"Attack The Block" Research

Big Talk Films produced the film on a budget of around £8,000,000 with help from Film4, StudioCanal, and Film Council. The film was shot across London from March to May 2010, with six weeks of night shoots

Story Line: (from website) "Attack the block is a fast, funny, frightning action adventure movie that pits a teen gang against an invasion of savage alien monsters. It turns a London housing estate into a sci-fi playground. A tower block into a fortress under seige. And teenage street kids into heroes." A British film that has been written and directed by Joe Cornish whcih was released in May 2011.

Task: Use the information in the posts below to help you start your research on ‘Attack The Block'. Find out about:

• How it was produced

The film was shot between Mach and May 2010 throughout six weeks of night shoots on the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle, Myatts Field Brixton Oval tube station in Kennington and the Bemerton Estate in Islington. The council estate seen in the film is a mix of the several council estates which were found across Centeral London.

• What it was based on

Attack the block was based on an experience had by the fims writer and director, Joe Cornish. He got mugged near his home in Stockwell, South London (the film is set in Brixton, another town in South London that is boardered by Stockwell) which Cornish described as a "traumatic experience." He then decided to make a film based on that, however wanted to change the stereotype of the type of kids who mugged him. To do this, he investigated. Invterviewing and talking to youths in the local area on the street and at local youth clubs. From this research he came up with the film fantasyof mixing aliens with local teens therefore creating the film 'Attack the Block,'which was also inspired by films such at 'E.T' and 'Gremlins.' Cornish made sure that the main character, Brewin, was besed on himself.

• Any problems that arose in making the film,

Joe Cornish was dealing with first time actors which would be difficult to do and also increased the pressure that he was under, especially considering there were 11 kids on set. He had to use special effects, stunts, explosions, fight scenes, and they were shooting at night. Therefore they had a lot to achieve by the date of which they were to deliver the film, which is a lot to handle on a small budget British film.

• The directors views on the British film Industry

Joe Cornish feels that the British film industry's film-makers passion is matched by that of the audience, especially bloggers."They take their role of championing films very seriously, and they're led by the heart. If they dislike something, they won't write about it, unless they really feel it violates one of their principles. But in Britain you get a lot of ho-humming and boiled sweet sucking and here you get commitment and passion, which I think is really cool." He also believes that being an unknown film director helps a lot in the film industry.

• How they saved money, the technology used

It is cheaper to shoot on council estates than it is to hire out huge filming sets which means that they saved money and the reason the film was shot over 6 weeks at night is because the film follows the events of one night in London, and the darkness increases the tension and atmosphere when watching the film. The interior scenes were filmed at Three Mills Studios in East London.  FX shots (unusual effects) were used when creating the aliens in the film. These shots include a variety of computer generated images of fur, jaws, claws and paws for the creatures.

• Any issues with film rating, any controversy surrounding the film

The majority of the people who went to see Attack the Block stressed that the film rating was an issue. Parents of children said things such as "This is a smart but violent alien invasion movie, with heavy gore." Also, the swearing and cannabis smoking was a big deal, may critics criticised the film for the teenagers hanging around with a drug dealer who kept a room full of pot plants.

• The films promotion 

The films director Joe Cornish did a lot of exclusive interviews for various television programmes and magazines. 'Attack the Block' also used film trailers and posters as methods of promotion in order to gain recognition and awareness from the public

• The soundtrack (include information on the soundtrack creator and the types of music they referenced in their work).

The soundtrack for the film was an original score composed by Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton, 2 members of the electronic dance music group Basement Jaxx, and Steven Price except for the song played during the end credits ("Youths Dem Cold" by Richie Spice).
The films soundtrack includes the songs: "The Block", "Sam is Mugged", "Round Two Bruv", "It’s Raining Gollums", "Tooling Up", "Moses is Arrested", "Tell Me I’m Dreaming", "Throat Ripper", "Rooftops", "Moses - Ninja", "Just Another Day", "They Want Moses", "Actions Have Consequences", "Eat My Hat", "They Fell Out of the Sky", "I Need to Finish What I Started", "Turn the Gas Up", "Moses vs. The Monsters", "Moses the Hero" and "The Ends" - Basement Jaxx"
Basement Jaxx are an elctronic sound duo from London, England who have released seven albums since 1999 up to 2011. They produced the soundtract to the 2011 film 'Attack the Block.'