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 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


My 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 me fr my 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 I
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. I thought this would be a good film to watch as it uses key themes and specific shots that helped give me ideas for when we create our own opening to a film.