Social Realism is an international genre, which is practically popular in British and French cinema. The genre is based on real life, the story’s are fiction but the story of the film are a reflection of the world. The characters, dialogue and settings are all made up but are inspired by the real world. It has shown us to ourselves, pushing the boundaries in the effort to put the experiences of people on the screen.
Social Realism is probably one of the first genre’s to be introduced into cinema. It goes all the way back to 1902, where the British movie “A Reservist before the War, and After the War” by James Williamson's was made. It offered a portrait of the Boer War serviceman returning to unemployment, and was one of the first films to emphasise realism's value as social protest. There have been lots of good reviewed Social Realism films, such as, “All Or Nothing” and “A Way of Life”, which all show us perspectives of people in their daily lives facing problems and how they deal with them.
Social Realism can also been seen as auto-biography’s, they are not portrayed in the same way but they show as the lives of a person or a group of people. Showing us what they have to deal with in their lives and how it affects them and the people around them. The film of the genre can be based on practically anything, which involves people and their hardships but now adjustments can be made to the world, such as advanced fictional technology (e.g. holograms).
Social Realism films in Britain are made by many company’s, the most famous of company’s are Film 4 (Channel 4), BBC, ITV and Working Films. They have produced many of these films and we see them most commonly on their TV channels. Social Realism are a difficult genre to detect because there isn’t much to make a convection on, due to it being such a diverse genre. It can mislead the audience, if before the movie you was unaware of the genre and the movie is quiet humorous it can make the audience think it is comedy. That is why although Social Realism films are popular, people can often mistake it as a different genre, making the genre Social Realism a less famous genre compared to others.
The genre Social Realism in film is probably one of the most viewed film genres in the world. It is popular because it is so easy to relate to and it is naturalistic. It also is contains the theme of verisimilitude, which means that it shows us how things really are. Meaning that even though things like the characters are made up, the world in which they live in is real. And that is why this genre is so popular because it is real.
Sunday 18 April 2010
Break down of a Social Realism film
Half Nelson
Directed by Ryan Fleck
Written by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
In the introduction of the film “Half Nelson” the director manipulates the four elements, camera, sound, mise-en-scene and editing to create specific representations and convey certain themes and issues such as, substance abuse to the audience.
The film begins with the opening credits and the non-digetic sound of a humming music. This music is played to represent the character is in a dream world and links to the theme of isolation. He is broken away from the dream world by the digetic sound of the alarm clock, the sound grows louder in till we see a medium shot of a man sitting on the floor. The alarm clock is a metaphor for a call back to reality, as when the alarm clock rang, we saw the shot of the man. This shows us that he has awoken from the dream world he was in. This opening scene shows us the main themes of the film, the themes of substance abuse and depression.
We then start to see that he is restless, through the movement of the camera, the movement of the camera is static, this could be a reflection of his emotional state, how he feels from the hangover from the drugs.
We begin to see a change in the character when he leaves his home and is on his way to work. The lighting changes to bright and colourful, whereas whilst he was in his home the lighting was dark and dull, this shows us his feelings, that he comes to life when he is at his job. We see him in a medium shot, teaching a class of pupils, which brings a bit of irony to the scene as teachers are not usually associated with drugs and depression.
The directors rationale for this media text is to broadcast the fact of how people suffer from depression and use drugs to ease it. And how people who suffer in the way that the main character does, has their own remedies to cure it such as the main character as teaching. Also it is to show us how anyone can suffer in this way, even a teacher, a member of the public service who are not commonly associated with drugs and depression.
Directed by Ryan Fleck
Written by Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden
In the introduction of the film “Half Nelson” the director manipulates the four elements, camera, sound, mise-en-scene and editing to create specific representations and convey certain themes and issues such as, substance abuse to the audience.
The film begins with the opening credits and the non-digetic sound of a humming music. This music is played to represent the character is in a dream world and links to the theme of isolation. He is broken away from the dream world by the digetic sound of the alarm clock, the sound grows louder in till we see a medium shot of a man sitting on the floor. The alarm clock is a metaphor for a call back to reality, as when the alarm clock rang, we saw the shot of the man. This shows us that he has awoken from the dream world he was in. This opening scene shows us the main themes of the film, the themes of substance abuse and depression.
We then start to see that he is restless, through the movement of the camera, the movement of the camera is static, this could be a reflection of his emotional state, how he feels from the hangover from the drugs.
We begin to see a change in the character when he leaves his home and is on his way to work. The lighting changes to bright and colourful, whereas whilst he was in his home the lighting was dark and dull, this shows us his feelings, that he comes to life when he is at his job. We see him in a medium shot, teaching a class of pupils, which brings a bit of irony to the scene as teachers are not usually associated with drugs and depression.
The directors rationale for this media text is to broadcast the fact of how people suffer from depression and use drugs to ease it. And how people who suffer in the way that the main character does, has their own remedies to cure it such as the main character as teaching. Also it is to show us how anyone can suffer in this way, even a teacher, a member of the public service who are not commonly associated with drugs and depression.
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