To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

This is England is categorised under a social realist genre. Films in this genre mainly base their conventions round themes and ideologies of the movie, in this case: Racism, masculinity and poverty. Films like this also usually make comments on people and places and in this film Meadows conveys particular ideologies in changing Britain in the 1980s and challenges the audiences, evoking questions as well as answering many. 

Being a social realist drama it is important that devices such as the aesthetics get across the sense of reality to the audience and create an atmosphere which can be considered as believable and almost like it can reflect the audiences lives. One way Shane Meadows does this is by casting non professional actors (such as Thomas Turgoose who intact experienced a similar situation to his character Shaun) and no stars. In effect, this is typical of the genre as it makes the audience feel like these characters could just be everyday people and therefore creates a degree of authenticity. Another way this film creates a degree of authenticity is through camera work and editing. In many scenes, handheld shots have been used which gives the scenes a sense of restlessness which reflects the film as well as the unpredictability of the film itself. this idea is reinforced through the improvisation of movement and dialogue throughout the film as it makes the audience feel like it is real and anything could happen at anytime. The fact that there are are no special effects also makes this film typical of a social realist genre as Meadows does not 'Hollywoodise' anything, these people, places and actions are real and this is what Meadows gets across.

The Functions and ideologies utilised throughout this film are also typical of a social realist genre. For instance the film contains social and political views of the 1980s.