A Room for Romeo Brass (1999)

Director:

Shane Meadows

Writers:

Paul Fraser, Shane Meadows

Storyline

A Room for Romeo Brass is also a social realist film. There are two twelve-year-old boys, Romeo and Gavin.Their friendship is tested when a dangerous stranger comes between them.  Morell befriends with the two boys and later asks them to help him pursue Romeo's elder sister. He gradually becomes more and more violent as she doesn't feel the same and turns him down.

Enigma codes

In the opening sequence for A Room for Romeo Brass very few questions are raised. At the very beginning, the boys are walking through a field. The viewer may find themselves asking why are the boys are walking around in the middle of nowhere on their own?

Mise-en-scene

We are almost immediately introduced to quite a run down area, this looks as though it is the local shops and so we can tell that the boys homes are likely to also be in this run down area. We can see that they are run down as we can see that some of the shops are boarded up and it just generally doesn't look like the nicest place to be!

This establishing shot of the shops allows the audience to see where the boys are and what kind of place that they are at. 

Lighting

The lighting throughout A Room for Romeo Brass is quite dull and grey. This doesn't give much away to the audience however it does set the mood for the film. The grey lighting gives the audience the impression that it isn't a very nice day. This could be confused in the opening sequence by the boys emotions because they seem to be happy and not too worried however as the film progresses the audience can then understand why the lighting is so dull. The use of such dull lighting also makes the location of these boys seem worse. The shops look even more dull and run down and there is a gloomy atmosphere. 

Characters

During the opening sequence we only meet three characters. It becomes immediately clear who the two, main characters are. They are the first people we see and the camera follows their movement all the way through the opening sequence. The characters I'm talking about are Romeo and Gavin. Whilst the boys are on the open field we don't learn much about their personality's. Gavin says to Romeo that he "would like to build a house out here". This gives me the impression that he is quite an ambitious boy whereas Romeo seems far more 'down to earth'. 

The next and last character we meet during the opening sequence is the man from the chippy! I don't think that this man is of any importance in terms of the story however he does bring out more personality from the two boys. Romeo appears to be quite greedy and harsh towards Gavin. Gavin comes across as quite hard done by and we get the impression that his parents are quite strict as he is dressed more smartly and he appears to have no money on him. I also get the impression that Romeo is more confident than Gavin and it also appears to me that he calls the shots. Gavin is always walking behind Romeo which shows their role in the friendship quite clearly to the audience.



Shot types



During the opening sequence there are lots of long shots and establishing shots. This is a really good technique to use as it lets the audience see where the characters are growing up and 'hanging' around. It also allows us to see other things such as what they are wearing and how they are together.

There are also some medium close-ups which allow the audience to see the emotion on the characters faces but it also allows us to see both the characters faces at the same time which lets us see how they react to one another. High angled shots are also used. These allow us to see where the boys are and also makes them look quite vulnerable and innocent which is what they are. 




Editing
During this opening sequence a lot of straight cuts are used. This is effective as it lets the action flow very smoothly. The edits are quite slow which is also effective as it lets you see lots of the action and lets you engage what is happening. The camera tends to follow the action rather than use match-on-action. I think this suits the opening sequence well as the action doesn't move quickly and so the edits don't need to. 


Sound
For the first minute or so the sound is diegetic sound. There is only dialogue to start with. This makes the music more effective when it starts. The music is non diegetic sound and is quite up beat. This fits with the dialogue as the boys are having a laugh and a joke with one another and so the mood is quite good. The volume of the music is lowered when the actors begin to speak. This doesn't drown out what they are saying but you can still hear the music in the background. 






This is the opening sequence to A Room for Romeo Brass. 
In my opinion the opening sequence finishes at 5:35 seconds in when the music finishes and Romeo enters the house.