Eval Q1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Social realism is a genre of film that focuses on topical issues alive in modern society which is represented by different ideologies. Themes such as money, drugs, prostitution and sex are quite usual in modern contemporary social realist films as well as class, religion and political views. These themes are very popular today but not all were involved in the early social realism storylines and films.

Common Conventions of Social realism films:

• Use of unknown, teenage actors - 'The sixteen' and 'This is England' all have main characters that support the social realist genre because they are between these ages. The actors could be anyone which makes it realistic.
• Social class - this is a very important form and convention as most social realist films deal with the working class like 'Billy Elliot' and 'This is England'.
• The locations - social realism film are usually set around a council estate or run down areas of different cities, but also can be a nice neighbourhood.
•  Usually a social realism film deals with issues like drugs, sex, poverty, prostitution, homosexuality, alcoholism and crime. Social realism films usually involve political views and religious views e.g 'This is England' and the hatred for Maggie Thatcher.
• Semi Improvised scripts - Sometimes directors such as Ken Loach use semi-improvised scripts to make the film have a more realistic feel and dialogue. He used this in the film Kes' and 'Sweet Sixteen' 

 

Location Shooting-
By using locations rather than the studio, it makes the film seem more true to real life for the audience to watch. An example of this is in 'Fish Tank' as it uses an actual council estate within the film. British social realism films are filmed on actual, real life locations such as parks and council estates and not in made up sets in studios such as Hollywood Studios. Our film opening uses this convention as our entire footage was shot in real life locations. Our locations included a council estate in Ben Rhydding, a dark bridge in Burley and Ilkley Cemetery.

Dark bridge in Burley

Council estate Ben Rhydding

Non-professional Actors-

 British Social Realism films use non-professional or unknown actors as it adds to the realistic look. Also, many British Social Realism films cannot afford popular, Hollywood actors to be in their films as the budget is usually quite low. For example, Katie Jarvis (main character in Fish Tank) was spotted in a train station arguing with her boyfriend. In this aspect our film definitely applies to this convention as our actors have no acting experience or training. 

Social class-

In a social realism film, the social class of the characters are usually working class living in working class environments. For example ill Manors was filmed in a lower, working class area of London. Our film matches this common convention as our  central protagonist is a working class teenager. Certain stereotypical working class activities take place in social realist films such as drug use, violence etc.. Our film contains this common convention. Contrastingly, Our film goes against the common convention of social class too a certain extent. Our other central protagonist is in fact upper class which is unusual to see in a social realism film. You often see wealthy but bad men in social realism films such as ill manors and top boy, but they aren't used in the way our upper class man is used.

Soundtrack-

With regards to the music that overplays our shots, it follows to conventions of a social realism film. Stereotypically, I have matched the genre of music to the social class of each protagonist. The opening starts with a slow piano song which is in fact the instrumental of 'to build a home' - this slow paced piano can be associated with upset and empathy, and also piano can be stereotypically seen as an upper class sound. I then mixed a 'grime like' beat into the piano. Grime is stereotypically seen as a lower class genre of music, as it originates from lower class areas. The beat introduced attempts to present a grime types of feel when overplaying Kieran's scenario. In many social realism films grime music is a huge part of them. Within social realism films we often witness gang violence and the culture that surrounds this. Grime/rap music is a part of this culture and is uses very regularly in these types of films that are set in this date. For example Ill Manors' whole soundtrack is created by Plan B (famous rap artist), Kidulthood and Adulthood use a lot of rap/grime. Our soundtrack also consists of slower music (piano) which is also used vastly in social realism films such as Tyrannosaur. Tyrannosaur is a sad, moving film and the music in it matches that them. Which is what we set out to do in our film. So in terms of music, I feel that our film opening matches this convention.

Titles-

With regards to titles our film follows the conventions of social realism. This is due to the simplicity of the titles being in a plain white font. These titles also follow the conventions of a documentary which from the off set places emphasis on the 'realism' element of the film as the film is trying to provide a realistic interpretation on the working class and middle class lifestyles within Britain. The titles use however a nice transition to allow a sense of professionalism and fluency within the opening of the film.

Target Audience-

Social realism target audiences can vary dependant on the plot of the film, protagonists, region, etc... But films that we feel are similar to ours have a primary target audience of males from the age of 15-30 (which is the same as ours) - this target audience is a common convention of social realism films. Our secondary audience consists of females and people of 50+. Females may be attracted to our film due to the use of emotion and people over the age of 50 may be appealed due to the use of an older protagonist (people can relate). Some social realism films such as Tyrannosaur may attract a female and older audience due to the same reasons ours might do.