1. How does your media product
represent particular social
groups?
By Charlotte Whitfield

2. Opening
• Through analysing films like This is England,
Green Street, Bullet Boy and Adulthood
opening sequences you can see the target
audience they are trying to get and the social
groups presented.

3. • This is England can only be seen by a smaller audience because of
the BBFC putting it up to an 18 thanks to the harsh language and
racial confrontation throughout. Though this film is dark and shows
the British culture in a grim light it still was nominated for a BAFTA
which showed it still succeeded. A part of the audience who would
most likely understand the issues being shown are those who lived
through the 80’s and lived through the Thatcher years. Problems with
the Falkland war and the economy came to light in this film. Along
with the main characters style and way of life; the style of the skin
head with the doc marten boots may seem like just a fashion craze
for this time but in actual fact represented the more racial
community that would most likely support the BMP. In some scenes
they even show how politics warped how people viewed foreign
families and this brought about the dangers of living in Britain at the
time. Along with the typical council houses that looked well lived in
with grubby walls and outdated furniture in each one. Through the
mese en scene of this film you can see how poor the country was and
how the Northern parts of the country suffered more. I looked at this
aspect of violence to help project the knife crime portrayed in my
film. Although mine was not as violent and had no racial elements it
still brings to light the different groups of people that British culture
makes, the divide in ideas and beliefs which made a country so split
still come through the cracks today.

4. • I also used Green Street (an independent film) to give me
inspiration because this film is the perfect example in showing
how an environment can change a person both physically and
mentally. The main character Matt was not typical of an
independent film because they used Elijah Wood who is a well-
known movie star. Usually these types of low budget films don’t
use big names because they can’t afford well-known actors. I
used the idea of how his character goes from a well-established
school to this thug/ hooligan area where danger is always
looking round every corner. Some of the hand held shots they
use make it have a realistic feel to the audience so they then
feel involved. I used this with mine with some shots moving
along as the character is so the audience almost feels like the
character. The themes portrayed also use this peer pressure but
with adults and there are brief moments of knife crime which
my audience can link to. They also show the establishing shot at
the beginning so I used this by doing a quick establishing shot of
the beach to show my audience the area and the scenery my
characters have to live with every day.

5. • These films all have characters that are mostly
under 30 and between the age gap of 16 and 26. I
used young actors because there are more social
groups when you are young then middle aged.
You have different groups that are polar
opposites and will never get along. This is
England clearly shows this through political views
and racial views while Green Street is less
extreme with merely showing groups who
support different football teams though both
films show the worst parts of these groups with
the violence it can lead to. I show different
groups split because of peer pressure in school
and how these people would otherwise be
friends if it wasn’t for the divide in groups.

6. Thank you.