I think This Is England is a gritty social realism film, which partially covers racial aspects through their culture. The main themes in the film are racism, violence and the 80’s skinhead society in which they live. These aspects are portrayed through their masculinity stereotype. A character that is strong, racist and violent and follows the masculine stereotypes is Combo. He acts like a father figure towards Shaun, by buying him new clothes and when they get close, Shaun shows his trust in him when they are racist and steal from a man’s shop. The rest of the gang see him as superior (he has been in prison which makes him more menacing). The director Shaun Meadow’s has constructed Propp’s hero and villain theory where each character is shown in a hierarchy status showing the individuals level of masculinity. It is clear that there is no prejudice portrayed through the representation of age as the young boy easily enters their gang and even has an older girlfriend. However, the representation of race is a highly controversial and important content. Although there is a man of different race in the gang, Combo deliberately intimidates ‘Milky’ when talking about England and the economic crisis. Combo is proud of his country and thinks that foreign people are taking white peoples jobs. I think Combo beats up Milky near the end because he is jealous. He realises that Milky has a nice, big family, where as Combo never had this or a dad to look up to. Because of this, he blames Milky’s race and this is the aspect which he takes his anger out on.
Unlike This Is England, my media product will not have any racism in it because my horror genre is all about the future, and I think many things have changed since the 80's. My product focuses more on the genre than its themes. However, similar to This Is England, I will be using violence. The type of violence and how it is used will be different. In This Is England, the violence includes destroying and vandalising houses (even though my character is a teenager he will not be doing this because it is not central to the plot) and fighting eachother, such as when Combo beats up Milky. My trailer will be targeted at niche audiences and therefore apart of arthouse cinema, as is This Is England. One way we can tell this is because there are no (extreme) special effects.
Representations in my media product:
Genre- A horror genre will be conveyed by the build up of tension through the clip. This will be shown by the use of dark lighting, shadows, edgy music, sound effects, vulnerability of the victim and fast cut editing.
Class- The small sized house represents working class.
Gender- The gender representation is not stereotypical for a horror. By challenging conventions, I will make the male the victim. Also, a male is taking the dog for a walk, not a female which shows how the hierarchy of gender has changed from what it would have been in the 1980's.
Age- The teenager is the one to take the dog for a walk, while typically the mother of the boy tells the boy to be careful (stereotypical caring mother).
Race- White-British.
Disability- None.
Unlike This Is England, my media product will not have any racism in it because my horror genre is all about the future, and I think many things have changed since the 80's. My product focuses more on the genre than its themes. However, similar to This Is England, I will be using violence. The type of violence and how it is used will be different. In This Is England, the violence includes destroying and vandalising houses (even though my character is a teenager he will not be doing this because it is not central to the plot) and fighting eachother, such as when Combo beats up Milky. My trailer will be targeted at niche audiences and therefore apart of arthouse cinema, as is This Is England. One way we can tell this is because there are no (extreme) special effects.
Representations in my media product:
Genre- A horror genre will be conveyed by the build up of tension through the clip. This will be shown by the use of dark lighting, shadows, edgy music, sound effects, vulnerability of the victim and fast cut editing.
Class- The small sized house represents working class.
Gender- The gender representation is not stereotypical for a horror. By challenging conventions, I will make the male the victim. Also, a male is taking the dog for a walk, not a female which shows how the hierarchy of gender has changed from what it would have been in the 1980's.
Age- The teenager is the one to take the dog for a walk, while typically the mother of the boy tells the boy to be careful (stereotypical caring mother).
Race- White-British.
Disability- None.
