This is England

Camera Angles: A succession of contextual clips with the short fast edits between showing the credits in block white capitals on a black background. The contextual subjects suggest that the film will be set in the 1980s:

Space invaders Margaret Thatcher Simon Labon Skinheads The Diana/Charles wedding A patriotic crowd waving Union Jacks Rubix Cubes BMXing Rolland Rat Knight rider Green Peace protests Mass CD production The Miner strikes The National Front Falklands War Ronald Rogan The fire on the Belgrano

However When Toots and the Maytals song “54-46, That's my number” finishes the camera angle goes to a close up of a radio alarm clock that changes from 7:44 to 7:45 and the radio starts to play a speech being given by Margaret Thatcher, also setting the scene of the time era of 1983. It then pans out to a long shot of the 12 year old Shaun waking up and getting out of bed. The audience likely to be watching this film would have been alive in the 1980's so the use of contextual clips would have reminded and taken the audience back to that time period and the atmosphere it held.

Sound:Throughout the beginning edits the song“54-46, That's my number” by Toots and the Maytals is playing. This song was in 1968 but was covered in 1983, the year the film is set, by Aswad, however Shane Meadows chooses to use the original version of the song.

When the short edits between contextual clips and credits have finished an alarm clock goes off and the radio plays a speech on the opportunities being given to children in Britain by the socialist state being presented by Margaret Thatcher, the prime minister of Britain at the time.

The two sounds clips contrast and present issues that will face Shaun throughout the film, the care free effect created by the Toots and the Maytals song and the prospect of opportunities available to the youth of Britain.

Mise en Scene: After the contextual clips there is a close up of a radio alarm clock with a sepia tone photo of a soldier on it, creating the impression that the person in the photo is has faded from whoever it belongs to life.

On the radiator next to the side-table is a “no dad” jumper, dubbed this in the 1980's due to the fact that children would beg there dad's not to make them wear them, however, this is sort of ironic as Shaun's dad is dead and is play on the fact that it's a no dad jumper is a pun on this, the use of irony if very common in British Drama films.

The décor of the room is deteriorating green paint peeling off of the wall, creating a sense of poverty, a factor effecting a high percentage of the country due to the Falklands war and The Miners strikes. The colours in this shot are all real dull and boring; green, beige and brown. Creating a boring, mundane impression of Shaun's life, or, the tedious and hopeless life he has after the loss of his father.

All of these things encapsulate the gritty real life situation in the 1980's and the audience watching this can relate to this. Due to the fact that drama is a genre aimed at the older audience, the audience will be able to empathise with the character and because of the contextual subjects shown at the beginning of the film the audience will be reminded of the hardships and struggle at this point in time and can relate to the film, which a typical convention of the drama genre.

Lighting:When the scene is set with an establishing close up shot of the alarm clock and photo the lighting is dull and deadened creating a morbid tone, which when added to the bland use of colour in the shot, creates a irksome opening scene mirroring the mundane life of Shaun, and also the lives of the audience had when they were living in this time period, people just got by and got what they “needed” not “wanted”.

However when Shaun wakes up and opens the curtains then light comes pouring in, suggesting the optimistic prospects of the day ahead, that most people in the working class had, thinking that things could only get better.