This Is England –

Trainspotting –

I would rate this film 7/10

My memorable scene would be Renton’s mental break down as he tries to recover from withdrawal from heroin. This is because it gave Danny Boil the most creative freedom, and we saw this clearly in such unique ways with the baby, Bud in chains, his parents trying to help him, and the way everything culminated together into one scene made us sympathise with the way Renton’s mind is twisted at this time because of the heroin

Shane meadows represents young people in ‘This is England’ to be highly in-printable, this is evident in how Shaun first meets Woody’s gang and is straight away trying his best to look, talk and act like them. This is the same for the takeover of Combo’s gang, where Shaun is now pressured to hate foreigners and act violently and impulsively.

Older people (such as Shaun’s mum) are presented as either ‘wrong’ or ‘right’. What i mean by this, is that Shaun’s mum is constantly protective over Shaun and only wants what’s best for him, whereas older individuals like Combo have gone down a worse path and now resorts to recruiting a gang and acting dangerously and offensively. This is important in remembering what Shane Meadows wants to convey in this depiction of older people, firstly how vulnerable younger people are to their attitudes, and also how easily someone can be manipulated and changed by older people.

The way in which Shane Meadows represents working class individuals in ‘This is England’ considers how boys like Shaun would view this class, and also how society views this class. Although the original gang have fun with Shaun, taking him in and showing him a good time, ultimately the spectator is forced to remember the arguably ‘bad’ sides of being in the working class, like having nothing to do but sit under bridges and smash abandoned houses.

‘This is England’ explores heavily the theme of racism and stereotypes when it comes to people of colour. Milky, the only black supporting character in the film, is subjected to awkward and offensive remarks from Combo, and ultimately is the victim to a hate crime at the end of the movie. This represents how Black people are treated, being the minority in England. They are constantly having to deal with violence and hate speech from privileged white people. It is important to note how Milk does nothing ‘wrong’ to combo in the entirety of the film, he is just targeted because of the colour of his skin, a concept that Shane Meadows explores head-on.

Shane Meadows represents men in a way that exposes the societal expectation of masculinity and its dominance over others, whilst proving the pointlessness of this stereotype and how it is detrimental to how men are scared to look weak or appear inferior to another. The biggest example of this is Combo, he constantly acts as a ‘leader’ amongst his Gang and is personally threatened by any hint of challenge. He preaches pride in being a strong individual but in the end loses control of his anger and ultimately proves the cons of Hubris, and how it plays a part in the downfall of men.

This is England represents women to be much less violent and pent up in rage than men, this is evident as the movie doesn’t depict any women getting involved in Combos passion for nationalism. Most women characters in the movie are conveyed as caring and nice, none violent or irrational – this is because Shane Meadows focuses on the male perspective of growing up in England, and all female characters are their to accompany men, as girlfriend or mother.

Verisimilitude:

A film has verisimilitude if it seems realistic and the story has details, subjects, and characters that seem similar or true to real life, or mime convincing aspects of life in important or fundamental ways.

Social realism:

Social realism is the term used for work produced by filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structures behind these conditions.

Magic realism

Magical realism portrays fantastical events in an otherwise realistic tone. It brings fables, folk tales, and myths into contemporary social relevance

Hyperreality:

where many of the artificial reality that arises even seem more real than the existing reality.

Reality

Verisimilitude- appearance of being true or real.

Social Realism- the realistic depiction in art of complementarity life, as a means of social or political comment.

Magic Realism- a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.

Hyper reality-Hyperreality is a concept in post-structuralism that refers to the process of the evolution of notions of reality

Visual Style

Iconography- a particular range or system of types of image used by an artist or artists to convey particular meanings

Intertextual referencing- when a text implicitly or explicitly refers to another text, by using distinctive, common or recognisable elements of the referenced text

Visual/Sound motifs-the visible elements that reoccur in your film to help tell your story.

Colour Grading- post-production process common to filmmaking and video editing of altering the appearance of an image for presentation in different environments on different devices.

Auteur trademarks- infuse films with their singular perspectives and trademark visual styles when translating them from screenplays to the screen.

Tone

Pathos-persuade an audience by purposely evoking certain emotions to make them feel the way the author wants them to feel.

Bathos- an effect of anti-climax created by an unintentional lapse in mood from the sublime to the trivial or ridiculous.

Suspense-a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety.

Comedy-type of drama or other art form the chief object of which, according to modern notions, is to amuse.

Dramatic Irony-a literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.

Distancing effect-the use of techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance.

Post Modern Humour-the saturation of slippages and meanings prevent a solid linkage of humorous and serious meaning.

Realism

Verisimilitude – Making something look real and believable

Social realism – drawing attention to real socio-political conditions, mainly the harsher parts of reality

Magic realism – Taking a fantasy theme in a real tone, such as synchronised dance numbers, or fairies appearing in the real world

Hyperreality – an inability for the conscience to distinguish reality from simulated reality, e.g. exaggeration or a compression of time

Visual style

Iconography – Where certain images/icons take interpreted meaning

Intertextuality – relations between different, texts, films plotlines or styles

Visual/sound motifs – patterns or sounds that are repeated throughout a movie that convey a meaning

Colour grading – The act of manipulating colours in a scene to create mood

Auteur trademarks – things that are recognisable and easily linked to a director/actor

Tone

Pathos – something that brings out pity/sadness in the viewer

Bathos – change in tone from serious to ridiculous

suspense – a sense of extended anxiousness or excitement in anticipation

comedy – something with the purpose of creating amusement in the viewer

dramatic irony – where the audience has more information than the character to create effect

distancing effect – techniques used where the audience is alienated from the emotional involvement in movie

Aesthetic terms – 1 Realism

Verisimilitude – something that looks real

social realism – the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, as a means of social or political comment.

Magic Realism – a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.

Hyperreality – extremely realistic media, that is very close to real life

Aesthetic terms 2 – Visual Style

Iconography – the distinguishing elements, in terms of props and visual details, which characterise a genre.

Intertextual Referencing – the shared relationship between two texts, and it relates to texts that have similar ideas or that take inspiration from other texts

Visual/ Sound motifs – the visible elements that reoccur in your film to help tell your story.

colour grading – the process of enhancing and altering the colour of footage in order to achieve a desired visual effect

auteur trademarks – infuse films with their singular perspectives and trademark visual styles when translating them from screenplays to the screen.

aesthetic terms 3 – tone

Pathos – evokes an emotional response from the audience

Bathos – If something starts out serious and then turns trivial

Suspense – a state or condition of mental uncertainty or excitement, as in awaiting a decision or outcome, usually accompanied by a degree of apprehension or anxiety.

Comedy – humor

Dramatic Irony – a literary device by which the audience’s or reader’s understanding of events or individuals in a work surpasses that of its characters.

Distancing Effect (Verfremdung) – the use of techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance.

Postmodern Humour – The saturation of slippages and meanings prevent a solid linkage of humorous and serious meaning.

Realism

Verisimilitude – the appearance of being true, realistic or believable.

Social Realism – presenting and drawing attention to living conditions of minorities or lower social classes

Magic Realism – crossing over fantasy and reality, whether fantastical elements are depicted as real or realistic elements take fantastical turns.

Hyperreality – casually inserting elements of an artificial reality into an otherwise realistic depiction of the world.

Visual Style

Iconography – signs associated by the audience with a specific genre.

Intertextual Referencing – referencing another piece of media by using recognisable elements of it.

Visual/sound motifs – repeated narrative elements that create meaning (such as a logo for a group of people or a theme representative of a specific character.

Colour Grading – enhancing and altering colour in scenes to achieve a desired visual effect.

Auteur Trademarks – recognisable elements in films that can be linked to the director and their style of filmmaking.

Tone

Pathos – evoking an emotional response from the audience.

Bathos – following serious ideas with humorous or exaggerated ones.

Suspense – a state of uncertainty about the outcome of events.

Comedy – emphasized attempts to make audiences laugh at films.

Dramatic Irony – When audiences know something the characters of the film don’t.

Distancing effect (verfremdung) – preventing spectators from identifying with characters by disrupting events.

Postmodern humour – linking humour with serious meanings.

Realism

Verisimilitude – the appearance of a movie being true or real.

Social Realism – the realistic depiction in art of contemporary life, in terms of social or political content.

Magic Realism – a literary or artistic genre in which realistic narrative and naturalistic technique are combined with surreal elements of dream or fantasy.

Hyperreality – the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality

Visual Style

Iconography – a particular range or system of types of image used by an artist or artists to convey particular meanings.

Intertextual referencing – the relationship between texts, anytime one text is referenced in another text.

Visual motifs – visual motif refers specifically to the visible elements that reoccur in your film to help tell your story. This can include things like props, set design, symbols, events and costumes. Specific colours or colour combinations can also be used as motifs.

Sound Motif – A sound effect or combination of sound effects that are associated with a particular character, setting, situation or idea through the film

Colour Grading – the process of editing film or video footage to have a new look to help make a video feel more vibrant and stylistic.

Auteur Trademarks – an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded and personal that the director is likened to the “author” of the film, thus manifesting the director’s unique style or thematic focus.

Tone

Pathos – something that evokes an emotional response from the audience. Anything from sadness to happiness, anger and envy.

Bathos – is a sudden, often humorous drop in tone during an anti-climax.

Suspense – a state of uncertainty about a specific outcome and it is typically coupled with feelings of anxiousness and anticipation.

Comedy – films designed to elicit laughter from the audience,  crafted to amuse, entertain, and provoke enjoyment.

Dramatic effect – the ability to emphasize, embellish or enhance an emotion, feeling or happenstance depending on the situation.

Distancing Effect – the use of techniques designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance

Postmodern Humour – linking humour with serious meanings