Title Sequence Sound Analysis (DYM)

   
http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/this-is-england/#

I looked at the Opening sequence of Shane Meadows' 'This is England'. The opening sequence has quite a nationalist theme throughout as it includes a lot of cultural codes relating to a stereotypical England. The film is about 'skinheads' and illustrates how their subculture has taken inspiration from 1960's West Indian culture which is the home of ska, reggae and (partially) soul music - which explains the song choice for the title sequence '54-46Was My Number' by 'Toots and the Maytals'.

The sequence begins with an introduction by 'Roland Rat' which introduces the comedic sub-genre of the film and is also used as symbolism for England in the 1980's era. This is the only dialogue in the sequence, which works quite well as a que for the soundtrack. The cutting rate is in close relation to the music at this point as it cuts from plain white credits over a plain black background to dated footage of other symbolic codes for 1980's England. This works very effectively as it does really hook your attention as it is pretty dramatic. Then as the music finally drops the credits come to an end and we are left with footage and eventually the title appears. Then the credits start up again but this time over handheld film footage. The music is then timed to link with explosions, fences being pushed and clapping. The choice of music really compliments the images as they could potentially look very boring accompanied by another soundtrack, but the excitement radiated from the track seems to really lift the imagery despite some of it consisting of people fighting - which would usually be seen as negative. I think also this isn't seen so negatively because there are no sound effects, only a soundtrack. At the end of the clip the music fades out to silence, probably because they wanted to begin the film with silence and a fade out is easy-on-the-ear.