The End of the F***ing World – Location Analysis

The End of the Fucking World is a channel 4 drama about a boy who thinks he’s a psychopath and plans to murder a girl he meets called Alyssa. The two quickly fall in love and he decides that he doesn’t want to kill her anymore.

The show is based on a graphic novel by Charles Foreman of the same name. ‘It was filmed in England but looks and sounds American.’ (Rachel Steven, creativereview.co.uk)- this is perhaps to give it a confusing aesthetic to make the viewer contemplate where and when it was set as it has an 80s feel to the architecture.‘That’s what I wanted the world to be – for people to be unsure [of where it is]. When you watch a movie like Blue Velvet, you’re aware it’s set in American suburbia but you don’t really know where it is. It could be anywhere.”‘ (Entwistle, creativereview.co.uk) It has also been compared to ‘Fargo and Twin Peaks.’ (Rachel Steven, creativereview.co.uk). Jonathan Entwistle states that ‘[they] shot around three quarters of the show in Surrey, in Woking and Bracknell and those kinds of … suburban places. We also shot out of Longcross Film studios … but we built a lot,’. 

The dystopian mis en scene of the show helps add to the eeriness of the story line in that the storyline is confusing and random. By doing this, it creates a parallel and makes the viewer use their imagination and let it be set wherever they want it to be set.

In order to film in certain locations, the production team would need to have a filming permit such as a public one ‘issued by local governments or councils’ (reeldealfilmschool.wordpress.com)

Rachel Steven. (2017). MAKING THE END OF THE F****NG WORLD.Available: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/end-ing-world-channel-4-netflix/?mm_5a9d8b61a6930=5a9d8b61a69d2. Last accessed 4 Feb 2018.

reeldealfilmschool. (). 5 Things You Should Know About Filming On Location. Available: https://reeldealfilmschool.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-filming-permits/. Last accessed 4 March 2018.