In the introduction of the film sequence we see a range of different conventions displayed which are seen in many of the social realism genre. Kidulthood is a hybrid between drama and social realism we see many aspects of the social realism genre intertwined with the drama genre. The film embarks on idents and credits giving the audience an insight into what type of institutions have been used to promote, produce and distribute the film.

Kidulthood starts with independent British film companies, which are not as popular as the mainstream Hollywood film companies such as Warner brothers. This gives us a minor signal of the tight budget they were working with. This gives us a minor signal of the tight budget they were working with.

The first 2 minutes of the film allow us to establish that the primary target audience is teenagers, aged between 15-20. The target audience would watch this media text as a way of identification due to the similarity of their psychographic.  As they are school children and given that the first scene is based in a school playground this is therefore is an environment they are able to relate to. Also the characters are explicitly seen dealing with struggles on a daily basis those teenagers may find similar to those they themselves experience. We can tell that this media text is aimed at teenagers due to the choice of language used. The characters communicate in a very restricted code they, speak in a colloquial manner which people within the working class social group tend to be associated with using.

The costumes that the characters wear portray their social background furthermore that they place higher value on their appearance rather than the opinion of others. The characters are all dressed in a stereotypical working class manner. The majority of students have tampered with their uniform; this shows their views on authoritative figures. It conveys that the school is not a grammar school where presentation is very important but maybe a comprehensive school in a deprived area. Their uniform reflects and represents the school; in this particular school the audience can see that the lack of the need to look presentable suggests that the standards of the school are very low and that there are not many legitimate authority figures for them to obey. The first thing we see in the film is a playground of drug taking, sexually active, teenagers from socially deprived backgrounds. This representation instantly challenges all traditional happy connotations of a playground and gives the audience an insight of what kind of issues and themes may be shown throughout the remainder of the film.

The film is presenting to the audience, a negative representation of teenagers however, some people would say that this representation is reflective of modern British society. Teenage girls are represented in a negative way in the opening sequence of this film we see an exchange of dialogue between two girls explicitly discussing sexual acts one of them have performed. This shows how girls of today’s modern society are more promiscuous and open about it with one another. The school overall looks like its majority is black children from working class families, however there are a minority of what look to be like middle classed children we can see this through their choice of costume in comparison with other students.

The girls from middle class homes look more presentable and clean however it appears that because of their failure to conform to the norms and beliefs of the majority they have been secluded which make them look like they are more vulnerable to bullies. There are no teachers present in this school this implies to the audience that these teenagers are not ones who aspire to achieve in academic success this helps the audience to see what kind of beliefs and values these pupils hold.