Essay

Compare how Hot Fuzz and This Is England appeal to a British Audience

As the films are both directed by British directors this helps to improve the interest of the films to the target audience. Hot Fuzz is directed by Edgar Wright and This is England by Shane Meadows, who both used their on experiences to created their films. Also, as the directors are British both film companies are. Warp Films, which is a independent working title company helped This is England, whereas the famous Universal film company helped with the Hot Fuzz film.

Experiences from the directors helped massively to make the films personal and also to help the British audience understand better. Wright added a lot of his dreams and child into the film through the extreme events that happen. Wright 'imagains himself as the target audience' which shows us that he is only thinking if his own opinions and making his film personal to him, although this works well in the film; as he is British and therefore the British public comprehend with him.
On the other hand there is a contrast between the hopes and dreams of a young boy and the reality of another. Meadows experiences are very personal and based on part of his childhood in the 80's. This is highlighted in various interviews with Meadows.

There is also a difference between the budgets of the films, as Hit Fuzz had a massive 8 million pounds budget to bring the infant dreams into real life through effects and special features, yet on the other hand This Is England has only a budget of 1 million. Although this is a lot less than Hot Fuzz it improves the authentic appearance of the film.
The casting is also very important to both films. In This is England as the finical plan was very low Meadows could not afford famous actors that most British individuals would know. Yet this made the film realistic because the actors were unknown at the time. This is why the film was popular as it seemed that the actors were just normal people being filmed. Yet with Hot Fuzz there is a large amount of well known actors that are known to be good at acting together, for example Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. They have both been in a film together before - Sean Of the Dead; which was a huge success with with British Public. As it was such a good outcome the Wright would know that it would interest the population as well.

The humour within the films are both a big impact to each film. The actors in Hot Fuzz create the humorouss side of the storyline. Wright uses exaggeration with special effects to create the film similar to action packed films such as Bad Boys II. The humour from this is mostly for the people that have watched these types of films although there are other various areas for people that have watched programmes such as Midsomer Murderers. The 'typical' country speaking people in the film is humorous because they are took to the extreme. Therefore the viewer will know about the different accents of the British people.
Although This is England is found funny to the viewers because of the amount of swearing from a young boy and also the 'mickey taking' comments towards the characters are humorous to the watcher, because they would have known about these things when they were younger. Yet both the films have alot of swearing in them which people find amusing as it is took to an extreme. Hot Fuzz takes parts of the film to far, although This is England does not as it is funny through reality.

Stereotypes within the films a lso improve the films assuming part. The typical 'skin heads' in the 80's are found funny; even though people did dress like this. The thought to people of looking back at what parts of Britain dressed like - for example shaven heads, Doc Martin boots, Ben Sherman shirts and braces, makes people understand now that they did look funny compared to the present tense. With This is England the stereotypes of the police are took very supreme. The police in the film are shown as not caring or lazy to do anything. For example when a group of youths are brought into the station in the countryside the officer asked if he really wanted to process all the crimes - showing that they are not that bothered. This then links to the real police and the image the general public have over them making it humorous for the watcher.

Both films are located in England - which improves the target audience as the watchers will know where each film is set; from influence of the accents. Hot Fuzz is set in two different places, first, shortly, in London and then in the countryside in Gloucester. Although most of the inside scenes in Hot Fuzz would have been filmed on the set; which would have cost a lot to film. Whereas This is England could not afford to have sets so it was cheaper to film if they used the right locations already. It was also difficult for the director to film outside as the location and landscape had to be correct for the 80's. There should be no satellites or anything that would show the film was filmed after the 80's as the film would loose its authenticness. The film is set in Nottingham shire which is a lot different to the settings of Hot Fuzz as this was back streets towns while Hot Fuzz was clear countryside set in the present tense.

The films do have there similarities and differences, although i think the films conclude on This is England explaining a message of the directors childhood and of people that also had the same experiences. Yet Hot Fuzz was only made, really, for entertainment reasons for those of us who enjoyed the previous films of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and also the people that enjoy taking things to the extreme that create the film humorous.