Attack the block

How is genre conveyed through the technical features of your film opening?

Genre is conveyed through many aspects in ‘Attack the block’, for example camera, editing, mise en scene and sound. The genre of this film is an urban hybrid of sci-fi, drama, comedy and action. It starts of with an establishing shot panning down from the stars and sky. Since it starts with the sky it shows that this is a sci-fi and the background music enhances that feeling. As it pans down it feels like someone from above is watching down on the earth or humans. The editor has chosen to not cut bits out from the first few seconds because he or she wants the viewer to feel like someone is watching from above. Throughout this there is a diegetic sound of a heartbeat, which enhances the feel of something bad occurring, it’s anticipating for the audience.

The camera pans down to urban London with the tube station being in the middle of the shot. We see fireworks going off and people with sparklers therefore this connotes it’s bonfire day. With all the fireworks going off you expect something to happen but the characters don’t see it or hear it because their hearing is masked by the noise of the fireworks.

We see a mid shot of a vulnerable woman, we think she’s vulnerable because of her dress sense: this is mise en scene. We can see she is associated with the middle class because of her shoes. She is wearing converses, which most middle class people wear rather then working class people.

As she walks to her destination, it is shown to us through action match. We see parts of her through different angled shots. Mainly close ups of her face, shoes, body etc., I think it has been edited in this style to show that there is something watching her in detail and the closer the shot gets it feels like something is getting closer.

We then see a close up of the graffiti and see flashing lights, when those lights flash we see a shadow and then it disappears. Lights and the camera create this effect. The connotation of this shot is significant because the graffiti shows she has walked straight into danger because the graffiti it’s self looks messy and rough. The way it’s been edited shows the audience that she has walked into danger and now something is going to happen.

In the next shot I can denote a shot reverse shot of a gang of black boys and this woman getting closer and closer which makes the woman look intimidated. As she tries to walk around the group there’s an action match of the gang surrounding her. We see low angle shots of the gang leader intimidating her, this connotes that he has more power than her. The high angle shot creates an image of vulnerability once again. Throughout this bit we see a lot of low angle shots of the gang showing that they have so much more power then this middle class woman.

In this situation I think they have chosen a black gang because in the media black youth are seen in a negative way. Obviously this woman has seen this gang and she wants walk on the other side of the pavement because she is scared.

Throughout this film-opening scene there are diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, which enhance our impressions on this film as a whole. It allows the audience to feel ‘urban culture’ and to acknowledge that something bad is going to happen by the pace of the background music.