dull. The lighting is natural, there is no studio lighting. Making this film more realistic for the audience.
In the scene where one of the characters is beaten up by another girl, it is in a classroom. The classroom has quite bright lighting, as the light is bouncing off the white walls. Bright lighting is usually a place of safety in films, but in Kidulthood this proves to be wrong, as the girl is beaten up in this lighting.