Attack the Block Research

How It Was Produced:

Big Talk Productions who are famous for Shaun Of The Dead, produced this film with Film4, The UK Film Council and StudioCanal. The block of flats it was filmed in was a composite of different council estates across London. The film itself was shot across London from March to May 2010, with 6 weeks of purely late night shoots. It was filmed on the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle, Myatts Field Brixton Oval tube station in Kennington and the Bemerton Estate in Islington. The interior scenes of the flats were filmed at Three Mills Studios in east London. The film's production budget was approximately £8 million.

What It Was Based On:

Attack The Block is a Sci-Fi action/comedy about a group of South London teenagers that find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion where they must fight and defend their home (block of flats) from evil extraterrestrials. The film starts off where a nurse 'Sam' is being mugged by a gang of Black British teenagers, however something crashes from the sky into a nearby car, the nurse uses this confusion to run whereas the gang decide to investigate the car for any valuable assets to steal, whilst doing this one of the gang members is attacked by an unknown creature, which they all eventually kill. This was influenced by something Joe Cornish himself experienced, this inspired him to create the first scene in the film and inject a sci-fi edge to it. It was also inspired by Cornish's great love for sci-fi films he watched as he grew up such as E.T, Critters, Predator and also the gang movies he loved such as The Warriors, Streets of fire and The Outsiders. But more than anything Cornish wanted to create a new genre of film which mixed Fantasy and South London suburban reality.  The film went on to box office £3,615,712, which indicates a huge loss from the millions it cost to make.

Problems That Arose In Making the Film:

A main problem that arose whilst filmmaking, was due to the low budget  3D CGI features were not available for use for special effects, so instead Cornish had to tackle the problem by instead of fully showing the aliens themselves to just suggest they were there by using practical and 'old school' effects. Another problem was due to the film being based on an alien invasion at night in the dark all of the filming had to be done throughout the night, which ended up in 6 weeks of continuous late night filming. Also another problem that was outlined mostly in the US was the use of British slang in the film that could be hard for people abroad to understand and connect with, therefore an idea of having to use subtitles was prompted.

The Directors Views On the British Film Industry:

Cornish describes himself to have been 'lucky' to have made the film with Big Talk Productions who are renowned for making the hit film Shaun Of The Dead. He gives them great credit for 'protecting him' and making it easy for him as the director to focus on making the film.

How They Saved Money, the Technology Used:

Cornish helped to save money mostly on the type of effects they used to produce the film. For example 3D CGI wasnt used to create special effects for the alien but instead they used practical and 'old school' effects such as puppeting and giving the aliens glow-in-the-dark teeth. They also only used CG to remove any unwanted details of the puppets rather than the usual of editing in effects. Although the film wasnt produced using top, highly priced technology like Hollywood films, it still contains the usual action film's explosions, chases, stunts etc. Another huge saving Attack The Block made was the actors/actresses used, all apart from Nick Frost were unknown/new actors some without any experience at all, this made a massive saving but could also have made them lose money because having leading, well known actors/actresses helps to sell a film because of their loyal fan bases, whereas Attack The Block probably didnt get this sort of promotion to help.

Issues With Film Rating & Controversy Surrounding the Film:

Attack The Block had no issues whatsoever about the film rating which was a 15. Or in fact any controversy surrounding the film. It was a highly anticipated film from the British public and was recieved pretty well in Britain for its South London suburban reality and humour.

The Film's Promotion:

Attack The Block was promoted in a number of ways; tv adverts, cinema trailers, teaser trailers, UK & US official trailers, posters, magazine adverts, soundtrack available for purchase on Itunes etc, interviews with tv programmes and journalists in the UK and US, interviews with the director Joe Cornish talking about the upcoming film with journalists in the UK and abroad. The film/media magazine Little White Lies dedicated a whole issue to Attack The Block. Attack The Block got its own special trailer for the US which was specially suited for North American audiences, they also released a new clip of one of the movie’s many tension-building sequences. And most importantly Attack The Block had its own premiere in Leicester Square, London.

The Soundtrack:

The soundtrack for Attack The Block was collectively composed by Simon Ratcliffe, Felix Buxton and Steven Price. Both Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton who are both part of the electronic dance music group Basement Jaxx and then Steven Price who is a British composer. This soundtrack was released on 16th May 2011 it is available to buy on Itunes, Amazon, HMV and more. The soundtrack includes 20 tracks.