The film poster for This Is England features a picture of the film's actors standing in front of a corrugated iron fence in a council estate. This establishes that the characters are poor. The tagline hints that the film is set in 1983 and is about standing out from the crowd, connecting to the actors' unusual clothing and shaved heads. The poster also features praise for the film from critics and awards it has won from film festivals to entice audiences. Text on the poster is carefully placed around the central image of the actors to not cover important elements while still providing key information.

1. This Is England
Film Poster Analysis

3. Actors - Names
The names of the actors are not shown on the film
poster. This may be because the actors are not well
known and therefore won't make people want to watch
the film. Another reason could be that it looks from the
film poster that there are lots of main actors in the film
and if they were to put all of their names on the poster
it might look very cluttered and not aesthetically
pleasing

4. Actors - Pictures

5. Actors - Picture
On the front cover of the poster there is a
picture of almost every actor in the film. This
may have been actually photographed, but
more likely superimposed through a green
screen so that it is easier to deal with lighting,
weather and so on. All text is kept away from
the picture of the actors because it is the most
important part of the poster.

6. Text Placement
All the text is centered apart from the strap line and the
‘Directed by Shane meadows’ which are placed aligned to
either side of the title. These three pieces of test are placed
at the top of the fence, the credit block is placed on the
ground at the bottom and the critical praise is at the top
overlaying the sky. These are cleverly placed so that they
don’t cover up the background of the building estates.
All the text in the middle has been placed to make sure that
it is away from the picture of the characters but in the
circumference of the fence

7. References to Other Films
There are no references to other films. This may be
because this direct or producer have produced any films
yet which are highly rated enough to put on the poster. This
is then confirmed by one of the laurels which shows the
director has won an award for ‘Most Promising Newcomer’
which would suggest that this is one of her first films. This
is the same for my film poster because there are no films
that i have made which are well known or that would make
people want to watch my short.

8. Cultural references

9. Laurels
We can see from the laurels that this film has
been heavily praised by film festivals. It has
won very big awards such as ‘Winner Best
Film’ by the BFIA (British Independent Film
Awards). This will entice a big audience
because it is rated the best british independent
film of 2006.

10. Main Image

11. Main Image
The main image tells us about the film. For one
it lets us see that these characters are poor
because there are council estates in the
background and also because the corrugated
iron fence they are standing in front of is a
convention of lack of money. we can also tell
this from their hair and costume (Factors of
mise en scene)

12. Tagline

13. Tagline
The tagline ‘Summer 1983. A time to stand out
from the crowd.’ gives us a sense of what the
movie is about and links to the main poster
image. It tells us the date in which the movie is
set and by saying ‘stand out from the crowd’ it
links to the image of the characters due to their
odd clothing and shaved heads

14. Website

15. Website
Like almost all film posters, this one has a
website. It is to get the audience involved in the
film before, and leading up to, the films release.
It includes things such as the films trailer, the
release date and interactive apps

16. Critical Praise

17. Critical Praise
There are two different types of critical praise
on the poster. The first are quotes such as that
from the observer saying “The directors best
film yet. This is brilliant.”
The second is the five star rating system in
which total film gave 5 stars and empire gave 4.

18. Title

19. Title
Size: The title is
conventionally the
largest piece of text
on the poster and this
poster fits those
conventions.
Font: There is a very
basic bold font,
kerned so that each
letter is fairly separate

20. Title
Colour: The colours
used for the font are
Red, White and Blue
for the English flag.
This is why the
colours links in with
the name of the film
Style: The style of the
font is as if it is printed
onto corrugated iron.
This gives it an urban,
decayed feel which
links in with the theme
of the movie.

21. Credit Block

22. Credit Block
The credit block is a legal obligation for film
posters. It tells the audience who and which
institutions were involved in the production of
the film and credits them. In this poster it is
used conventionally; tucked away at the bottom
so that it does not attract attention

23. Age Certificate
There is no age certificate on the poster
although the film will have one because it is a
legal requirement. It is surprising however
because this might be a factor you base your
decision on to go and see the movie or not. For
instance if you are 17 years of age, you would
not go and see it if it was rated an 18.