Week five - British Social Realism

The brief for this week was to create a piece which adhered to the conventions of a 'British-grit' film. These conventions often lay in depiction's of social realism, where character's faced very 'real' issues and problems. In opposition to the sugar-coated style distinctive within Hollywood, these British films often portray a working-class reality which engages with the 'every-day' man who has little aspiration and little means in which to aspire.

For this week in particular, it was essential that we pursued clearly defined roles (as listed below). Much of this is due to the brief of this week creating an obligation to follow a more traditional filmmaking structure. Unlike last week were we could collaborate and offer opinions in every role (nature of the task allowing this freedom), this task required a definite scriptwriter, director, sound designer and actor before any decisions could be made.  

Director - Dan Griffiths

Writer - Chloe Hudson

Cinematographer/actor - Liz Hutchinson

Actors - Ben Grantham & Tom Howitt

Synopsis

The concept of this week's film lay much within the interplay of perspectives; more precisely, the perspective of Ben as the main character. We decided to take the advice from last week's practical feedback session and create something which followed all the themes typical of the genre and use that as a foundation to build something slightly different and more innovative than the obvious. With this in mind, the film is based around this character Ben, who evidently comes from a working class background and born deaf, the film focuses on his social struggles. His own mother has a blatant disregard for his problems, and in the opening scene, shouts at him for not hearing her trying to open the bathroom door. When he goes outside, a gang from the estate taunt him for being deaf and violently attack him. The film ends on a bleak tone, suggesting that in his current state, Ben has little ability to move his life forward. The only hope lies in the subtle suggestion that he wants a better life for himself as he scrubs his hands clean and tries to make his hair look presentable in the opening scene. The script can be viewed here, and our preperation notes here.

Research

The codes and conventions of British Social Realism seem to be:

Location Shooting: By using real locations as opposed to contrived sets in studios, films appear more true to life.

The Wide/Long Shot:  Although many different shots are used in British social realism films, the wide shot seems to be a favourite among film makers of this genre.

Nice use of a wide shot in to show the urban  landscape in which the characters are placed in This is England '86 (Shane Meadows,2010).  

Hand Held Camera:  This choice of camera use gives the audience the impression that they are taking part in proceedings, and since traditionally used in documentaries, we are conditioned to have a greater sense of realism.

Non-professional Actors:  Use of non-professional or unknown actors adds to the realistic look since they are often less 'perfect' looking than established actors. They are also more affordable to a low budget film. 

Ken Loach's 1969 classic Kes.  Set in Barnsley,  it features locally hired extras and the cast have authentic Yorkshire accents.

Semi-Improvised Scripts: Semi-improvised scripts are sometimes used in order to achieve ‘realistic’ dialogue and true to life-like conversations. Ken Loach, for example used semi-improvised scripts in the film Kes.

Humour and Seriousness: Although this genre traditionally deals with some quite dismal social issues, it often combines gravity with humour.

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Wider social issues are often explored via emotional and dramatic individual stories. For example, in The Full Monty, unemployment and the recession is shown through the main character as he has lost his job as a coalminer.

Regional Identities: The regional identity of the characters is stringently adhered in British Social Realist films, with the use of appropriate accents/language, as well as including the local issues in the region.

The first 35 pages of a really useful introduction to the Genre From Documentary to Grit Brit by Samantha Lay (2002 ) can be found here.

Some of the work which could be said to define the genre in the '50's and '60's we found particularly inspiring.  A great montage of some of these films helped us in our research.

Behind the scenes footage

We decided to have a go at creating a film of behind the scenes footage this week.  Whoever was able recorded what they could with a little HD Flipcam.  There was lots of footage, and took some time to sift through to find the best bits, but eventually we came up with this, which hopefully gives a flavour of We Are Group C working together. 

Reflections on week five

Liz - As cinematographer for this week, I was particularly challenged as I had very little experience of using a camera like this, having filmed everything before on a little flip camera. Researching the British Social Realism genre told me that I would be using a hand held camera for some shots and a mixture of long, medium and close-ups.I found a useful link to shot sizes here. On the day, some of the shots worked and some were not so successful.  I discovered that what looks like a little bit of natural camera movement through the lens, translates into huge seasicky sways and jerks on a larger screen. My acting skills were cringeable as ever, but I feel sure I can improve on them if we use this film and the scene in which I appeared in our final film.