Analysis/Contrasts of two Social Realism Trailers

Passport to Pimlico (1949)

This is England (2006)

There are similarities and differences between the two trailers produced over 50 years apart. Unfortunately the trailer for Passport to Pimplico was unavailable to post but the above is a clip from the film with shots included in the trailer. 

The trailer for 'Passport to Pimlico' has the title across the bottom of the screen for most of the trailer where as 'This Is England' only displays the title at the end of the trailer. 

'This Is England' uses reviews throughout the trailer to show how well it did, however, 'Passport to Pimlico' doesn't do any of this. This may be due to the increasing media consumer market over time making the competition to attract an audience more extreme in 2006 than in 1949. 

There is obvious contrast between the colours of the trailers. For example, 'Passport to Pimlico' is black and white where as 'This Is England' is in full colour. This difference is obviously due to the fact the 'Passport to Pimlico' was created before Tv in colour was invented and widespread. 

The music in 'This Is England' changes when a new main character is introduced in the trailer. The mood is then changed which is effective. However, as a contrast to this, 'Passport to Pimlico' uses old-fashioned music at the start of the trailer, which fades into diagetic sound of dialogue and returns again when the titles appear. 

The clear contrast in accents in the trailers also display the difference in time era's. For example, in the 'Passport to Pimlico' trailer, the actors are well spoken with Southern accents. On the other hand, in 'This Is England', the accents shown are more Northern and slang is occasionally used. This may reflect the difference in language development and dialect overtime as the trailers (being social realism) are attempting to reflect real life people in that time.

Finally, there are major differences in costume between the two social realism trailers. In the 'Passport to Pimlico' trailer the costumes are mainly very smart with ties and suites, where as in 'This In England' the clothes are less traditional as it's storyline focuses on skinhead fashion and style.