Opening scene of TopBoy: Episode one series one
(the first five minutes)
TopBoy is a 2011 British television drama which focus’ on the ‘reality’ of how a teenagers life is in North London. The series was written by Ronan Bennett and directed by Yann Demange.
In the first five minutes of the first series it is shown to be based in North London as you see the London eye but mainly what catches the audiences eye is the estates around it, which could connote crime and drug use. As you are introduced with characters appearances the mise-en-scene allows us to realise what TopBoy is going to be about and what will happen. The clothing used within this extract and the rest of the series is mainly tracksuits and hoodies, which connotes mainly towards the audience how teenagers dress in their everyday lives but also could connote those teenagers that are committing crimes. The first couple of actors you see are black which the audience will quickly assume they are involved in crime and they are just standing around near shops.
The setting of this series is quickly acknowledged and allows us to see that it is non-Hollywood putting into perspective that it is low-budgeted due to the mise-en-scene. Through the pictures, trailers and posters of TopBoy the characters where able to be interviews on Channel 4, as a result they were able to promote the series in different ways. The trailer was continually shown on Channel 4 and E4, where the first thing you saw was a young white pregnant girl in an estate where you quickly identify that TopBoy is trying to present realism and the side of live people want to erase.
From the extract, it appears as though the targeted audience is large but mainly targeted at teenagers, and people of ethnic minorities. This could be suggested as the main actors is black but they also include whites as well, however ethnic minorities such as Asians will be attracted to watch it as they are a part of that lifestyle. Also, the secondary audience could be mainly the older generation to show the troubles they get up to and have to deal with. Throughout TopBoy Demange aimed to ‘give audiences an accurate portrayal of growing up in London’ which is shown as they did not use green screens or glamorous setting, they shot scenes in real parts to show the realism and used actors from Hackney. In the extract you see youth’s drug dealing and getting robbed which connotes criminality is often done in areas such as Hackney and not surprising. This reinforced the stereotypes of black people of being criminals.
In dramas such as TopBoy use symbolic iconographies which usually contain a lot of scenes where there are elements of violence and aggression, which address the stereotypes of ethnic minorities as being criminals. From this extract you see two young black teenagers near a car, when a group of black males come in holding a gun to take stuff from the car which then the female, chantelle, gets slapped by one of the elderly black males. There was a build-up of tension from the facial expressions of the young black teenagers and the non-diegtic sounds. Feminist would agrue that the characters in TopBoy are being exploited and being oppressed by men as they have to do as the males say, which continues domestic violence within ethnic minorties- supported by the lone-parent who came out of a violent relationship.
The representations of the youths in TopBoy are shown negatively as they are seen as drug users and involved in criminal activities and aggressive, but could also reflect accuracy in Hackney society and around London. However you can argue that the representations are somewhat positive as they when Dris calls his friends when the group rob them, they run to them which connotes unity within the society and also it is multi-narrative as it goes back to a young boy, Ra'Nell, in an estate watching over all this violence, but has a depressed lone-parent after having an abusive husband.
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