Production Log; Week Two.

British Social Realist films the very ' kitchen sink ' view of the world in social realist films is potryed in thier conventions and codes and helps to send across there message and helps in thier audience appeal. Unlike Hollywood films, which appeal to a main stream audince, these films appeal to a niche audience. The themes in social realist are very ' grey coloured ' and focus on the less appealing side to life and more of the troubles and problems people go through. Themes include things like sex, domestic violence, crime and many more which do not show the cheery side to life. The films focus on a number of themes during, instead of focusing on one main theme as this helps to potry the life of working and under class people and the difference between the two.This appeals to thier audience and they can relate more to these themes as these are everyday things that will occur in thier life and do not have the hollywood film view of life, where things are always resolved and have a happy ending. The mis - en - scene also shows a very murky, dull view of life, often using council estates or small houses, for example in fish Tank, showing the estae that Mia lives on which is not very clean or nice to look at and just looks like a basic estate that has not been bothered with. Thier niche audience can relate to this as they do not live in big, posh houses. they have to live with what they are given and only get what they can afford, which, in most cases, is very little. Dialogue is a key convention in a british social realist as thier niche audience can relate to their accents, slang and ways of speaking. In Kidulthood, for example, the slang that they use will relate to a niche audience more than a mainstream one as they will understand the dialogue and can then feel and relate highly to the characters and the film.

Looking at opening sequences this week, i can tell the difference between Hollywood and Social Realist films. Hollywood tend to have more fancy typography and visual effects where an social realist film will show a more realistis opening, as an important part of thier films is verisimilitude and showing true real life in the eyes of working or under class people. Social realist films will also tend to use more british music in the opening sequence and not a very popular, well known song.


The research into conventions of social realism films and there opening sequences has impacted on my idea for my own opening sequence of a british social realism production. I know that in my opening sequence, any fancy editing techniques will not help in the verisimilitude of my film. Also, during my opening sequence i should not give to much of the film away and stick to bare minimum of detail so that my audience are intrigued and want to watch the film. During my opening sequence i should not use diagetic sound, only non diagetic as this will add to the atmosphere in the film, and this is usualy a sound track made specificaly for the film.