Attack The Block

I studied the 4 minutes 20 seconds opening scene of Attack The Block.

The first thing that came up on my screen was the Idents of:

• Film 4
• UK Film Council
• National Lottery Funds
• Big Talk Pictures
• Studio Canal

The opening scene of Attack The Block, is an extreme long shot of a night sky, showing a full sky of stars, then moving onto a shooting star - first reactions of the audience may be that this film is a Sci - Fi; the camera then moves down showing fireworks over a city, which could show that their is a celebration and this film is set in an urban culture. 

The scene then moves to an underground station, hinting that this film is set in London or a familiar area. The station is busy, the first shot we see is a medium close up of a blonde haired woman rushing, showing that it is rush hour time. Another ident is then posted onto the screen. ''Studio Canal''

The screen then turns to a medium shot of a brown haired woman (early 20's) the mis en scene shows the woman wearing a hat, scarf and coat, so the audience know that it is around winter time. The audience has now been introduced to one of the main characters in the film. The media language in the film shows a woman has a 'posh' accent, and is also on the phone to her mother, suggesting innocence and a possible victim in the film.



• Tense music is introducted into the film, adding suspense and intending to put the audience on edge.
• Idents are shown for a second time. 

The scene then moves to a low, long shot of the same woman wearing converse trainers walking away from the station and along suburb roads, then moves to an extreme long shot high angle of the woman walking away from the camera, showing the audience that this lady is possibly planning on walking home back to a more privaliged part of London.

The shot moves onto the lady walking past graffiti, which is part of the mis en scene, possibly showing that she is entering a dangerous or more unprivaliged part of London, foreboding possible events of the woman being in conflict of danger. As the shot moves onto the graffiti, rap music starts to play, which also gives the audience a bigger understanding of the area that the film is shot in and what type of enviroment this woman is about to walk into, and whom she may bump into. The music then moves back to a tense tone.

A firework then goes off making a loud 'bang' which scares the woman, making the audience more on edge, leading up to conflict.

There is then an over the shoulder shot of the woman walking in the direction of youths on bikes wearing hoodies, the mis en scene portrays a sterio typical bunch of rough youths and thugs. The woman then says ''oh fuck'' which expresses how scared she is of these youths. The audience now have their intended victim and villian characters. 

One of the said youths then pulls a knife out, mis en scene is used to show how violent this character is and leads up to suspense, along with the music in the background, the audience is intended to feel vunerable.

 The character holding the knife is immedietly shown as the alphamale.

The intended alphamale then throws the girl to the ground, his entourage then laugh. The alphamale then says ''give the phone, give the phone'' the urgency in his voice and the repetition could show dispare, he is also illiterate as he misses out the word 'me'. There is then a low angle medium shot of the alphamale, putting the audience in the woman's position, and making the alphamale more superior.

When said woman stands up for herself against the youths, they do not hold back on threatening to hurt her. One of the youths says ''gonna get merked, init'' the media language intends to show slang and illiterate speech to further proceed in expressing urban culture and downgrading these youths into being thick and stupid.

There is an extreme long shot of an object falling from the sky and crashing into a car nearby the scene, the woman victim uses this oppertunity to run away, one of the youths interrupts the alphamale and says: ''oh fam shes ghosting'' to which the alphamale replies ''allow it'', showing that the alphamale has something more important to deal with, he has another plan.

When the alphamale sees that the car has been ruined and available to break into, he proceeds to enter the car, even when urged not to by his uncomfortable friends. There is a medium close up of the other youths confused by what has just happened.

A threatening figure then attacks the alphamale, showing the alphamales first sign of weakness, moving the victim character onto the alphamale and the villian character onto the attacker. It is unclear what this figure is until later on in the film, it looks like a large dog, almost a warewolf. The alphamale then uses his knife for self defence and attacks the figure, it then howls and escapes through a broken barbed wire fence (mis en scene showing how rough the estate is). The alphamale's friends start to humiliate him; ''Mullerz got shanked by a doggy!'' The audience then knows the alphamales name, the first name introduced into the film, showing that this character will be of importance in this film. 

A close up of 'Mullerz' face is shown, showing the seriousness in his face, as well as the fear in his eyes, but a bandana is used to cover up half of his face, still showing his position as a threatening youth. Mullerz then says ''Im chasing that down, im killing that, watch'' which introduces the audience into the whole plot of the film. 

The intended audience for this film may be teenagers in knowledge of unprivaliged areas, who are also interested in aliens and conflict.