Compare how Hot Fuzz and This is England appeal to a British audience.

Compare how Hot Fuzz and This is England appeal to a British audience.

Both directors, Edgar Wright  who wrote  ‘Hot Fuzz’ and Shane Meadows who wrote ‘This is England’ are British, worked with British film companies to make the films this is one of the main reasons it appeals well to a British audience because there views can relate to British people, if an American company had made the films they wouldn’t know how the British lived without a lot of time studying them would of taken too much time and lost the time on making the film, but with them both being British it really helped as they knew how to get to the audience.  Both of the directors used there own experiences from the past too create the films, the reason for this is other people could relate to them they may have experienced it themselves as they live in Britain.

The film Hot Fuzz is located in London, this appeals to the audience straight away as that is the capital of England and many people have been there, it has many recognisable features which the audience could relate too, the atmosphere is created to be the same as when you visit it, it is also set in Sanford (Gloustershire) although not as many people can relate to this as much as London it is just a traditional village in Britain which many people living in the countryside could relate too however as it was suppose to be a quiet village except for the murders that were happening  it could Relate to people living in the city also as  living in the city is very busy and loud where as they could see how the countryside is quite and peaceful, normally. This is England does not actually give us the name of where it is set but we do know it was on the North Coast during the year of 1993. One of the reasons they could have done this is so it relates to the whole of England not just one part and they wanted to make it appeal to a wider range of England with the stereotypes that people can relate too.

The cast plays a big part in both films, Hot Fuzz uses a lot of stock actors, these are actors that have already been used by the director, this could help a lot as they know exactly what they are going to get from the actor, and they can chose them accordingly to what the actors are going to be in the film. They are all distinguishable English actors, including Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who are the main characters,  this is why it appeals more to the British audience a they are more recognisable here than overseas where they are not that famous, on the other hand in This is England the actors used were completely unknown however some were known just not very well, this worked well as they were used more for stereotyping, many people in the timing of the film were living like that so they were easy to relate too, I don’t think rich people would enjoy it as much as the poorer or middle class as they would not find it easy to relate too, most actors were common and unknown picked randomly from a few auditions which was good as it was cheap and although they didn’t have much experience this helped the film appeal to the British audience at the time even more.

In both films a lot of stereotypes are used,  in Hot Fuzz the main ones are the policeman and the youths, the film begins with Simon Pegg walking up to the camera very serious and smart what we the British audience think that policeman should be like, however it then goes on to another police officer Nick Frost who doesn’t really see the serious side to the job, he see’s it more like a bit of fun, he’s in it just for the action which in the countryside you don’t really get, this film was also a comedy and from the directors views knew they Britain enjoyed this so the two together was good mix, like seeing a policeman not taking his job seriously. In This is England, stereotypes are used in way which the audience could easily relate to them, the skinheads were very popular in Britain when the film was set, the reason they did this is so they could link it to the audience.

Edgar Wright using a lot of realism in the film with the stereotypes, this relates to the audience as he looks at the film from his point of view, him being British helps this as he knows what the audience want.

In both films the directors chose the budgets very differently. Hot Fuzz which was made by Working Title has a big budget of around £8 million this abled them to use a large variety of camera work, editing and many scenes, they could also afford the more famous actors, the reason there was so much money involved was mainly because of the effects I think without them it wouldn’t be as action packed as it was, it would have been quite boring. This Is England had quite a lot smaller budget only £1.5million this made the film have less effects, made on the computer a lot of the stuff was hand made I think this was good as it linked to the actors which weren’t the richest of people and by doing this it didn’t make the film go over dramatic which also made it more realistic and I think this is one of the reasons it appeals to the British audience so much because it is made so realistic. Also the advertising for both films were very different due to the budget they used.

In conclusion to both films, they were both made in very different ways Hot Fuzz is more about entertaining where as This is England is more about getting a message across to the audience, also the times when the films are set are different however linked at how they both were trying to appeal to the British audience, also both films have humour in them. But the main reason for them appealing to the British audience so much is because they are British actors, British directors and a lot of British culture in it.