Textual Analysis 2 final draft

8/10/2019 Textual Analysis 2 final draft

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Explore the ideologies and values communicated in the films 12 Years a Slave (2012) and

Adulthood (2008).

I am going to explore how the use of micro techniques used by Noel Clarke, director of

Adulthood (2008). A young man is released from prison and is on a mission to make things

right and change his ways. He meets an old friend who agrees to help him find who he

wants to apologise to. Adulthood is BBFC certified 15 and is a crime drama. The film is a

sequel to the film Kidulthood. The narrative supports the theory of Levi Strauss, binary

oppositionsprotagonist vs antagonist in this film. Adulthood also follows Propps narrative

theory. The protagonist Sam is represented as the hero and the antagonist Lexi represents

the helper. When Sam is released from prison he meets Lexi who agrees to help him find

who he wants to apologise to. This connotes to the audience the value of helping others.

Adulthood communicates ideologies of dominance and power to the audience in the first

scene. The use of establishing shots makes the location, a party under a motorway clear to

the audience. The use of the diegetic on-screen sound of rap and hip-hop music adds to the

communication of what is happening in this location. The director then uses a pan to show a

group shot of three young men and one girl plotting to teach a man in an expensive car a

lesson. Connoting dominance to the audience. This scene suggests to the audience that

people of a lower social economic group, the group of men are jealous of people of a higher

social economic group, the man in the car this is shown as soon as the group of men notice

the car.

The mise en scene used in this scene for example costumes, shows the audience the social

economic group each character belongs, the costumes each character is wearing such as the

group of boys in hoodies and tracksuits, further enhances the point the director is trying to

make suggesting to the audience what economic social group each character comes from.

As the scene continues the director uses a jump cut to show a profile shot of the man in the

car and from the same angle the young men breaking into the car and fighting the man for

his wallet. This communicates violence to show power and dominance to the audience

whilst connoting immaturity among the young men. In this scene the use of a series of jumpcuts intensifies the fighting action going on in the scene. The loud diegetic on screen sound

of the gunshot is used to make the audience jump and to add fear, violence and exhilaration

into this scene. The gunshot goes off the director uses a medium close up of one of the boys

who broke into the car face with a clear facial expression of fear with the diegetic

background sound off people screaming to further connote fear to the audience. This

suggests that the narrative will have excitement throughout. The opening scene of a film

foreshadows the themes shown through out the film such as gang culture and excitement.

Clearly communicating to the audience the directorsvalue of exhilaration.


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The fight scene in Adulthood between Sam and Jay, suggests to the audience Sams value of

changing his ways and becoming a new person. This scene also invokes feelings to the

audience that people can change. Jay is ready to kill Sam and get revenge but Sam just

wants forgiveness. The use of jump cuts to increase the pace of the fight making it seem

more violent to the audience. The use of a 360-degree tracking shot focuses the audienceattention to the characters positioned in the centre of the frame, making the already tense

moment feel even more intense to the audience, invoking the feeling of fear to the

audience. Suggesting something bad is going to happen as the scene becomes more intense.

The use of shot reverse shot with minimal space above the characters head in the frame

allowing the audience to see the background of a council estate in London. The use dialogue

further communicates these ideologies and values. The protagonist Sam says We dont

need to do this Jay this suggests to the audience that he no longer wants to be the type of

person who is mixed in with gang culture anymore and wants to change his ways, invoking

feelings of empathy to the audience. The director uses make up to make to characters face

look bruised and to make Jays cuts and bruises look more painful than Sams. This shows the

audience that Jay has been beaten up a lot more than Sam suggesting to the audience that

Sam is stronger than Jay, and because he is trying to change his ways he does not wont to

kill again he stops and tries to reason with Jay. Clearly suggesting to the audience Sams

personal ideology of changing his ways, showing to the audience that he is serious about

this change to his lifestyle.

I will also be exploring how the use of micro techniques used by Steve McQueen director of

12 Years a Slave, where a black man called Solomon Northup is kidnapped and sold intoslavery and a story is told of his fight for freedom and the struggles of black slaves of the

time. 12 Years a Slave (2013) has a BBFC certification of 15; the film is a biographic historical

drama. The narrative supports Todorovs narrative theory. The equilibrium is Solomon

Northup is a free man. The disruption of the equilibrium is when Solomon is kidnapped, the

attempt to restore the equilibrium is when Solomon first asks a white man to send a letter

to the man who granted his freedom and the restoration of the equilibrium is when the man

who granted Solomon his freedom comes to collect Solomon and take him back to his

family.

12 Years a Slave, the room where the slaves are being sold. This scene communicates

ideologies that in the 1800s slaves were treated like animals; this is shown when the slaves

are sold like cattle based on there size and looks. The directorsuses character positioning;

the slaves are positioned in the background. This scene shows the slaves positioned in neat

lines around the rooms, making them look army like and just like cattle they can be

inspected by their prospective buyer. Representing the slaveslack of choice, suggesting

they have no power and little importance. Positioning the slavesin neat lines around the

room symbolises the oppression that the slaves are put through. The use of non-diegetic

music makes the process of selling people like animals appear acceptable as if it issomething that happens every day, whilst still making the audience question the morality of


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this process. McQueen then invokes feelings of empathy to the audience. He has

deliberately chosen the separate the slave from her children to represent, also how inferior

she is and how unimportant her view on the situation is. McQueen uses mise en scene

character positioningof the sales man and plantation owner in the foreground positioned to

the left and right of the screen, showing the audience that they have importance whilstleaving space for with slave clutching her children in the background showing her little

importance but positioned in the centre whilst pleading the plantation owner to buy them

as well, showing that she is still important to the scene. The directors communicationof

importance is repeated later in the film, when Patsey is accused of running away. On her

return her reason for leaving was not good enough so she was punished. This communicates

to the audience that slaves were inferior and treated like property this also communicates

the value of property as the plantation owner would do anything to keep Patsey. In addition

this also communicates the plantation owners ideology towards their slaves; aman does

what he likes with his property the careful choice of dialogue enhances this point, clearly

communicating the plantation ownerspersonal ideology of what is his property so he can

do what ever he wants with it.

The use of mise en scene, the characters costumes and make up in both films highlighted

which characters had power. In 12 Years a Slave the slaves wore clothes that were dirty and

torn with little or no makeup to show them looking rough and tired, suggesting to the

audience that the slaves had little or no power. Whereas, the white people wore clothes of

a much higher quality that was neatly pressed with heavier make up making them look neat

and pristine, this represented them as the ones with power, this use of mise en scene is alsoused on Solomon played by Chiwetel Ejiofor throughout the film he wears less make up as

his freedom and power is taken away from him, showing to the audience how he slowly

loses his power, making him look more rough and tired as the power is taken away from

him.In contrast in adulthood many characters dress alike so the director uses props and

character positioning to show who has power for example the characters who dont have

much power are usually alone or only have one person with them whereas the characters

with power have many people around them or always have a weapon making them more

intimidating and powerful.

In conclusion, both films communicated strong ideologies and values, such as family;

betrayal and that people can change. With some values and ideologies contributing in both

films. Adulthood communicated the value that family is number one because Sam would

have done anything to keep his family safe, and the value of childhood because it wont last

forever. This was explained when Lexi realises that although she is an adult she has never

felt more like a child. In my opinion this ideology relates to teenagers especially because

they are always in a rush to grow up and be adults, without thinking what being an adult

really means. Adulthood also communicated the ideology that people can change; this is

shown at the end of the film when Sam proves to the audience that he has changed bystopping the fight with Jay. 12 Years a Slave communicated the value of self-preservation;


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this is shown when Solomon is betrayed by another slave who was also kidnapped. The

ideology of betrayal was mirrored in Adulthood when Sam found out that Lexi was the one

who told jay he was released. Also the value of freedom because it can be taken when you

least expect it, this was shown when Solomon was kidnapped. The value of family was a key

concept in both films because, both Solomon and Sams struggle was to make sure theirfamilies are safe this inspired them throughout both films, and clearly shows the link

between the ideological values of directors Noel Clarke and Steve McQueen and their

direction of dramatic films relating to real life situations and the value of family.

Word count: 1854

Adulthood opening

scene: Party under a

motorway.

Adulthood: young men

see the expensive car.


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12 Years a Slave: Slaves

being inspected in neat

lines by plantation owners.

12 Years a Slave: Patsey

pleading for forgiveness.

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Textual Analysis 2 final draft