Attack the Block Revision Task

Create a fact file with the following headings

1. Institutional information
Director Production Companies Budget
2. Target Audience
Primary
Secondary
3. Main audience appeals
4. Typical sci fi conventions
5. Examples of how this is a hybrid genre
6. Issues addressed
Ganges
Drugs
Poverty
Government ignoring social problems
7. Detailed scene analysis (five scenes with screen shots)
8. Representation how black young people are constructed
in BOTH positive and negative ways how are the police
represented in contrast?
9. Discuss how the message of the film is how we
stereotype young (black) people. How we see them as
monsters how the media stereotypes and how we the
public respond to these stereotypes
Below are my notes from the final screening of the film
Attack the Block is a wonderful case study for you. The hybrid nature of
the film (Science Fiction, Comedy, Action) really lends itself to being
very popular, not just with a primary audience which is teenagers, but
with a secondary audience of older adults as well and Science Fiction
fans and therefore the production of the film really does attract a very
wide audience, which makes it easier to market and make money.

The director is Joe Cornish and the budget was 13million, so fairly low
budget.
ISSUES
There are many issues that are raised in this film. Even though its a
comedy, the issues are really quite serious and it just shows how a
science fiction film can address really important issues, not just in
relation to the future but in relation to whats going on now, so the
quote at the end when the characters are quite traumatised and have
been through a terrifying ordeal, I wish Id just gone home and played
FIFA. This is quite a touching quote as this reminds us that these key
characters are just young boys really who in their heart, dont want to
be involved in gangs and drugs and crime. Theyre actually quite
innocent, just like any other boy and it subtlety reminds the audience
to think about young people in the media who are represented as
being hooligans and monsters, where at the end of the day theyre just
individuals who have had a very difficult upbringing as suggested in
the narrative resolution of Moses, who you find out lives with his uncle
who is hardly ever there. The flat looks very unkempt and completely
unloved. There doesnt seem to be any nurturing influence in his life
and this gives you a bit of important context as to why he might be so
ruthless. It doesnt excuse but explains some of the triggers around the
awful behavior that we see at the beginning of the film.
There is a very clear reference to the feeling in society by many people
that the government just doesnt care. That people on estates, people
living in impoverished inner city environments have been very much
abandoned by the government and have been left to a world of
violence and crime and disadvantage. So there is a very important
quote by Moses at the end where hes reflecting on whats happened
and he says, First they sent the drugs, the guns, now they send
monsters. They just dont care. He also uses the very enigmatic quote
Actions have consequences. The quote Actions have consequences
could link to the boys and the fact that the whole nightmare theyve
endured is a result of the behavior that theyve decided to make right
at the beginning of the film, mugging the girl and getting involved in
the alien, but also the Actions have consequences quote also links to
the government, that if you dont look after your people, if you allow
people to grow up in lives where they do not have hope fundamentally,
that is going to lead to problems. Its going to lead to riots, its going to
lead to crime, its going to lead to drugs and guns dominating the
streets, its going to lead to gangs dominating the streets just as they
are at the moment and nobody benefits from that so even though its a
comedy, the director really does manage to embed into the script
many wonderful and powerful references to real world issues and that
would be really important to talk about in the exam if that was raised
as a question.

There is a sense of children being abandoned in this country, that there

is a real problem with children that the government arent addressing
and when Sam is questioned about her boyfriend and what he says
and she tells them he is basically abroad helping impoverished
children. There is a question asked Why doesnt he help the children
in this country? and again that just imbeds further in our mind the
really important issue that there are terrible issues that need to be
addressed in this country that affect us all.
CONVENTIONS
There are so many wonderful science fiction convections evident
throughout this film and at points the film really comes to life as a true
science fiction film particularly the scenes around and in the estate
that are dominated by a sickly green filter that almost encourages us
and positions the audience to think about this real world in a slightly
unreal way which is important because there are monsters terrorizing
the people on the estate, this is not real, this is pure science fiction
narrative so the green filter that colours much of the action is very
reminiscent of classic science fiction films and that editing decision is
very a decision to construct Attack the Block as a science fiction film.
Many of the sounds, the non-diegetic soundtrack for example at times
moves away from the realistic Hip-Hop soundtrack and is instead
replaced by a more sinister, metallic science fiction eerie soundtrack
with all the connotations of suspense and enigma that we would
expect. Clearly, many prosthetics are used throughout the film to
enable the really disgusting, grotesque attacks on the humans and that
is obviously a very classic science fiction convention, so we see necks
pulled apart, faces are bitten into, bodies explode. So fantastic special
effects of prosthetics have enabled that to happen. Much of the
camera work is classic science fiction, we have these wonderful drone
shots across the estate looking down on this vulnerable world that is
being attacked by these monsters as well as many very low angle
shots looking up at the estate constructing really wonderful hyper
masculine framing. Thats classic science fiction camera work
construction. Lighting is also incredibly convention of science fiction.
Theres lots of suspense, theres lots of enigma so we get a great deal
of low key lighting that creates amazing shadows and we also get an
abundance of back lighting which creates silhouettes of the characters
and given that much of this action happens at nighttime, the
silhouettes against the shadowy walls really do create a very sinister
look. Some of the iconography (the key symbolic visual images) does
not pertain to a classic science fiction film; for example, the focus on
drugs, guns, and gangs is not a visual code that wed normally expect
with science fiction but this is a hybrid so all of those visual references
to drugs and guns and gangs, they establish this film as a very realistic
film set in the now rather than in the future.

The camera work is very dramatic, there are lots of forward zooms,
reverse zooms, whip pans, fast cut editing, very dramatic pace.
Key visual codes.the smoke, the black, the silence and the enigma
that is created particularly in the scenes where theyre looking for the
alien and as they are searching theres this wonderful outside scene
thats very smoky, very dramatic just as the dog gets lost down to the
mercy of the alien, thats a really good scene to talk about. Other
scenes such as the Mercedes car where they clearly establish the drug
deal theme, again that reminds us that this is a hybrid.
REPRESENTATION
So much of the time we see the gang with their stereotypical dress
codes of the hoodies, the bandanas, the urban wear, all dark clothes,
gesture codes very moody, very intimidating, theyre very much
represented in a stereotypical way. We do also see them as just young
boys. Nick Frosts character makes a subtle aside: Theyre quite sweet
really and we see them chasing through the playground on their
bikes. The innocent comedy, the banter, the camaraderie that theyve
got between each other. There is definitely, as the film progresses a
sense of them as real individuals reminding us that those gangs and
those gang members that we see on the news every day, there is
another side to how theyre being represented and often not a side
that we think about very much.
The representation of the girls is interesting. They are represented
completely different to the boys; theyre a massive binary opposite.
The girls are actually represented in a very positive way so if you get a
question about representation this is a great film to do. Although the
boy are represented quite stereotypically, although that does change
throughout the film, the girls are definitely presented as tough, they
are fighters, they are streetwise, theyre not completely wild. Its not
like theyre roaming the streets in the way the boys are, theyre in their
rooms painting their nails, they are constructed very much as girls who
enjoy talking and being together and chatting on the bed, but they are
also represented as very tough and as much as they are protected by
the aliens, they also serve to protect the boys. Very positive
representation of the girls, which is a really good talking point.
Moses at the end when hes hanging James Bond like from the British
flag. Thats a very powerful image, reminding us that these boys are
British, that they are part of our community, our world. Theres a sense
that Moses being represented as a hero a national hero protecting
people. There are almost visual references to James Bond and Rambo
in the way that he strips off his top and hes low angle, physical, and
majestic taking on the monster. He goes through a complete
transformation which you might argue is stereotypical or not.

Theres lots of hyper masculine framing thats obviously where the

composition of the shots is very linear in a vertical way. The estate is
very much used as a spaceship, which is what Joe Cornish, intended.
Lots of lighting, the composition makes this estate almost look like
some kind of futuristic spaceship.
Theres lots of comedy. Comedy seems to be generated mostly from
Brewis and the Nick Frost character who bring a very gentle
compassionate tone to the film so theres lots of binary opposites in
terms of characterization, themes, visuals, sound. Its a brilliant film, it
touches on every theme, it touches on important issues rather than
what ifs the only what if question that is kind of posed is what would
happen to society if we actually dealt with the gang issue? If we dealt
with poverty? If we dealt with race issues? What would our world look
like? So it does pose a what if issue but in a slightly different way to
the more classic science fiction films.