A Room for Romeo Brass Opening

Narrative Context

A room for romeo brass follows he lives of two young boys. In the film they be- friend an older man who later starts having a love interest with one of the boys sisters. The older man than turns out to be very different then what they expected.
The narrative if the opening is not very story heavy. It more shows the relationship between the boys. It starts with them walking up a hill having a conversation. And than different events follow which sums up there average day. One of the events is Romeo goes to the fish and chip shop to et his family dinner, but he ends up eating all the food. 

Enigma Codes
Due to this opening showing little of th story, almost no questions are raised about the story. The opening is very happy and funny, and gives the audience the tone of the film, but nothing happens that has any major implications later. I think this shows some of the conventions of social realism opening sequences. The fact that little story is divulged is commo in these openings.


Characters

The two main characters represented in the opening are Romeo Brass and Gavin "Knocks" Woolley- Romeo's best friend. Romeo is shown as being quite greedy in the opening, especially in the scene in the chip shop. This greedy characters is balanced out by the other side which is shown- the comical side. Both characters are comical in the opening, bouncing of each others lines. In this opening, it appears at first that Knocks is the leader as in the first shot he is leading Romeo up a hill. But later on Romeo seems to be the leader as he refuses to buy Knocks anything in the chip shop ad than leads Knocks out. I think the mix of leadership is very effective as it shows how close the pair are- something which is a strong theme later on in the film. I think the way that only these two characters are introduced in the opening is very effective as it makes the film all about them, and tells the audience straight away who the main characters are.



Location
The locations in the opening are differant ones around the town that Romeo and Knocks live in. The first location seen is a hill that the pair are walking up. The dialog shows that this  place is special to them, and this joined with the fact that it is an isolated place shows that audience straight away how close the pair are. Other locations include the chip shop. An iconic symbol, with connotations of working class Britain, this location is very effective and shows the audience the characters class and lifestyle. There are many other locations involved around the town, such as a small hill, two benches ad the pair climbing over a fence. The use of lots of different locations firstly gives the audience a feeling of time changing throughout the day, and also give a sense of how casual the friendship between the pair is. The last location you see is the friends homes, they live in what appear to be semi- detached houses next door to each other. The look of the houses give a strong idea o what lifestyle the pair live. The fact that they live next door to each other is also good as it shows the audience that they are possibly long friends.

Editing
The editing in this opening does nothing very out of the norm, as the camera is used more to create effect than the editing. Continuity editing is in place, such as when the pair walk into the chip shop.

Camera


The opening sequence starts with a long shot of the pair walking up a hill. And this is followed by a long shot of the pair sitting at the top of the hill. These long shots are effective as they show that it is just the two boys there, and shows how close they are. The long shot of the hill also shows the adventurous sides of the characters. 



 The camera often stays still for a long time. This is used when the pair are walking down a street and also a lot of the time when the pair are sitting down. When the pair are sitting on a bench the camera stays still in one shot for the hole conversation. This makes the film seem more realistic and less glamorous, which is conventional for social realism and also for Shane Meadows the director.

The use of two person shots (when two people are in medium shot in the frame) is used in the opening. This is used to show the friendship of the two characters, and how they are a double act. The two person shots are sometimes quite comical, and the audience grow o like the pair of them more and more.





Sound
The sound is very effective in this opening. In the opening you can hear everything happening in the shots, but music is playing over the top. The first thing i liked was how the music came in. There was two short clips of the pair walking up a hill and having a conversation. Than the credits started along with the music. I thought this was very effective as it made the first two shots feel like a introduction and than the film properly started.  The music fitted the happy-go-lucky feel to the opening, and it also fitted the characters friendship.

Genre Characteristics
This opening is very typical of its genre. The use of camera is very similar to the openings i previously wrote about, therefore showing me the conventions. The use of music and character and also location was all very typical. The fact the the characters were working class matched the two other social realism films I analyzed.