Location

A common convention of the urban drama genre is the the use of settings to perhaps convey a sense of harsh realism and the social issues the narrative is based around. The settings which are commonly used in urban dramas are subsequently used as visual aids to the themes of the narrative, in most cases being poverty in urban areas, alcoholism and drug use and gang violence. Many settings used in urban dramas are centered around Brutalist architecture as the harsh and intimidating visuals they give reflect the often brutal and unsparing nature of the genre as a whole. 

This image is a screenshot from the Channel 4 urban drama 'Top Boy'. In the background, a grey and rugged-looking council estate can be seen which visually connotes the more poor and working class side of urbanity, especially in certain areas of cities. 

After seeing these brutalistic and harsh settings used in many urban dramas, in the mediums of both film and television, I decided to look at settings which hold a similar visually brutal sense. This image was taken underneath a fly-over in Greenwich and is exactly the type of setting which holds itself well to the urban drama convention of specific types of settings to convey certain aspects and themes of the narrative. This setting is almost entirely made of concrete which is a key feature of brutalist architecture and explicitly conforms to the visual conventions of the urban drama genre. 

Places like this fly-over are common in certain parts of London, especially the south-east where most of our filming is likely to take place, and are likely to be used in our trailer to convey the overlying themes of the narrative which is drug use and some violence.