Attack The Block

Attack The Block;

Attack the block was written and produced by Joe Cornish.  Explaining in a recent interview with a swedish film firm, he says he took inspiration from his favourite films from the 80's (his childhood) such as E.T, Critters and  Predator, as well as his favourite gang films The Warriors and Streets of Fire, but especially any sic-fi films that incorporate suburban reality and fantasy. He wanted to create a film about his location from his childhood years and of his local area and environment, explaining it could be a 'cool' idea.

After being mugged in his local area of Stockwell South London, he was determined to beat the stereotypes of those who committed this crime, and so led him to begin research on the types who carried out this offence. During his research he spoke to and interviewed children on the streets and in local youth clubs and used what he learnt from these kids to begin to write a film about an alien invasion, carrying out his sic-fi fantasies using the backdrop of where he grew up. His vision seemed to be to break down the barrier of peoples views on todays youth, saying that kids 'test the boundaries of the world.' so is wrong to demonise them for their mistakes. Cornish also showed a great love for his city throughout the making of the film.

Big Talk Films produced the film on a budget of around £8,000,000 with help from Film4, StudioCanal, and Film Council. The council estate seen in the film is a mix of several different council estates found across central london. The film was shot across London from March to May 2010, with 6 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. Interior scenes were filmed at Three Mills Studios in east London. 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 ramps us the atmosphere in the movie.

However shooting only at night could have proven a problem as it may have been difficult to maintain the same time period over the 6 week period, and the team would have to face only problems that where thrown up at them during the recording periods. Also, due to Cornish wanting to give a realistic representation of the London youths, there is a heavy theme of London's gang slang, which could have been difficult for oversea viewers to interpret, sparking a debate whether to include subtitles for certain showings of the film. Also, with the lack of a blockbuster movie budget, Cornish could not afford to use masses of hollywood style CG special effects, but instead used old school simple practical effects to deliver his aliens.

While most of the special effects shots where created using different sources of technology, the aliens where created at first using costume. However, these aliens looked harmless, so where enhanced using editing software, paying particular attention to the jaw and fur of the creatures, using lighting and 3d effects to bring the aliens to life. In order to save money on the film, shots of the aliens are few and far between, but Cornish managed to find a perfect balance of how often to include the aliens in the film. Also having a roster of completely unknown teenage actors dramatically slashed the wage bills, allowing the film to stick to its tight budget.

The soundtrack for the film was an original mix composed by Basement Jaxx and Richie Price, both heavily involved in the dance/electronica music scenes, as well as hip hop, and this is evident in the songs selected by the pair, as the influences of these two types of music are heavy throughout the film.