Social realism

Social realism:

What is Social Realism?

Social Realism is a genre of film that focuses on modern day issues such as, drugs, abuse, money problems and teenage issues. It is also the most realistic genre in terms of real life application.

It aims to create a sense of reality and to viewers watching it, to be relatable in their life or others around them.

Codes and Conventions:

Location: It is unlikely that a film of social realism to be filmed in a studio, it would be filmed on location to give the film a more realistic feel. These locations tend to be in housing blocks or parks, or places of familiarity.

Actors: The actors/actresses used would be non- professional,as professional actors would not necessarily want to be in a low budget social realism film. The accents of the actors/actresses help to decipher the characters background and really help in a social realism films.

Storyline: The storyline would be a dramatic and emotional story that aims to tug at viewers emotions. Also the majority of the storyline would be improvised, many famous directors used this method to create a more life like effect on their film.

Shots: The shots used are made by filming with a hand held camera, to make the film look life like, and as if its being documented.

For these reasons we filmed our opening in more run down urban areas to insure the correct feel for a social realism film. For example a part of our film is filmed outside a row of houses in a urban area and another part is filmed outside a block of run down flats to make it evident that the people in our opening are of a lower class and have a poor lifestyle.

We used actors/actresses with little to no experience this was mainly due to the fact that we had no access to qualified actors however as I mentioned above this is fitting to the genre as it enhances the realism.

Our storyline is based around Simone (the young girl) being prostituted by an much older man, she agrees to the prostitution due to the struggles she deals with at home and the fact that she needs the money. Her mother is a drunk drug addict who neglects Simone which pushes her to stimulate a relationship with an older man (the man on the phone)

The majority of the shots used in our opening were steadied by a tripod, however there are several where we used a handheld camera to make the viewer feel as if they are there with Simone and gives the impression of a low budget film.

Our Inspiration - Mike Leigh:

Mike Leigh is an English Director born in 1943, he is most famous for films such as 'All Or Nothing' and ' secrets & Lies' which won a BAFTA and was Oscar nominated. He inspired us for our media film as his films are not scripted as much as other films. Mike Leigh creates scenarios for scenes and makes the actors/actresses improvise on speech, he did this to make his films more realistic as the words are of real people and what they would have said if they were in the same situation.

To get an idea of what to include in our two minute film opening we watched the film 'Fish Tank' which is a social realism film based on a teenage girl from a non wealthy background living with her mother and sister, who befriends her mums new boyfriend. This film was suggested to us and was a brilliant film to watch as it uses key themes and specific shots that helped generate ideas for when we create our own opening to a film.