TASK 4- Lessons from the AS

1. Comparing two binary opposites-

I am going to do a comparison between two films to look at the types of

Britishness which occurs. The two films are called ‘This Is England’ by
Shane Meadows and ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ by Richard Curtis. These films
are obviously the total opposite (binary opposites) one is a social realist
production containing social issues where as the other is a romantic comedy,
its not only the genre types that are different its also the cast and the budget
as the stars in ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ are big stars (part of Richard Dyers star
system).

Funding and Economics- The funding economics of

these two films or for any film is very, very important as
this is what gives the film a ‘back bone’ and sometimes if
it is done in an effective and precise was there is always
the possibility of targeting that big US audience which
then the film makers etc can say they
have made the big time, however like
I just said large amounts of funding (big budgets) is
needed to make the bid money. ‘This Is England’ is a
Warp X production which was helped funded by the UK
Film Council, Film 4 and the National lottery, the total
budget was £1,500,000, this in film terms is not very
good at all and this is the reason why this film has no star actors or special
effects etc (things which come to a high expense). Warp X is not a
conglomerate so it can’t get into the Big 6 which is what you need so you
can become part of a major conglomerate such as Universal or Paramount
etc. On the other hand ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ is a Working Title production
(this company was founded by Tim Beaven and Sarah Radcliff), and this is a
company which started out like Warp X is now part of a major conglomerate
which is called Universal which funds Working Title in many ways and
because the company is a subsidiary there are other links within Universal as
they have there own record label and other marketing campaigns etc.
Companies which fund these films are very important as these are the people
who help sell the film, this is shown between these two binary opposite films
because the marketing for ‘Bridget Jones’ was done in many ways such as
there were two music videos one which was sung by Jerry Hallowell and the
other by Gabriel, these were produced to attract a variety of audiences such
as the pink pound aspect and male appeal, the Gabriel video was to attract
the urban audience. There were many other marketing strategies such as
selling merchandise on Virgin Atlantic Airways as well as websites and
posters etc. however because ‘This Is England’ didn’t have as much funding
marketing was an issue as they only had the marketing techniques of a
website and posters, not major elements like music video and merchandise.

Richard Dyers Star System- This is a concept which is very famous

throughout the media and film industry. This is a concept which is mostly
used in films which have high budgets and the production companies are
part of a conglomerate, as the whole meaning of it is about having star actors
or actresses who are stars to the world, well known and represented as key
concepts to various films. Richard Dyers the concept has four key aspects
which he follows (in the box below as well as a photo of Richard Dyers).
• What the industry releases promotionally
• What the various media critics say
• What the star says and does
• What the those who make up the audiences say and do. (Lookalikes
etc at one extreme). Different audiences will probably make up
different meanings to the point of reading the star 'against the grain'.

RESOURCE-
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/stars_and_star/

‘This Is England’ doesn’t really fall into this star system as it is a low budget
production as the production company Warp X are not a conglomerate quite
yet (although they are heading on the correct direction) they are an
independent, however ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ has had the funding from
Working Title who are part of Universal so they have been able to afford to
pay for stars such as Hugh Grant and Colin Ferth.

Aspects of Britishness- ‘This Is England’ shows many aspects of

Britishness as it is all based around the working and social lower class of
Britain. This is generally shown by the way the characters dress and where
they live as they live in council housing and tower blocks etc. Also the way
in which they speak is also very important as they don’t
have the southern accent which attracts the US audience,
there accents are more like broad Yorkshire and
Lancashire which us as British citizens know that this is
the real Britain as these areas are the main aspect for the
film looking at Margret Thatcher shutting down all the
mines in the country. This aspect is a real part of the
Britishness as in British history this is one of the main
key points. In ‘This Is England’ it is all about Britain whilst Thatcher was on
the thrown, where lots of racial and violent aspects occurred especially the
“skin heads” as they used to call them, this is a
stereotype for a person who is dressed in doctor
martens boots, jeans, a shirt and the all important
braces. Overall ‘This is England peruses Britishness in
a very forward and persistent manner showing social
aspects looking at various issues in the certain decade
even though the film was set in 2006, this film had to
really look at social aspects as they had a low budget, the ideas in the film
which represent Britishness are very simple looking at true identities,
however they are shown to the audience in a very detailed forward
representation.
‘Bridget Jones Diary’ represents Britishness in a totally different way as it
looks into the world wide stereotype of a general British person because it
uses the star system to represent this, for example take
Hugh Grant, he has a posh southern English accent
which the US audience recognise as the average
British citizen, this again is why funding is so
important as the accents have to be spot on making it
clear to the correct audience (in this case world wide).
Also the characters themselves are dressed in nice
clothing, they look very neat and tidy with perfect hair
and most importantly they have a job which is fairly
highly paid (a the stereotype yet again is about being rich etc). Overall
Britshness is represented in a totally different fashion than ‘This Is England’
but this is because of the economic size with the size of the budget which
then links back with the star system, it mainly looks at the upper working
class, this is why it is a binary opposite to ‘This Is England’ (social, lower
working class).

British Cinema- I don’t think that we should call it British cinema at all
because if you look at ‘This Is England’ and ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ they
represent things which are about the English society, there is nothing to do
with other celtic nations such as Northern Ireland. So I think it should be
called English cinema because in respect this is what the films are
representing towards the audience, they are mostly set in England with pure
English actors so I do think that British cinema is the wrong term and can be
broke down into the other celtic nations.

So for example you could have Northern Irish cinema, looking at the film
‘Mickybo and Me’ this film looks at representations of Northern Ireland like
the IRA bombings and how society lives in the fearful conditions etc, as it is
set in Northern Ireland and has Irish actors so again this is why I think
British cinema is the incorrect term to be used.

Stereotypes and Countertypes- In the film ‘This Is England’ we see many

stereotypes however we only see them as British citizens as the US audience
do not understand social realism and tend to avoid this, this again links to
the funding and economics as attracting the US audience
is about getting highly known stars to represent
Britishness as a world wide aspect. So in ‘This Is
England’ we (Brits) see the stereotypes such as the setting
with the green fields and hills out in the country, the
social issues like the types of housing, council tower
blocks etc. Also the jobs which associate the film, in this case it is all built
around the mining and the issues which are undertaken within it. There is
one main stereotype which stands out in this film which is the skin heads as
they all dress in the same clothing, its like there own separate gang, a bit like
a rock n ro ll crew or gang, these are a stereotype for being violent, causing
trouble like riots etc. There are hardly any
countertypes in this film as is very original looking at
social aspects, however there is one which stands out
which is the female characters as they are not very
lady like, they are just like the men who are working class and don’t give a
dam about there appearance.
On the other hand ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ looks at the world wide stereotype
of Britain’s to attract that all important US audience so that the box office
listing will be exceptionally high and make lots of money (profit). One main
stereotype in this film is the way in which the US audience perceive a
British person as they mainly look into characters just like Hugh Grant, who
has a posh well spoken accent, smart and d ressed very well with a high
profile occupation with lots of money. This is why Hugh Grant is in lots of
films which are undertaken by Working Title because he is the general
stereotype towards the US audience (he is in films such as Notting Hill and
Love Actually), these are all ron-coms which is why it has such a wide
variety of audience. There are no real
countertypes except for the way the female
character Bridget her self is a working class
women as the men are the ones who are
supposed to be the ones which go out to
work, however her character falls into the
stereotype of a dum blonde as she is very
clumsy and very gullible etc, so overall stereotypes and countertypes are a
critical aspect of British film.

How gendered is British cinema? - A film like ‘This Is England’ is very

much aimed at the male audience as the film itself surrounds the aspect of
Thatcherism to do with closing down the mines etc, but also it contains lots
of violence and more social issues which a mostly aimed at the male
audience rather than the female audience but yet again this is determined by
stereotypes and these are bad things not good things as it can make things
bias and unfair etc. However films such as ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ is a film
aimed at the females mostly as its all about romance as
the central protagonist is a women who is caught up in
a love triangle, the pink pound could be drawn in her
though as the gay male audience may be into romantic
comedies. It could also appeal to the male audience
because it really looks at the comedy aspect also which appeals to a wide
audience because everyone likes some humour. The gender towards British
cinema again is all down to stereotypes which is such a down fall.

The idea of genre- The idea of genre plays quite a big role in British film
because films such as ‘This Is England’ have not had the opportunity of a
high budget as the production company Warp X is an indie so the social
realism aspect is a safe but good option to show the facts of British life
however the downfalls are that appealing to the US audience will not happen
as the Americans are no fans off social realist films.

I think that ‘Bridget Jones Diary’ has a really good sense of genre as it is a
combination of two genres, comedy and romance, this is a perfect way to
attract the US audience so this means that the box office ratings will be very
high which means economically this is very good. However to achieve this
the correct funding is needed to be able to achieve the correct genre to a high
standard such as having a high profile production company like Working
Title, however Warp X maybe an indie they are on the way to being part of a
conglomerate.

2. Does British cinema matter?-

I think that British cinema matters so much as it is showing all the

representations and common key features of the typical and ordinary British
stereotype. If it didn’t matter then there would be no reason for the all
important Hollywood (US) audience and also there would be no reason for
the Big 6 and conglomerates. There would be no hierarchy at all looking at
indies and conglomerates etc. British cinema shows the identity of its own
country separating it from any other nationality all
over the world, in a way it’s just totally unique and
it’s a key aspect in cinema today. I think British
cinema is also very important as big companies
which are parts of a conglomerate such as Working
Title would not be where they are today as British
cinema needs the smaller companies such as Warp X, so overall we can talk
about British cinema whilst there is the dominance of Hollywood. Some
brief bullet points looking at some arguments which have occurred-
 It does matter as it shows the real identity of Britain as a whole.
 Companies such as Universal would not act as one of the Big 6.
 British cinema shows real elements of realism.
 It is different from Hollywood in terms of ideology and values.
 It helps look for option film making talent.

3. Some brief bullet-pointed notes on representation of

Britsihness from three British films called Kes, Ali G In Da
House and The Full Monty-

Kes
 This film looks at the way the working class act in a working class
society.
 There accents are very broad and are recognisable towards a
British audience making sure the point is taken into account.
 This film as it looks into the social working
class this reflects on the way the characters
dress for certain occasions such as when Billy
goes to work in scruffy beating gear.
 The types of jobs reflect Britishness as the
young boys work on weekends by doing paper
rounds and milk rounds etc.
 Also looking at the British setting when Billy
goes beating in the country side with the
farmers looking at the Kestral bird which is a
common bird in the UK and used on farms
which is a very stereotypical aspect to British
culture and lifestyle (countryside, green).
Ali G In Da House
 This film represents Britishness by also looking at social issues when
there are signs of clubs in council districts teaching children (cubs and
scouts).
 The accents of the cast are represented as being British looking at the
stereotypes of posh southern people and northern people.
 This film contains scenes to do with the fact that
some of the scenes are set in major British cities
such as London.
 There is a scene in the film where the house of
parliament is present, which represents the economic
and political Britain.
 This film represents Britishness in various different
ways, but because it links in with the southern posh
stereotype character it will attract the US audience,
however there are also characters with broad
northern actors which make the film appealing to the
whole British nation.

The Full Monty

 This film represents Britishness by looking again at the working social
class especially with the characters (the way they act).
 The characters have a certain accent which is very broad and forward
showing off the issues’ which poorer British people face.
 In the film there are some points to do with football, this
represents Britain as this is the main British sport and it also
could signify the stereotype of a football hooligan.
 This film is based around the shortage of
employment as its about six ex steel workers
out of jobs and trying to find a way of earning
money for basic supplies etc.
 Also this film represents the types of
Britishness which are negative just like the
films Scum and This Is England as we see that
the police are very strict in the certain decade.
 This film relates around social issues such as
the child separation and loss of jobs etc.