Genre conventions

How do your chosen texts use genre conventions

This is England is a social realist film, and many aspects of the film from the narrative and visuals are typical and generic of the Social realist genre.
Firstly, the narrative aspects. The film has a very gritty tone and it makes a statement. It tackles real life topics like racism and youth while it shows a story of Britain in 1983. The topics are very representative of the time, Thatcher and the Falklands are referred to often, and the film shows the lower classes response to the 'fake war'. The actors who play these lower class roles are either non actors or small unknown actors which makes the film seem more realistic because the viewer will not be familiar with them therefore the sense of realism is highlighted.

The aesthetic aspects of the film also promote realism, the entire film was shot on location, which gives the film a realistic feeling and the viewer can fully emerge themselves into the film. The lighting of the film was all natural light, sometime is is over exposed and other times it is under exposed, so there is no prosthetic lighting which could intervene with the authenticity of the shots. The cinematography is similar to that of a documentary, and there are only a few shots in the film which could not be replicated from eyesight in real life. The actors also improvised a lot of the scenes, so raw emotion and spontaneity are present aspects to the acting.

In conclusion, the visual and written codes generally stick to the social realist genre, as every aspect promotes realism in some way or another.