2. This Is England:
Content
This Is England is a 2006 British drama film written and directed by Shane meadows. The story
centres on you skinheads in England in 1983. This film illustrates how their subculture, which
has its root in 1960s west Indian culture, especially ska, soul, and reggae music became
adopted by white nationalists. This PowerPoint will be analysing the opening of ‘This Is
England’ linking with Cinematography, Mise En Scene Editing, exposition of character,
Setting, Narrative & The Themes shown in this opening.
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Cinematography
At the beginning of This Is England there is a middle shot of a talking puppet, this creates a
enigma code to the audience as the audience want to know what this got to do with
film and what is this puppet symbolising. It then cuts to a scene with a women in a truck
that is wearing a white workers helmet and a blue dress/suit , this gives the impression
that she is the charge /boss of this circumstances as she is not wearing a whole outfit for
workers. It continues to edit through scenes with cuts, the scenes contain things such as
skinheads , rock stars, the old building blocks and the riots. All of these scene gives the
idea to the audience that this film is based in the 80s because of the style: cars, hairstyle,
clothing, etc. The film doesn’t establish a protagonist, as its just shots of the 80s and its
culture.
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Mise en scene
On this film opening there is a lot scenes projected which applies that there will
be many mise en scenes as each scene is different., the reason why it has so
much scene is that it is conveying a particular theme of what life was like in
the 80s. An example would be the retro game consoler and retro TV, this
gives the impression that it was something new at that period of time and that
it attracted a lot of teenage and young adult/men as the thing on the screen
involves shooting and can only have a certain amount of life before its game
over, which many male would find interesting .
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editing including sound
In the beginning of the film opening, the establishing scene shows a
talking puppet, which is an non diegetic sound that relates to what is
going on the screens, as it is the puppet voice.
In the beginning of the film opening after the first title sequences,
diegetic sound begins to play, sound that not coming from any of
the scenes. The impression that I get from sound/music which could
be reggae , is that the scene and music it doesn't go together, but
however the interesting thing is that they do link with each other in
some scenes such as the riot scenes and how the music
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Exposition of character (who is shown - what do we learn about them- how are
they represented),
Throughout the film opening, the film, explores many exposition of characters
such as the skin head, rock star, etc..
Skinheads:
Rock star:
Tribal : Gang relative
Social background: frustration, poverty, angrier
Executive: executives other if they don't
belong fit in the categories
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Setting - where - what time period –is the exposition of place/time important in
this film opening?
In this opening it doesn’t establish a particular location but however it does
establish a periold of time that this film will be based on which is the 80s. The
reason why it is important in this film opening is that the narrator is trying improvise
that this movie is set in 80s so its showing affairs, cultures and life of the 80s in
england.
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Narrative - how much of the narrative is actually shown? What predictions about
the film could you actually make from the opening? How are enigma codes
used to hook the audience? How does the title sequence close or resolve itself?
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Themes - some film openings really focus on the themes or ideas that may be significant in
the film - does the film opening that you have analysed do this
