GENRE EG5 '71 (Warp, 2015)

'71 is a 2014 British historical thriller film set in Northern Ireland. For our mock exam we analysed the opening of this film under timed conditions in a style similar to the summer exam format - I have embedded the essay (after typing it up) at the bottom of this post as it has lots of relevant points (many of which have been extracted and put in the bullet point format throughout this post).

'71 poster

PRODUCTION CONTEXT/HISTORY
PRODUCTION: Crab Apple, Warp, Film4, BFI, Screen Yorkshire, Creative Scotland

DISTRIBUTION: Studio Canal; 11 territories

BUDGET: £8.1M

BOX OFFICE: $3.2m
BBFC: 15

This production is a Warp production, but it had a much higher budget than the majority of their films. It did receive grants form the BFI and Film4 - typical of indie productions. This ensures that films with more diverse/controversial representations are still made and the industry is not monopolised by conglomerates.
This film lost a lot of money, and it was a big risk for art to have such a high budget in the first place.

The hybrid aspect of it being a historical thriller/action/social realist film did give it a higher chance at being commercially viable than the majority of Warp films, and though Studio Canal is a well-established distributor it did not put much of a gamble into the film and marketing was limited.

The film did have a week long theatrical release in America (to qualify for the Oscars), showing the ambition o this film in comparison to Warp's other productions, but the amount of territories it was related in was still a low number in compassion to WT films (and there was no distribution in China).

No. of territories (BoxOfficeMojo)

Company list (distribution) (IMDB)

The 15 rating form the BBFC is interesting, as This is England got rated an 18 mostly due to cursing and the violent scene at the end (which is relevant to the moral values the film condemns), but '71 has extremely graphic and violent scenes throughout (when his friend is shot in the face when they arrive in Belfast, when a bar is later blown up with a child inside, the homemade stitching done o the protagonist etc.). This is an examples of how more commercially acceptable films are given more chance for commercial success than more controversial ones.

Although the film was ultimately a commercial/financial flop, it was nominated for BAFTAs, BIFAs, and O'Connell won the EE Rising Star award. This shows how although the film was not a financial success, its' critical reception proved it to be a success in ways that many other Warp films are.

IDENTS/COMPANIES

• Studio Canal
• distribution and production company (mostly distribution)
• Subsidiary of NBCUniversal (one of the Big Six)
• co-production financing (that way risk is spread if the film is a flop)
• can be part of meaning (has worked with WT and Warp)
• shows range
• Film4
• tv channel (UK)
• denotes low budget
• BFI (British Film Institute)
• gives grants to low budget indie films they think require subsidy (which do not need to be repaid)
• government funded
• previously known as UKFC (UK Film Council)
• Screen Yorkshire is a regional branch -  the film was not shot on location, and the extensive creation of the streets with houses in varying states of destruction show where much of the budget was spent.

TITLES

• informational words are smaller than company names
• small serif font (white on black)
• signifies serious drama 
• 'presents'
• production and distribution
• co-production between Crab and Warp
• the Warp logo is also on screen - larger contributor

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MISE-EN-SCENE FOR EXPOSITION

• blood, sweat, costume, hair
• all wearing green military costume
• all sweaty (including those not fighting)
• all crew cuts (functional, military)
• creates high level of verisimilitude
• on the bus:
• is not a sports car
• signifies poverty
• man wearing a flat cap and smoking
• connotes Yorkshire
• signifies film is set in the past (cannot smoke on busses now), hence the name '71
• in the café
• is not a fancy 5 star restaurant
• run down, cheap looking place
• signifies poverty
• Is very similar to the sudden cut to the unappetising, greasy food in Withnail and I 
• Though not in the opening, when the locals bang their metal bin lids on the ground
• metal bins are now out of date, so signify the time period (maintain verisimilitude)
• preferred reading: it was a warning that police/army were approaching
• signifies target audience (older, native to the uk/Ireland)

EDITING

• fight scene:
• no ELS (establishing shot)
• fast-paced editing, short takes
• action genre
• cuts closer to protagonists face and cuts to see his reactions
• anchors protagonist
• centrally framed protagonist
• Training montage:
• quick fade from black (ellipsis)
• longer takes
• hand-held camera
• documentary style of realist genre
• sticks to 180 degree rule
• morning scene:
• almost a match cut done through the audio (the sound of the gun is similar to the lights turning on)
• fade-up from black
• shows ellipsis
• Café scene:
• fast-pan to reveal brother's face
• shot reverse shot in the conversation
• continuity editing
• 180 degree rule is used
• match on action with the fork and food

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CINEMATOGRAPHY

• fight scene:
• no long shots (M/MCU)
• no fade-up
• cuts straight to action
• impact
• shows brutality
• whip-pan and hand-held tracking shots (realist)
• Barthes action codes
• low-key lighting
• brutal/grim
• natural lighting?
• shallow field of focus
• protagonist in focus (and foreground), but can still see detail in the background
• anchors protagonist
• cuts back to protagonists reaction (and centrally framed)
• Training montage:
• ellipsis (there is an overall ellipsis, not just here)
• tracking shots of protagonist
• cuts back to protagonist
• anchorage
• morning scene:
• begins with tracking shot of superior officer
• becomes MCU
• long take
• lighting as man steps forward (lowkey and shows shadow on half his face)
• signified as villain?
• establishes power dynamic
• protagonist is in the edge of the frame
• sets up equilibrium with protagonist having very little power within his situation

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SOUND; GENRE SIGNIFICATION

• Fight scene:
• audiobridge over titles
• sound is unclear: basketball? fighting? shouting and hitting noises
• creates narrative enigma (Barthes)
• audio does not fade up - cuts in
• impact
• brutality
• diegetic sound
• ambient sound (crowd shouting and hitting)
• only coherent speech is coming form the coach
• Northern accent (Yorkshire)
• all for verisimilitude
• Morning scene:
• audiobridge fade-up
• music is sinister
• foreshadowing

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CENTRAL PROTAGONIST/NARRATIVE

• Anchorage:
• the camera repeatedly cuts back to the protagonist to show his reactions
• the protagonist is the first character we see in an MCU
• As the fight scene comes to a close there is a tracking shot of the protagonist, form an MLS to an MCU of his face, showing the blood and sweat on it (verisimilitude)
• Todorov's narrative theory:
• the protagonist's equilibrium is established almost entirely through the editing of the opening:
• he is established as the protagonist by repeatedly cutting back to show his reactions
• in the training montage, there is always an establishing shot of the area, with the troops training, then it cuts to a close-up of the protagonist's face - this shows him as indiscernible from the rest of the men (a 'cog in a machine')

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MOCK EXAM ESSAY


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GENRE EG4 My Beautiful Laundrette (Working Title, 1991)

My Beautiful Laundrette poster

My Beautiful Laundrette is a social realist/black comedy film, and was made by Working Title before they became a subsidiary of NBCUniversal (when they were an indie company similar to Warp). The film is completely different to the kind they make now, with the plot following the (eventually) romantic relationship between Omar, a Pakistani living London and the street punk/squatter Johnny (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) as they become managers of a laundrette. (Wikipedia)


OUR INFLUENCES

• Initially we were going to have the protagonist be in a mixed race gay relationship, but due to issues of casting we had to change this despite wanting to include non heteronormative representation to explore social issues surrounding the subject (more on this under the "other points" sub-heading)
• The happy music that begins to play (which doesn't seem to fit with the genre) is something we want to avoid, as the example of Tyrannosaur uses incidental, acoustic music much more effectively and fitting with the genre 
• The detailed shots of the set dressing for verisimilitude (similar to Withnail and I and Submarine)

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PRODUCTION CONTEXT/HISTORY

PRODUCTION: Working Title, Channel 4 films DISTRIBUTION: Orion classics
BUDGET: £650k
BOX OFFICE: $2.5m
BBFC 15, MPAA R

• the film was never intended for theatrical distribution
• got it because of Channel 4's interest in the film
• was screened in America
• managed to make a (very large) profit

  

  BoxOfficeMojo

• The BBFC gave this film a 15 rating - but how justified is it?
• There is cursing throughout
• there is a very graphic and realistic looking shot of someones skin rash
• lots of drinking
• In one scene a woman takes her shirt off and her nipples are censored or covered in any way through framing (there are scenes like this between Omar and Johnny where nether are wearing many clothes, but it is often the case that female nudity is more likely to be censored/sexualised)
• The interesting point is the violence: there isn't any graphic violence, or shots of realist looking wounds, and in the climax of the film a car is destroyed followed by a brawl in the street. In the example of This is England the fight scene at the end has graphic shots of Milky's bashed up face, with lots of blood - much more extreme than My Beautiful Laundrette - but the amount of violence and swearing in both of these films is nothing compared to the mindless and graphic violence you see in many WT productions, such as Hot Fuzz (which includes someones head being speared by a model church spire, someones head being crushed by a piece of falling building, someones hand being stabbed and many more) which also was given a 15 rating.
• 1988 Margaret Thatcher passed a law which banned the 'promotion' of homosexuality in schools and by local authorities (Local Government Act 1988, Section 28)
• lead to a general avoidance of non-heteronormative representation and the propagation of homophobic sentiment in a lot of media
• Thatcher's homophobic sentiment was largely emboldened by the 1980's AIDS/HIV crisis
• this film was subsequently politically controversial 
• Marketing strategy:
• in the US trailer the film is portrayed mostly as a comedy in hopes of being more successful at the box office
• there is also no reference to the homosexual content in the trailer (they refer to the relationship between the two main characters as "a partnership of 2 young entrepreneurs", and include a scene of one protagonist kissing a girl)
• lots of neon lights were used 
• made the film look more upbeat/comedic
  
  
• Low-key lighting used throughout the film
• part of social realist genre but also signifies low budget
• Hand-held cameras
• reflective of the British Documentary Movement
• also signifies low budget
• adds to realism
• 
  

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TITLES

• The titles don't fit at all with the genre
• The white serif font is similar to what was in other films (Withnail and I, Tyrannosaur, This is England), but the animation is very different to any of the other examples 
• The jokey washing machine animation really doesn't much sense as it does not signify the genre, and there is only a small a comedy aspect to the film
• All these could be a part of the hybridity aspect in hopes of making the film more marketable (similar to the misleading US trailer)

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MISE-EN-SCENE/FIRST SHOT

• First shot:
• not an ELS
• is immediately grim, no grand image
• immediately the action begins - adds impact, reflective of the violence which pervades the film 
• also follows Barthes action codes, very similar to in '71
• the furniture is old, cheap looking, dirty
• blocking the door
• not fancy
• walls are decaying (similar to in This is England)
• low-key lighting 



first shot

• immediately signifies poverty/social realist genre

• Props:
• the mattresses do not have sheets on them
• neither do the duvets
• multiple mugs are on the floor
• protagonist uses a black bin bag to pack his (very few) belongings
• all adds to verisimilitude
• connotes poverty (makes sense as you find out they are squatting in the abandoned house)



2nd shot (mattress, costume, protagonist in foreground)



wearing a coat but no shirt

• 

  mugs/rubbish for verisimilitude

• Costume:
• character asleep on the chair is wearing a large coat to sleep warm
• the fact that he's asleep on a chair rather than in a bed in the first place is a part of mise-en-scene
• clothes are all worn and dirty looking
• one man is wearing a large coat with no t-shirt underneath 
• prioritised keeping warm
• protagonist's jeans are ripped
• may be purposefully to signify he is a rebel/punk
• may be to show that he cannot afford new ones
• could be both

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PROTAGONIST

• how he is anchored as the protagonist (in the opening only, the 2nd protagonist is introduced later):
• shown in MCU high angle 2 shot in 2nd shot

  

  durable jacket, bleached hair, packing
  clothes in a bin bag

• is closer to the camera 
• is the first person you see
• camera follows protagonist and cuts back to show his reactions
• also uses varied focus to keep shots of him clear for longer than other characters
• one of the first characters to speak
• is on-screen for longer than any other character
• costume/hair
• the ripped jeans make him look like a rebel, but also suggest he might not be able to afford another pair
• is wearing two pairs of trousers to keep warm (further signifying poverty)
• oversized jacket (on top of a t-shirt and jumper) with the collar turned up
• connotes rebelliousness/non-conformity 
• is a durable jacket (made to last), part of a 'fashion' statement but also suggests he does not have enough money to regularly by more 'trending' clothes
• the layers signifies poverty (is a squatter, so he can't be assured he'll have a warm place to sleep)
• bleached hair
• is not bleached at the roots (suggests it has been a while since he last did it/can't afford to get it done again)
• signifies rebelliousness
• shows he does pay attention to his appearance/artificially changes it
• may be part of the non-heteronormative representation as it is stereotypical of gay men to pay more attention to their appearance (though there is no explicit gay content in the opening)
• Actions/dialogue:
• tells another man staying in the house to get up because they are being raided, and then physically hauls him off the ground
• when leaving the house he walks in front of the other man
• establishes the protagonist as the 'leader' of this group
• has a northern accent



throwing his bag out the window 

• does conform to stereotype that associates northern accents with poverty/lack of education (he is homeless)
• also conforms to stereotype of northern English focus on community (wakes up his friends when police arrive rather than just leaving without them)
• throws his clothes/belongings out of the window
• they are not very valuable/breakable, no sentimental attachment 
• This does change as the film goes on (character arc) as he gets a job and is given a place to live by Omar's uncle (realistic character arc/development)
• part of the social realist genre, as the character is also forced to face up to his fascist, anti-Semitic past
• non of this is seen in the opening though
• These things a UK audience would be more likely to pick up on than an international audience
• Stuart Hall's theory of readings: this reflects cultural knowledge and an element of preferred reading (similar to the banging of the bin lids in '71 as a warning for authorities), which makes sense as initially the film was never going to get an international theatrical release at all, so was made for a UK audience

...
SOUND; GENRE SIGNIFICATION

• Though not explicitly stated anywhere, this film can be said to be a part of the emerging New Queer Cinema movement (coined in the 90's)
• This emerged in a similar way to feminist theory in the 80's, focusing on turning societal shame into pride
• Throughout My Beautiful Laundrette, Omar and Johnny have to repeatedly hide they relationship, and despite being rejected for it by the Tania character they continue to be together
• The depiction of their same-sex relationship is unapologetic, and other characters are created as antagonistic/villainous (Propp's archetypes) in their disdain/disapproval

• The happy music that begins to play with the titles does not fit at all with the genre, the scene or the rest of the film (but as stated earlier may be part of the hybrid aspect to increase audience appeal)

…
OTHER POINTS

• To be clear, we did not intend to "straightwash" our initial idea, and we want to maintain the integrity of the social realist genre by exploring controversial themes in gritty, realist light, but now this will not include non-heteronormative representation (due to casting issues)
• Although when My beautiful Laundrette "came out"... there was inherent shock value with it being not only a same-sex relationship, but also a mixed race one, a film with central queer representation would be far less radical today, though still controversial
• a good demonstration of this is 2017's Call Me By Your Name, distributed by Sony and WB (2 of the Big Six), set in the 80's with the plot flowing the romantic relationship between a 17 year old boy and and the visiting 24 year old graduate-student assistant, Oliver. 
• This film won 12 awards in total - a critical and financial succes
• The other protagonist of this film (Omar, an young, enterprising anglo-pakistani) is not seen in the opening, but the casting of a '"model minority" in the lead marked a positive change in the representation of non-caucasians in film. Though the majority of representation is still caucasian and heterosexual, and this film was a low-budget indie production, it shows the importance of government funding (grants and the BFI) for more controversial films and the need for more diverse representation (also shown by the critical success of the film).
• Although Omar is not shown in the opening, this maybe an attempt to initially make an audience more inclined to continue watching (through identification, but also the narrative enigma created in the first scene)

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CONTRASTING STUDY: Grimsby (Working Title, 2016)

Grimsby poster

This is NOT a social realist film! We are, however, using this comedy (spy/action satire) to help us clarify the characteristics of social realist films: we'll contrast the media language of this with what we've observed is conventional for the social realist genre...

PRODUCTION: Working Title, Big Talk, Village Roadshow [US partner] +2 others
DISTRIBUTION: Sony (UK), Colombia (UK); [no China] 36 territories
BUDGET: $35m
BOX OFFICE: UK $7.5m, US $7m; World $25m

BBFC 15, MPAA R (quite high)


SOME CONTEXT: An example of the impact of the changed, reduced status of WT within its parent big six conglomerate, NBC-Universal. WT had been receiving $600m funding every 7 years, with clearance to greenlight any project up to a $25m budget - but that has been reduced to a 'first look' deal, meaning Universal can decide whether they want to 'pick up' a WT project or not. In this case they didn't, Sony (and its subsidiary Colombia) did ... and maybe Universal were wise, as it failed to even recoup its budget, never mind the 2-3 times budget generally accepted as needed to move into profit.

The Gant rule obviously doesn't apply: its a very British film - so much so that the title had to be changed for US and international markets as the place name Grimsby has no recognition and is essentially meaningless and confusing outside the UK (unlike London). 

...

IDENTS

• Sony ident is the first
• Big Six production
• Very unlikely to see a Big Six name on a social realist film
• Columbia
• subsidiary of Sony
• Village Roadshow Pictures
• US production partner
• virtually unheard of for UK social realist flick (unlike for comedy
• WT did not get an ident
  

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SOUND

• Begins with famous song (R Kelly)
• small indie companies do not have the budget to get copyright licenses 
• non diegetic well-known commercial track as an audiobridge over idents to main scene
• social realist films do not usually start with music (often have incidental music)
• lyrical music is also uncommon for social realist
• e.g. Tyrannosaur, but This is England has some
• OST features Ed Sheeran!

...

FIRST SHOTS

• Not ELS establishing shot

  

  MCU -back tattoo, sweat, beer can, football shirt

• unusual choice of MCU
• no fade-in (black screen before shot after ident 4)
• Close-up of huge back tattoo ('ENGLAND' and 3 lions) 
• football tattoo
• sweat
• beer cans visible in background 
• Master shot
• reveals scene to be a bed shop
• Tightly framed shots for the opening sex scene are made comic by use of a master shot revealing the location
• poverty is being signified by massive sale posters hanging all over the shop ('lowest prices in Grimsby')
• very low prices $89.99 for a double bed

master shot - low prices, sale

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REPRESENTATION

• Stereotyping begins immediately

  

  MCU (cropped) - facial hair, scruffy look

• overgrown hair and facial hair
• sideburns
• ridiculous tattoo
• football top
• beer can
• and then reveal of moronic antisocial behaviour
• Comparison to social realist:
• The realism of social realist films can lead to showing antisocial behaviour
• e.g. Tyrannosaur protagonist is violent, racist and unemployed
• e.g. This is England swearing throughout, violence, underage drinking etc. 
• Immediate heteronormativity 
• opening sex scene
• idea of male provider (the male protagonist is the one to say "we'll take [the bed]")
• though this also signifies that he is the protagonist as it cuts back to his face/reactions

...

Is very short for an opening scene - contrast with This is England and Tyrannosaur etc.

just 30 seconds into the opening sequence which is then followed by another famous commercial song (Blur)

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TITLES

titles

• Serif font
• shot 1 is typical of a social realist though
• grim street red brick terraced houses, heavily graffitied
• many houses are loaded up
• Mise-en-scene
• contrast to This is England - Shaun leaves his bike outside showing the community of the working class neighbourhood as he trusts it won't get stolen
• Grimsby only shows the decay (harsh 2 dimensional stereotype of working class)

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GENRE EG2: This Is England

(SAM'S WORK)

Production: Big Arty Productions, EM Media, Film Four, Optimum Releasing, Screen Yorkshire, UK Film Council, Warp Films
Distribution (US): IFC Films, Netflix, Red Envelope Entertainment, IFC First Take
Distribution (UK): Optimum Releasing
Lighting: attempts to reproduce naturalistic lighting for example at the beginning in Sean's house, in the school and in the cafe are lit to make them look as naturalistic as possible.
Setting: often on location in urban areas somewhere in the north of England to add a strong sense of realism.
Hand held shots: making the audience feel they are part of the action

...

...
BoxOffice: $329k(US) /  £3,1m(UK) / $8,2m(Worldwide)
This Is England made around 10 more in the UK than in the US. It didn't perform well in the US is because the choice of the central protagonist (young boy, ginger) which doesn't make it glomerate and something Working Title [WT] would never do. Also the choice of cast (no A-list stars) and their accent makes it hard to understand for a lot of viewers and the social realist genre doesn't appeal to the US film market.


This Is England are rarely funded by the studio's system since they don't make much in Box Office, so they are often funded independently or through organisations such as the Film Council, National Lottery, Channel4. 

In addition, the film was a critical success winning many awards, and also a commercial success making over $8m on a cost of $1.5m

This is England is an Indie, low financed and social realist film. Being a social realism, the film tackles various issues within society, and looks at the points of view of different generations and social classes from the same time the movie was set. However, the movie was made around 2006, because certain political parties such as BNP and UKIP started to form in the early 2000's and there was a lot of controversy around them due to their racial policies and views. Because the movie is set in the 1980's it connotes how culturally diverse England was at that time, it therefore makes the viewer aware of the issues surrounding immigrants and certain people extreme view on them.

The movie addresses the culture and attitudes of the 'skinheads' and the English Nationalists and the consequent effects that this has on the various characters throughout the film. 

Narrative

Shane uses Todorov's narrative theory to make the movie even more realistic.
Equilibrium: Sean lives with his mother and his father was killed in the war which makes him very upset and in addition he gets bullied at school.
Disruption: Sean meets Woody and his gang, they befriend him and enrolled him into the gang and giving him a 'skinhead' uniform.
Recognition: Sean joins the gang around Combo and gets drawn in to the racist national front and their cirminal activities
Repair: Sean witnesses the violent attack on Milky and realises that Combo is a vicious racist bully
Restoration of a new equilibrium: The new equilibrium is that Sean rejects the racial ideology of Combo, symbolically throwing the flag into the sea.

Representation

The opening sequence is important is representing the social, historical and cultural context of the film. The montage of archive footage from 1980's TV series is shown in low and grainy quality which signifies the historical context. Also the music, typical late 70's SKA reflects the skinhead culture who adopted this genre of music.


Denotation
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...
The ripped wallpaper, old furniture and the fact that he is using a chair as a nightstand denote that this boy is not very rich.

Connotes/Connotation
...

...
The font is worn off and gritty so we connote that it is a film about war.

Signifier
...

...
The font is worn down so it indicates the environment is rough.

...

...
Because the bicycle in front of the house wasn't locked and untouched it signifies that it is a safe area.

Binary Opposition/Opposite
...

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When Shawn(kid) meets Wally(adult)

Polysemy
...

...
This is a picture of Shawn's father. It tells us that his father died during the war or just simply that he misses him.

Anchors/Anchorage
...

...
The damaged wallpaper and old furniture shows that he is poor.

Commutation Test
...

...
This first shot of Margaret Thatcher is confusing, we don't know if the movie is about her or what impact she exerted in the '80s.

Preferred Reading
...

...
Nowadays people aged 60 could relate to this scene a lot more than teenagers.

Negotiated Reading
...

...
The director is making fun of her but some people could interpret this in a different way but still get the same message.

Oppositional Reading
...

...
This shot is quite odd. Probably the only reason why it's in the film opening is that it was made during the same time period as the film.

Narrative Enigma
...

...
It only shows very little of the subject which makes the viewer want to know more.

Intertextuality
...

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Mise-en-scene links into the Boy George Culture Club which was a very famous culture followed by numerous teenagers at that time.

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(MY WORK)
Representation 
whether it is social realist or a rom-com, representation is always something artificially constructed by those creating the media text - lighting, costume, props, dialogue etc.

This is England poster

Demographics
Ways in which audiences are categorised (gender, socio-economic status, race, urban, rural, educated, uneducated, age etc.)

This Is England

• Large portion of the budget was a grant
• Warp production
• Had no IP or franchising initially (did become a tv show)
• Social realist
• Set in the North of England
• Not a huge amount of selling potential 

Opening montage
All footage shown on the television of the Falkland wars painted the English in a positive light, showing men with lost limbs, all footage showing them in a negative light would have been censored.
Shane meadows selects footage which does not paint the English in positive light (a criticism of Margaret Thatcher).

opening montage screenshot

• Denotation: 4 white men in a tank
• normative idea that military is a male/masculine territory
• exclusively Caucasian
• all aged 25-30
• younger ones are only soldiers, higher ranking officials would likely be older
• representation of tie with age and authoritative power
• appears heteronormative (although sexuality is not really made reference to)

Some reasons for success

• Protagonist:
• did not have a Northern Irish accent despite the film being set in Ireland
• McCarthyist ideology of Us and Them, with the local northern Irish population being the violent, wild, backwards and uncivil Other
• reinforces negative northern Irish stereotypes
• is more accessible to more audiences 
• BUT: at the end of the film throws the medal he earned for killing a bunch of Northern Irish people into the ocean
• creates a parallel
• symbolic of rejection of these values
• Reviews:
• was reviewed by the guardian (ABC1) on release date

Protagonist 

• Northern accent (not southern)
• unglamorous 
• In mainstream studio films this character would likely be the Other, butt of a joke, a negative stereotype, a 2 dimensional character
• e.g. Grimsby (a Working Title production): the father of a lot of bastard children, bad hygiene, lazy, extended joke at expense of the working class

The Skinheads

• All swear, drink underage, smoke, act aggressively, 

  

  having just shown up with beer he
  had to wait an hour for he then bullies Sean 

• is part of the social realist aspect:
• is not a 2 dimensional stereotype as this is not all there is to the characters
• a "warts and all" representation - complex characters

Industry
More niche representations have less chance of being successful as fewer demographics are able to identify with the characters

• Studio films have less varied representation of minority demographics as less people go to see them
• Indie films are more able to
• Britain used to set legal minimum if films screened in cinemas that must be British productions
• was a safeguard for British film cinemas
• without such protection American film would dominate
• when this law was dropped British cinemas nose-dived, and American cinema practically monopolised it
• This similar to laws in France and China
• a yearly quota of national films met be shown in cinemas, otherwise American products would dominate and national business would collapse
• Free market ideology is not successful for domestic market
• Without grants from BFI indie films with diverse representation would not exist 
• they are not commercial and unlikely to make profit
• would not be made without subsidy
• e.g. Tyrannosaur would not have been made due to the representation of the protagonist (a racist, violent, unemployed middle aged working class man)
• large audiences not able to identify
• Southern English accents are more normalised for international appeal due to companies like Working Title
• The control of the media industry by mostly American companies assures a certain degree of positive representation for them
• allows for some level of global power 
• idea of world police can be perpetuated
• e.g. the majority of sci-fi films are set in America or have America as the 'hero' of the world (Independence Day, Evolution)

Mickybo and Me vs. Son of Rambo

Mickybo and Me poster

A good example of how representation can limit a film is Mickybo and Me vs. Son of Rambo (blog post on it here).

in Mickybo and Me:

• 2 boys from northern Ireland are obsessed with a film
• did not get any screenings outside of Northern Ireland (only in cinemas for 4 weeks)
• WT2 production (indie style subsidiary of Working Title)
• accents were problematic, lack of identification
• budget was 5m pounds
• would not get a red carpet release, no stars so would not be on chat shows
• too difficult to market
• Most of the cast was English in an attempt to make it more marketable

in Son of Rambo:

Son of Rambo poster

• normative representation
• Caucasian boys, non-problematic accents
• Studio production

Universal/Studio Canal stopped funding Mickybo and Me distribution as they did not think it would be successful for wider release - were not prepared to take the risk with prints and marketing. The audience did not make the decision

Exceptions

Billy Eliot

• is a social realist
• set in County Durham (problematic accent)
• abut an effeminate boy who wants to do ballet (transgressive)
• BUT: had a fairytale American Dream ending
• made large international and domestic profit 
• Shows that less mainstream representation can be successful

Tyrannosaur

Olivia Coleman's fail to get a Bafta trended globally on twitter

• really only has star value in England
• Is not glamorous so even then her star status is limited more
• Obscure indie social realist film 

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