Harry Simmons

How Hot Fuzz and This is England appeal to British audiences

Hot Fuzz is a ʻWorking Titleʼ film, directed by Edgar Wright. This is England is a ʻWarp
Filmsʼ film, directed by another British Director, Shane Meadows. Both Working Title and
Warp Films are British film companies, Working Title is owned by Universal Films (one of
the oldest and largest film companies in the world), based in the United States. Warp Films
is a smaller sister company to Warp Music. The two films have some very basic similarities
in that they are both Directed by British Directors, funded by British film companies and set
in Britain.

Both Directors use their own experiences to create their films, Shane Meadows states that
This is England is based on his on his own childhood experiences; he was bullied at
school as a child, so it can be said that he translates this particular experience through
main character Shaun. On the culture show he also says how he wore Dr Marten boots,
and the label was the most important part, similarly to Shaun in the film. Meadows also
says he went to a national front meeting when he was 11. So it is clear that the director of
This is England has a very vivid idea from his own first hand experiences of the time and
environment that he is trying to create in his film.

Edgar Wright uses his own experience in a very different way, He says he ʻmakes films for
himselfʼ and ʻimagines himself as the target audienceʼ. He uses his own judgements and
his childhood dreams to be creative in his films. You get the idea that Wright wants to
make the film for people like him or who have a similar sense of comedy, Hot Fuzz is an
example of genre satire; it makes fun of an existing genre, in this case He refers to Bad
Boys II as an example of a film which ʻdoesnʼt take itself too seriouslyʼ. If you refer back to
another film by Edgar Wright; Shaun of the Dead, this is another example of genre satire, it
makes fun of the horror genre, so Hot Fuzz arguably may have a ready-made target
audience. By the two different approaches by each director you can tell that Hot Fuzz is a
bit more imaginative and fictional than This is England.

The Budget of the two films differs largely, with Hot Fuzz having £8 Million and This is
England having a £1 Million budget. With a smaller budget things like advertising may be
greatly affected, Hot Fuzz would have been able to get much stronger and bigger
advertising schemes than This is England, which would have had to limit greatly on
advertising costs to make the most of the budget to make the film as the Director wished.
Also the amount or how advanced the technology used in the films may have been
affected, Hot Fuzz has many hi-tech stunts, cars chases, explosions etc., this is important
to the genre and target audience but can only be possible because of the size of the
budget, This is England, however not needed in the storyline, cannot perform such stunts
or use as advanced technology as a higher budget film. Technology may also cover the
amount and quality of cameras, editing software etc.

The contrast in the cast is also quite large, Hot Fuzz stars Simon Pegg and Nick Frost and
many Cameos from famous British actors including Timothy Dalton and Bill Nighy. Pegg
and Frost are known as ʻstock actorsʼ - meaning they have previously worked together
(notably on Spaced and Shaun of the Dead) with Edgar Wright, some of the cameos and
ʻbigger namesʼ in the film according to Wright asked to work in his film, so itʼs clear that he
has built up a reputation as a director to bring in ʻbiggerʼ actors and knew from the
beginning of making the movie that he would have Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as two
secure Well known British actors starring.
This is England had a comparatively unknown cast, the main character Shaun Field is
played by Thomas Turgoose. Stephen Graham was probably the biggest actor in the film
and may have been relatively well-known in Britain due to his work in the crime-film
ʻSnatchʼ. The Budget of the film would have been a large factor in the cast.

The locations in each of the films differ, Hot Fuzz is set in the fictional village of Sandford,
Gloucestershire and in Central London, This is England is set on the Northern England
coast, possibly Grimsby, most of it is filmed in Nottingham. Again the budget may affect
these locations, to film in London, in particular at the metropolitan station would have been
very expensive to film at. This is England uses fairly common and simple settings and
relates back to the way the director is showing a typical scene from the 1980ʼs.

The humour used in the two films is a big element into why and how these films target
british audiences, they both use two contrasting types of british humour, Hot Fuzz uses
lots of jokes throughout the film and the stereotypes of different polices forces are shown
is quite comical, you would expect there to be obvious humour in Hot Fuzz with it being an
action-comedy. From what Edgar Wright says, you get the idea that most of the comedy in
the film is his own comedy. This is England uses a bit more natural and darker humour,
most of it comes when the young character Shaun swears, which he does a lot, and when
he gets into fights and generally how he acts a lot older and tougher than he actually is.
Also between the group there is a lot of playful banter, which is also quite funny. The
stereotype shown in This is England is not meant to be comical like that in Hot Fuzz, it
shows the skinheads, but not in a usual way, they are stereotypically very racist, but this
group includes a black man, they are more stereotypical in the way the dress; skinny jeans
and boots.

Again Hot Fuzz may be trying to attract a similar audience to Shaun of the Dead, with a
similar type of comedy and it being another example of genre satire. The actors used in
this film would also appeal to a British audience, many of them have starred in big british
films, for example seeing Timothy Dalton, who played James Bond, playing a supermarket
manager would seem very funny to a certain audience. Also as Edgar Wright says it
makes fun of ʻBad Boys IIʼ this may indicate he is trying to attract the sort of British people
that would have watched this film and would want to see a sort of British Version, probably
much like himself.
This is England would probably appeal to a different type of audience, it is a lot more
serious than Hot Fuzz, it shows issues that would have been more realistic in the time it is
set, it may appeal to a similar type of person to the director, who was at a similar age to
the main character in the 80ʼs. It may also appeal to people who are interested in what
80ʼs britain may have been like and may see this film as a fairly accurate representation