Genre: British Social Realist Drama

The most 'Typically British' Of all Film Genres

What is British Social Realist Drama?

British social realist dramas puts the experience of real British people life's on screen. The opening of this style of film generally sets the expectations of the what to expect in the rest of the film. Usually, the cast are represented from a working class background and is a representation of real life situations. These types of films also document there day to day experiences which is considered to be a representation of life.

Directors set these beginning expectations by using different techniques. Through the use of mise en scene, lighting helps to create a certain feeling- whens there's a complete lack of artificial light, it makes the scene look quite cheap and grotty which sets the atmosphere as very bleak. In films such as Nil by mouth, director Gary Goldman used ambient light in most inferior scenes like 'Ray's jealousy' scene where Ray beats his wife. Lighting is often Dark creating shadows downing the atmosphere and in scenes shot during the day, the ambient light was effective as it made it feel more real. This scene is supposed to give the feel of depression and make the viewer have a first hand experience of the characters lives. This was inspirational as it gave us an insight into how to create this type of atmosphere and proved that on a low budget film, the genre were looking to carry out and portray can easily be done.

Other uses of mise en scene such as camera shots and camera work also sets our chosen atmosphere of depression which is what most British Social Realism Directors Strive for. The grainy effect on the camera eliminates the HD quality making scenes a lot more dull and gritty. Close up shots of characters details certain aspects of characters making them obvious
'Characters portrayed as lower class and poor are set out to look quite dirty and rough'.
This is made more evident by using make up and more blatant through the close up shots. Again, Director Gary Goldman used this technique in many shots in Nil by Mouth and sometimes used filters over the camera also used by Director Shame Meadows in films such as 'This is England and Dead Man Shoes' to portray scenes in either a warm feeling, using an orange or yellow filter, or even a cold isolated atmosphere using a blue filter.

Our Inspirations for British Social Realism Dramas

Our Inspirations for producing this film opening comes from films such as:

• Half Nelson
• Nil by Mouth
• East is East
  
• Harry Brown
  
• Adulthood
• Kidulthood
  

The plot of the film was inspired by Half Nelson and the subject of 'Suffering' was also inspired from it. Although the film drama is not British, the director Ryan Fleck was expressing the same theme of a socialist drama. He opened up his opening sequence and set the expectations from the audience, by using his main character to be centered in the frame which allowed the viewer to gain knowledge of the character. We begin to understand the character had spent the night asleep sitting up at the coffee table. This codes him as lazy, unable to care for himself, and suffering from some sort of condition. The cast used for that film opening also inspired us in choosing the type of cast needed and ways of portraying their personalities in the opening sequence or in come cases hiding there identities creating an enigma.

Blogged By: Channan Toussaint