Attack the Block: contexts and key sequences — Eduqas GCSE Film Studies C670
Eduqas GCSE Film Studies · C670
Attack the Block: contexts and key sequences
Attack the Block
What you need to know
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish, 2011): on Bonfire Night, a teenage gang in a South London tower block mugs a young nurse, Sam, then finds itself defending the block against an alien invasion, with its leader Moses taking responsibility.
Joe Cornish's first film, from the producers of Shaun of the Dead, inspired by his own mugging and by interviews with young people.
Filmed on a real South London estate; the aliens as a metaphor for how society and the police treat young Black men.
Key sequences to know in detail: the opening mugging and the first alien, the attack on the police van, and the ending.
Cinematography and mise-en-scène: dark streets lit by sodium lamps, neon and fireworks, the glowing teeth of the aliens, hoodies and BMX bikes, and the corridors and lifts of the block.
Editing and sound: fast cutting in the fights, delayed point-of-view shots, and the electronic score.
The few short lines of dialogue that matter most in these sequences, a few words each.
Short answers of the kind the first parts of the Section C question ask for: naming and describing a costume, setting or visually distinctive scene, and explaining how it creates meaning.
How to answer each part: the marks, and what the short identify and explain parts need as well as the extended answer, since naming a technique instead of a specific example from the film loses marks there. Practice questions to try, each headed 'Practice question' with its marks.
Quote only short lines of dialogue you're sure of, a few words at a time, and base every point on what happens in the finished film.
