Emilia Waterhouse, Jack Archer

And Ed Cefai

TEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF THIS IS ENGLAND

SHOT TYPES

The medium Long shot of a number of men clothed in the same way and with a vey similar appearance suggests the movements of groups and common conformism in the 80s. The fact that the shots are long shots connotes that there were many people involved.

There are 7 Long shots of violence. The numerous shots convey that social unrest was a significant problem of the 80s because most images were simply displayed once.

There are two shots of the military, one is a very long shot and one is a medium long shot. There are two, amongst various other shots the military shot is repeated, which conveys the importance of the military. Furthermore the very long shot and medium long shot conveys not only the size or the military but also that the people are important as individuals.

Establishing shots of businesses and industrialisation. The fact these shots are establishing shots connotes that this was a key part of the 1980s. There are multiple shots of this, which reinforces this idea.

CAMERA MOVEMENT

The camera tracks right and back during an establishing shot of a council housing estate. The tracking backwards reveals more of the housing, which conveys that there is a large amount of it, the same is done by the tracking right because the housing continues. This connotes that in the 80s many people had little money and lived in council houses. Furthermore the housing is all the same, which reinforces the idea of conformism in the 80s being common.

The track in and tilt down of the camera gains the viewers attention and draws it into a specific object, in this case a rubik’s cube, thereby conveying that this was a popular item of the 80s.

EDITING

The opening sequence is constructed of various scenes with a regular pace of cutting used to move from one scene to another. The regular cuts connote that each scene has the same relevance and the same importance. For this reason it is connoted that each of these shots is something that is part of England and they are each being used to display what England is.

MUSICThere is a score during the opening sequence of this is England. 54-46 was my number by Toots and Maytals is played. This is a representation of the popular music of the 1980s, which was Jamaican and Indian music.

The score is upbeat and positive and therefore draws the various scenes together. However it is contrapuntal with the numerous scenes of violence, which again connotes that violence and social unrest was common in the 1980s.