How does director Shane Meadows use micro elements to create meanings effectively?

sound – The film begins with a montage of British culture where they showcase things like sports, war, royals, British citizens, machines, crowds, violence, streets etc. The music played is 54-46 Was My Number – Toots and The Maytals. I think this music is untypical of the British culture as it’s reggae and used more in hot countries rather than rainy and cold England.

editing – The simple editing of the film creates a realistic and classic kind and means the film appears with more of a sense of verisimilitude because of the raw editing. The film is very realistic as the editing is just like filming a group on a day out, so the editing stays the same most of the film. It gives a documentary footage appearance. The main clip that was edited was the beginning montage.

mise en scene – The filming location was in Nottingham and the film itself was set in a Nottingham council estate in the 1980s. The town is a classic working class/lower-middle class neighbourhood. This is represented by the characters clothes, haircuts and lack of financial stability to be able to afford clothes e.g. when Shaun is joining the group and needs clothes to suit the group.

cinematography – close ups are used throughout the film to showcase the actors facial expressions during the scenes and wide shots of location views to enhance the theme of poverty and to show group violence throughout.

mood board

location- walk trail, park

date- 9th december 2023

aim- to film 30 seconds of nature

Shooting Days

Sunday 10th December

Wednesday 13th December (reshoots)

Planned Locations

Shot List

Worm’s eye view

MCU

MS

Eye Level

Low Angle

LS

Canted angle

High Angle

XLS(?)

MLS

Storyboard

MICRO ELEMENTS-

Danny Boyle using sound: Danny Boyle uses Iggy Pop’s track ‘Lust for Life’ and many other British pop songs from 70’s to the 90’s to immerse the viewer into the culture of Scotland and England during the 90’s. ‘Lust for Life’ is used for the opening scene of the film where Renton is running away from the police. This immediately introduces us to the characters in the scene and the chaos of the movie as the upbeat song perfectly fits with the drama. Narration is used for the protagonist Renton which occur in episodes, also known as ‘episodic narrative’. Boyle chose this to make his film unique and rebel against mainstream cinema expectations.

Editing: Cross cutting is used during Tommy’s and Renton’s individual scenes’. This creates a comedic effect bringing amusement to the spectators

Mise en scene: set design is thought of carefully such as showing the trap houses with drugs all over the grotty floor.

Cinematography: scenes are amplified with emotion by using cinematography techniques such as scene composition and distances.

Young people: are seen to party and go clubbing often in rave culture, be social and lively, enjoy in partaking in many sexual activities as well as taking many drugs, drinking and smoking. They are truly depicted as enjoying their youth whilst they can.

Older people: are seen usually as working class people, much more laidback than the youth, the ultimate baby boomers who look down on the next generation.

Working class people: seen where chavvy behaviour is carried out such as hanging around grotty places and taking drugs. A mostly depressing life in council flats etc.

Scottish people: seen to be proud of scottish culture, disclosed when renton goes into the scottish wilderness with his pals

Addicts: are seen to desperately push their limits just for a hit, which really tells us the severity of each addictions and its effects.

Men: usually seen to look down on homosexuality showing the culture of toxic masculinity however the severity of drug addictions alter this in the men so that their more vunerable sides are shown and how unbothered one is with homosexuality.

Women: seen as powerful, especially diana, who arent afraid to break gender roles.

English People: Being English in the Film means many different things and is important to the plot. A lot of the themes of the movie are based around being English and one of the goals Sean realising what it means to be English.

Younger people: The younger people of this is England are seen as kind and looking out for people in similar situotians to them such as Woody looking out for Shaun when he was told he was bullied.

Older People: The older people of this is England are often presented as racist and refuse to change. This is depicted by Combos character leading a racist movement and influencing Shaun in a wrong way.

Black and Asian people: Mostly represented by milky, they are often discriminated by characters like combo. For example we see this when Combo and his gang threaten to stab a Pakistani child over a football whilst yelling slurs at him.

Men: Men are often represented in the film as role models for what Shaun wants to be like. Due to Shaun’s lack of a father figure, he looks up to people like woody, when he begins to look up combo we see how his personality changes and he is reflective of those around him.

Woman: Woman in this is England are scene as kind and caring for those around them. This is brought up with Shaun’s mum as she is constantly worried about Shaun and cares for him. We also see this with the character of Smell who acts as Shaun’s girlfriend throughout the movie and makes him feel better.

sound- the sound throughout this movie is the same song throughout the whole movie and changes to different parts for the different mood during.

lighting- the lighting in this movie is all natural lighting, when they are outside its sunlight and when they are inside it is like the room lighting, which makes the atmosphere more naturalistic and relatable to their lives.

editing-the editing in this movie is very much a pov one. throughout the movie it is like we are different characters. And it is also like we are also experiencing what is happening too them at the same time.

cinematography- the cinematography in this movie is very subtle because it is as natural as they can make it. And they try to make the movie more relatable and have people understand the meaning of the movie more.