This Is England Analysis

This Is England is another Social Realist film, again produced by Shane Meadows. I decided to look further into Meadow's work as I like the style he uses when filming and I think he is very successful within the Social Realism genre. It is based in the 80's and gives and insight into the 'skinhead' culture of the time in England. It is a very emotional and hard-hitting story, which is typical of Social Realism films.

Again, I have taken several screen shots of the trailer which I think portray typical conventions of the genre.

The inter-titles in a trailer are extremely important, especially in those of films of this particular genre, as they help establish some sort of narrative along with the footage. Due to the minimal nature of some of the footage featured within some Social Realism films, the inter-titles used are vital in creating interest within the audience. In this particular trailer, similarly to the trailer for Somers Town, they are trying to create interest within the audience by including good reviews of the film. The text used is simple, placed over artistic location shots. This is seen in a lot of trailers with small budgets, like Social Realism films.

This screenshot is of a particular part of the trailer where the footage has been slowed down, so the characters are almost in slow motion. Due to the low budget nature of films like This Is England, there are not a lot of post editing which is found in Hollywood movies. However, in order to create variety and create a trailer that interests audience, some postproduction editing is done. As well as the usual transitions between shots, some effects like this are used in order to add an artistic effect to the trailer.

Again, this part of the trailer involved some post-production editing which is simple, yet effective. Two clips have been simply layed over each other to create a montage effect. Social Realism films rarely rely on elaborate editing within their trailers, however artistic editing like this is sometimes found.

As well as the inter-titles which present some of the positive reviews of the film, Meadows has alos included independent film awards that the film has been nominated for. This is another selling point commonly featured within trailers of Social Realism films.