Common representations in Social Realism

Social Realism often focusses around different groups of people, such as teenagers and often middle-aged men and women. Teenagers are usually portrayed in a stereotypical manner in social realism, such as vandals or drug -users wearing scruffy clothing or looking like 'chavs'. Older women are often portrayed as being single parents, either being abusive or not being able to cope.

These are often traditional representation, as kids have alsways been seen as being trouble-makers or anti-social, however, women being portrayed as being single parents is quite modern, most likely because having children out of marriage isn't seen as consequential as it once was.

New idea - Plot overview

Plot OverviewV2
After showing the group the last script and idea, we decided that it would be difficult to find the actors required and even more difficult to film properly. So after discussing it further, we came up with a new idea and allocated me to produce an overview. We have also decided on a title for the film, Attrition.

Attrition -
          Wearing something down by the cause of friction.

We thought this related to the film as it represented how the main character has worn his life away to a life of stealing and dealing drugs.

Social Realist genre conventions

After looking at several social realist films such as Fish Tank, Kes and This is England, there are a running line of common conventions found in all of them.

• A vast majority of these films have been shot using handheld cameras, to give the films an almost documentary like feel to the reinforce the realism. These often include long cuts and a lack of 'flashy' editing, in order to make the audience forget they are watching a film.

• The use of unknown actors was also a common factor found throughout all of the example films, such as London to Brighton, Fish Tank and even This is England. The actors were used to reinforce the realism as they could be seen as just anybody in society, so the personal success wouldn't get in the way of the atmosphere. Upon reading certain texts about the directors, some only wrote a base script so the actors would have to improvise, so it would have a more realistic feel.

- Example of unknown actors -

• The use of sound if mostly diegetic as music is sparsely used and the real world sound is exaggerated. Music is still used, but mostly in very specific scenes, often to carry the emotion of a certain character to the audience.