Shane Meadows is an English independent filmmaker most known for the film This Is England (2006).
Genre
This Is England falls under the genre of contemporary British social realism; however, there are certain aspects of the film that stray from realism.
Shane has said “I never wanted to be a director, I’ve just always been a storyteller” which is testament to his naturalistic, and somewhat realistic, approach to filmmaking.
Whilst realism is maintained in This is England through the use of handheld camera and naturalistic approach to location and language etc, the extent to which the film is entirely social realism is debatable due to the tendency to present extremes and unrealistic situations. For example, whilst the film is social realism in its exploration of the skinhead movement of the time, some of the conversations are excessive and the humourous approach leads to more exaggerated or heighted representations.
Cinematography
Shane Meadows alongside This is England’s cinematographer Danny Cohen created a distinct style in the film’s camera work.
The film maintains a hand-held atmosphere throughout with the camera rarely being stationary often following and tracking characters.
Many of the shots are close-ups, used more favourably than wide and long shots, framed deliberately to focus on one characters facial features or expressions.
Sound
This is England includes a heavy use of non-diegetic composed score particularly a sad piano track to evoke heightened emotions in key impactful scenes.
The film also features non-diegetic ska and reggae music popular at the time to further enforce the 1980s setting.
In the frequent montages included in the film, diegetic “radio reports” and sounds from the period are used for verisimilitude and to convey the contextual atmosphere of the time (e.g. the Falklands War).
Editing
Meadows alongside This is England’s editor Chris Wyatt uses the montage technique to explore the time period and give information to the audience.
Meadows also uses a lot of slow motion in intense moments to force the audience to confront what is happening on-screen and dragging out the emotions evoked by the events. Slow motion is partciularly used in moments that are uncomfortable for the audience such as the scene in which Milky is being beaten up by Combo.
Mise-En-Scene
The film appears to be filmed entirely on-location in England for realism rather than being constructed on a set. The frequent ‘rugged’ appearance of the locations (e.g. the graffiti and rubbish on the floor etc)
The costumes and makeup of the characters mirror those of British culture in the 1980s and can therefore be considered a strong contributor to the film’s social realism genre.
Performance
Social realism is maintained through the performances of the actors. Dialogue is spoken naturally with characters stumbling on their words or speaking over one another, the conversations seem natural rather than formulaic.
The characters also speak in british dialect with lots of profanity and abbreviations and they are all referred to by nicknames creating a more casual essence.
Auteur?
Meadows has a distinct style evident not only in This is England but also in his other work including TwentyFourSeven (1997) similar to This is england as it is based in an english working-class town and follows young youths in gangs.
His work sometimes has a documentary-type feel and frequently relies on comedy.
His status as an independent filmmaker results in his films featuring strong themes and ideas etc.
Meadows’ auteur style is characterised by handheld camera, naturalistic and ‘funny’ dialogue, mise-en-scene reflective of British time-periods and montages etc.
Resources to look at
http://shanemeadows.proboards.com/thread/234/cinematography
Bethany Lee's Film Studies Blog 