Social Realism

1. Social Realism By Jessica Mechen

2. Social Realism: Social Realism basically means real-life, and social realism films revolve around issues in which people face in contemporary society. It covers anything from cultural backgrounds and social classes, to things like peer pressure, money and substances (drugs, alcohol and tobacco). It also deals with situations that people may face such as domestic violence, abuse, pregnancy. Many social realism films are based around teenagers and youths growing up in gritty areas such as London and having to face the challenges that everyday life brings. It’s not until recent years that the public have begun to sit-up and take notice of social realism films in a more in depth sense because the growing popularity of the genre is certainly making it one of the most intriguing and insightful ideas to make a film out of. They are also becoming more recognised and regarded as highly respectable films, for example ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ (2008, Danny Boyle).

3. Influences: Films that we watched and considered most helpful regarding character types and typical outdoor locations for Social Realism films were films like ‘Fish tank’, ‘Adulthood’ and ‘Kidulthood’. These are all social realism films because they focus on key elements that people face in everyday life, it surrounds and involves issues such as drugs, crime, violence and particularly in Fish tank, tackles issues surrounding family life and situations that people may face; e.g. Child abuse or domestic violence. Similarly Adulthood picks up from where Kidulthood ended, and takes us through how life can be for a teenager in prison, and how the people have since broken off from each other and matured, taking on greater responsibilities such as parenthood. ‘Kidulthood’ is a film focusing on today’s stereotypical youths and the rapid outbreak and involvement of gangs in society. It revolves around a gang who mainly associate themselves with crime and violence type issues as well as having elements of realistic situations in which people encounter e.g. teenage pregnancy.

4. Fish tank however, deals more with family issues and surroundings which may impact a teenagers life, and how certain issues within the family may occur (particularly in real-life on a day-to-day basis) for example child abuse, arguments, domestic issues between the parents and the children, drug and alcohol use and the effect it can have on people and other influential factors like that. A bit later on in our research stage, we came across the film ‘Girl Fight’ which is similar to ‘Billy Elliot’ because the lead character doesn’t want to do what everyone tells them to do, they want to do something that their parents don’t believe they should be doing. E.g. Billy didn’t want to box (like his father said he should be doing because it’s a man’s sport), he wanted to do ballet, whereas Diana doesn’t want to stay at home and do the cooking and cleaning (like her father says), she wants to box. Influences:

5. Time-line: Danny Boyle Danny Boyle Noel Clarke Noel Clarke 2009 2000 2005 2006 2008 1996 Shane Meadows Lee Hall Andrea Arnold Saul Dibb Paul Andrew Williams

6. Conventions of Social Realism Films: Conventions of Social Realism films just means the typical things that you would see in social realism films, and therefore be able to identify with, and tell that it is a social realism film. These things would typically include: The use of unknown actors, because they are more realistic and are therefore easier for the public to relate to … You wouldn’t see a big Hollywood star acting as a poor hard-done-by person, because it would simply be unbelievable. The area and location in which Social Realism films are shot in are also very important because it enables the right ‘feel’ to the film and having the correct setting to fit the storyline is a major part of the film itself in order to make it seem life-like. Similarly it may also be the case of including things revolving around social class (upper class, middle class lower class ECT…), and real events or happenings that modern society currently deals with such as the recession.

7. Conventions of Social Realism Films: Social Realism films are also known for casting young actors and actresses (between the ages of young teens to young adults: 13-21 years) to star in them because it enables room for the public to identify and establish with them because they are of such a young age, and they are facing these issues we are also made to feel sorry for them and empathise with them e.g. Fish tank, we are led to believe Mia has a hard life and therefore we hope that by the end of the film, she gets out and makes something of herself. Social Realism films usually also contain situations surrounding alcohol, sex and crime, however they may also contain domestic issues, such as sexuality, as well as dealing with poverty storylines relating to prostitution and drugs.

8. Research – Locations: Initially, when thinking about locations that would be suitable to film, we thought about a variety of places that would fit-in with the social realism conventions of run-down areas, and came up with some interesting shots of local places, and a very good establishing shot over looking a neighbourhood. We also took some shots of underneath the pier and other different places because we thought it would be appealing to have some more intricate types of shots in between, to break away from the common-lifestyle that our character faces – kind of like to symbolise an escapism feeling when they’re out and about, away from their area. In the end we decided to go with filming at the block of flats – as our main establishing shot, and base setting - because we thought it would especially fit with the style of filming we wanted to follow, and our initial ‘social-realism’ genre.

9. Some other images of locations and sets which we thought might be useful: Another block of flats, which we decided didn't have the right ‘feel’ to it. We thought a panning or tracking shot – by steadicam – would have looked the part, if we needed our main actress to be filmed going places. We didn’t feel this establishing shot was good enough to set the scene and begin our trailer, we wanted something more up close and suburban-type. At first, we wanted to film a series of still shots to begin our trailer and set the scene of the film, however we decided against this, thinking that it would be best to open with an establishing shot of our main location.