This is England Official Film Trailer Analysis

The opening scene of the trailer is a long shot, showing the setting of a beach. This sets the scene of the film and shows that the area in which the film is shot in. You cannot gain a lot of information from this opening shot, however in the background you can see a small figure walking down the hill towards the beach, this gives the impression that this could be the main character in which the film is based about. As this scene starts to fade out, an emblem with the words ‘Winner Best Film – British Independent Film Awards’. This shows that the film is worth watching as it is an award winning film, which in turn usually drags in a bigger audience.

The following shot a 0:08 seconds is a mid shot of a young boy, with ginger hair, walking down a street. He then walks past a shop which is just opening and the people outside do not seem to take much notice of the young boy which suggests that his is of no importance to them. The surrounding area looks fairly run down, you are able to tell this as the scene is unkept.

It then follows onto a shot of the young boy at home with a woman, who you assume is his mother as her caring nature towards him gives out the feeling of a maternal instinct. The boy then goes on to tell his mother that he is being picked on at school, which sets the idea of him as a person being vunerable, there is also a shot of two young boys with a voice over whilst telling his mother about the bullys, this gives you the impression that it is them that are upsetting him. It becomes apparent that the family are not in a good financial situation, as the place in which they are living in is drab and not looked after, also the fact that the mother is not able to afford trousers emphasizes this.

A clear divide between boy at the school is emphasized mainly by clothing, some of the boys who participate in bullying him are dressed in a ‘Blues Brothers’ style’ and are more wealthy as they are dressed in pristine new suits.

The scene is then set as a black screen appears with the writing ‘England, 1983’ appears, this gives you both the time and place in which the film is set, already putting an idea of what the setting is going to be like.  Straight away a rocky song starts playing with fast snap shots of major events that happened in this year being featured such as  Princess Diana’s wedding, riots, wars and a shot of Margaret Thatcher.

The next following scene is of the young boy holding a picture of his father in an army suit, saying how he misses him. The mother then follows on to say that ‘He’s gone now’ which therefore gives the impression that the boys father had in fact died in the war.

Another black screen appears with the title ‘Shaun went looking for a friend’ and follows onto a shot of the young boy interacting and shaking hands with a skin head in an underpass by his council estate. This then tells you that the young boys name is Shaun. The graffiti on the background gives you a vague impression that the youth culture in the area are rebellious, and in the far left corner ‘Milky was ere’ has been graffitied onto the wall, and watching the film you are able to find out that milky is a main charater.

A fourth black screen then appears saying ‘He found a family’ making you expect to find a homely environment, however it then switches to a shot of 3 female skinheads shaving shauns head, this could almost be seen as an iniciation to the subculture. Close ups are used in order to emphasize the shaving of shauns head, which makes you think that this is a turning point in his journey as a person.

The following few scenes are shots which have been cut from the film, showing shaun hanging out and having fun with the group of skinheads. He then asks one of the girls ( who is obviously quite a lot older than him) to be his girlfriend, and she says yes. This shows that the young boy has matured a lot.

A neo Nazi Skinhead then makes his way into the trailer and you almost get the feeling that he is corrupting the young boy, as he is bringing violence into the subculture, this shows a sharp change in attitudes between the featured people. Its almost as if the lifestyle had been turned upside down as someone powerful had made an appearance.
From watching the trailer, you can notice that it has been layer out differently to other film trailers. Most trailers show interesting and action pact parts of the film in order to build up excitement, this therefore makes the audience inclined to see the film as it leads you to believe that the whole film is action packed. However with the trailer for This is England, a storyline is built up in the trailer, giving you a basic understanding of what the film is about, therefore this enables you to build up a relationship with the characters which in turn helps you out during the film as you already have an idea of what is going on and who people are. However this could also put some people off as it could be seen to be spoiling the film and giving away main scenarios which occur later.
The trailer would appeal to many different age groups, including teenagers and 20-35 year olds who were alive and maybe involved in the skinhead subculture or something similar. Relationships are also built up in this trailer which would draw in a different type of audience as the young boy enters a relationship with an obviously older gothic girl.
All in all i think that this is a very good trailer as it draws you in quickly and easily and leaves you wanting to watch more