Deconstruction of locations in Urban Dramas

Locations in Urban Dramas 

In this blog post I am going to deconstruct various locations in different urban drama films. This task is going to help my group and I to decide where are location is going to be set and how we are going to find the locations.  

Here are the 5 common urban drama locations that i am going to be examining: 

High rise flats:

Screenshot of high-rise flats in the film Anuvahood

Scene of character leaving high-rise flat in movie 'Ill Manors'

High-rise flats are locations used in urban drama films. They are used in these films to represent the working class populations households. They are often a tall set of flats in which are in close proximity from each other. Illegal activities normally take place in these flats and they are usually where trap houses are based. 

Trap House:

Scene of a trap house from the movie 'Brotherhood' 

A trap house, which is urban slang for 'drug house', is a very common location setting for urban drama films. This is where drug dealers and gangsters usually base themselves. They are normally found in urban areas such as in high-rise flats. Trap houses are the places where bulk amount of drugs such as cocaine and marijuana are sorted into smaller bags and are then given to dealers to sell in the streets. This is a common practice in urban areas which is why they are represented in urban drama films. As seen in the image above, there are normally items such as scales, drugs and money found in this location. 

Alleys:

Scene from Kidulthood where a character is walking down an alley.

Alleys are commonly used in urban dramas and are stereotypical places where 'dodgy' characters hang around and criminal activities take place. Alleys are the prime locations in urban dramas where drug dealers and gang members loiter and hang around in. These alleys are usually dark, in between buildings and out of the view of the public eye which is why they are used for criminal activities. Drug deals commonly take place in alleys due to this reason.