A Room For Romeo Brass- Shane Meadows- 1999

I'm now going to look at A Room For Romeo Brass which is about two 12 year old boys, Romeo and Gavin, who's friendship is tested when Morrel enters their life. He at first appears to be their friend but the audience become suspicious because why would an adult be hanging out with children? When Morrel gets rejected by Romeo's sister he quickly becomes obsessed, violent and desperate. And the story goes on from there.

The Sequence-

The opening sequence begins by showing ' Alliance Atlantis' and then cuts to the start of the film 

 

After the first scene the camera cuts to the production and distribution companies                

 

 

The Directors name then follows. This then cuts back to the film.

So the order that the titles are presented is quite irregular. as opposed to horror film where they are usually presented either before or after the opening sequence, not during.

 Character development-

The audience don't really find out much about the plot of the story in the opening sequence as not a lot really happens. It does however reveal two of the main characters- Romeo and Gavin. You get a real sense of their relationship with each other due to the light banter that they exchange throughout the opening sequence. It's evident that they have a real understanding of each other. The focus on their relationship foreshadows that their friendship may be put into question later on in the film. 

Enigma Codes- what the audience want to know from the opening sequence. 

♦ Who are the characters and what are their names?

♦ What is their situation?

♦ Are they going to be the main characters?

♦ Is the story going to be based on their friendship?

Mise-en-scene- 

The beginning scene is set in the country side, a simple setting that allows the focus to be on the characters as there is no background action going on. The picturesque landscape also creates a calm tone to the beginning of the film and could reflect how they feel relaxed around each other due to their friendship.

From their dialogue, it's hinted to the audience that they have come out to the countryside to escape from their lives; leading the audience to believe that they may not have the greatest home life. 

In the second scene you see Romeo and Gavin heading through a seemingly run down, deprived town and into a chip shop. This scene makes it even more certain that they don't live privileged lives.

Lighting-
As is typical and expected of the genre, the lighting is natural day light. Although it's natural the lighting doesn't help to create a positive tone. This is because the sky is over-caste and so makes the setting dull, also reflecting the area that they live in and their situation.

Cinematography-

In the opening scene the camera tracks their movements as they walk across the grass, Finally coming to a halt at a tree.

Through out this shot the characters remain at a long shot distance, allowing the audience to see how they act around each other as well as the setting in the background.

When you see them walking to the chip shop, it's shot from an extreme long shot to make sure the audience see clearly how run down the area is.

It's only when they enter the shop that the camera cuts to some medium shots of them; there aren't any close-ups or extreme close-ups as they aren't really expressing any emotions that need to be exaggerated.

There is however, some over the shoulder shots so that the audience see the narrative from the main characters point of view, but other than this there's no other specific camera angles have been used.

Editing-

The cuts in the opening sequence aren't very frequent as the pace is slow reflecting the calm tone to the narrative. The first part of the opening was shown in one continual shot with no cuts at all. There are more cuts once in the shop but still they are fairly slow and calm. No special effects have been used so there isn't really anything else to say!

Sound-

In the first part of the opening sequence, the sound is entirely diegetic consisting of their dialogue as well as the birds chirping in the background. Once the camera cuts to the titles the sound becomes non-diegetic, as  it plays an up beat song that could be seen to reflect their attitudes and their friendship. There is something about the song that seems quite quirky and may reflect that they are young boys and can be 'trouble makers'. This song then carries on into the rest of the opening sequence.