Social realist genre conventions

For this part of the project i watched serval films from the social realist genre. These included, This is england, Kidadulthood, and Fish tank. In all of them i found some of the same conventions.  


- First of all many films in this genre have been shot using handheld cameras,  this is to give the films a documentary 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. 


- Next the use of unknown actors was also a common factor found throughout many films in this genre, such as This is england, Fish Tank and London to Brighton. The actors were used to reinforce the realism as they could be seen as just anybody in society, so that they hadn't been in any films before and had not created a stereotype for themselves wouldn't get in the way of their next characters representation.


- Also 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.