Specialist study

Social Realism
This essay is about the cinematic style of filming called social realism. Social realism is ‘a
discursive term used by film critics. and reviewers to describe films that aim to show the effects
of environmental factors on the development of character through depictions that emphasize
the relationship between location and identity’. (What Is Realism in Film: The Essential Guide •
Filmmaking Lifestyle, 2022). Social realism is interesting as it's almost a documentary without
actually filming it in the style of one. It takes a problem in society and recreates it in an on-
screen form, telling a story from start to end. The information I acquire from this essay will help
me to gain the knowledge that I need for creating my final project that will be a social realist
piece.

The codes and conventions of a social realist's short film are the look and feel of the outcome.
The camera work is very rustic, for example you will see a lot of handheld movements in the
films. They are all very Shakey and not that still creating a very ‘rough and ready’ look to the
films, however this adds a new layer, as it gives it a new identity to this style of filming. Another
is the use of natural lighting. This is almost a must is a social realistic piece as it adds to the look
and feel, creating more of a connection to the area that it is based in. As it is all very natural,
viewers will almost be triggered by the lighting as it is what they are used to seeing. (mental).
The use of ‘artificial’ but ‘natural’ lighting is also used a lot, for example streetlights and vehicle
lighting. This helps to light a scene by just using what is around you.

The use of close ups is very typically social realism as they really show the characters off. They
help to create more of a character profile within the film as they are usually used as a strong
opening shot to show off the location and the character's style within that location. For
example, in ‘Wasp’ the opening scene is the main character walking down the stairs barefooted
and little care for hygiene, with her 4 kids in tow. This straight away creates the feel that you
are in somewhere that is more rundown and that the people don’t care about themselves
overly. Close ups also direct the human eye to the characters and subtly show that that is what
you should be focusing on. If the shots were really wide, then the director would want you to
have a look elsewhere in the scene. An example of a close up is in ‘wasps’ when the baby (kai) is
asleep in the pram and a wasp lands on its face. This creates a strong contrast of kai who is
small, innocent and harmless, and the wasp who is dangerous, vicious and harmful to
somebody that small. This close up of the contrast informs the audience that something is
about to happen.
Another is the costumes for the actors. A lot of films will sometimes use ‘designer’ clothes as
the costumes, this can sometimes be as product placement or just helps show what kind of
people they're by how they dress. Social realist films often use unbranded, basic clothing as
they are meant to be able to relate to everyone. For example, if you use brand like ‘Gucci’ or
’Prada’ then you are more aiming the film at rich people. In the film ‘I, Daniel Blake’ the clothing
is completely unbranded and looks more like Primark/New Look clothing than even Adidas or
Nike or even Next and GAP which some people see as basic clothing.

One of my key practitioners is Ken Loach. His style of filming is primarily a critical evaluation put
into film form of a social issue’s; this then becomes a social realist film. He first started off
working in some regional theater companies and then moved on to work for the BBC. This was
doing work on an anthology series including ‘up the junction’, ‘Cathy come home’ and ‘in two
minds. They were based around working class people in war with the authories in charge of
them. (Ken Loach - Wikipedia, 2017) ‘During the 1970s and 1980s, Loach's films were less
successful, often suffering from poor distribution, lack of interest and political censorship.’

Another key practioner is Andrea Arnold. Her style of filming is to really let the actors build
their characters. (Andrea Arnold - Wikipedia, 2022). Some of her popular works include ‘Cow’
which premiered at the 2021 Cannes film festival and ‘Wasp' in which she won an academy
award for in 2005. (Wasp (2003 film) - Wikipedia, 2022) It is about a young single mum 'Zoe'
and her four young children.
When watching this and trying to understand the techniques of using a DSLR on it there are
many things you have to think about. These are key themes, typical characters, how it was shot
and the editing techniques that were used.
The short film is set on a council estate in Andrea Arnold's hometown of Dartford. The set is a
filthy, dirty council estate filled with apartment blocks and houses cramped next to each other.
The key themes in this are love and family set against a background of poverty. Zoe wants to go
on a date and have a good night out but has the struggle of having no one to look after her four
kids who are all quite young and not old enough to look after themselves.
Key themes create a structure to your short film as they are basically the building blocks of
creating your final piece. Love and family as the themes in this film create an underlying conflict
in ‘Wasps’.
As viewers you are almost watching another story within the story itself. This was really
interesting to understand and analyze as just by thinking about the themes of your short film
you can create so much more depth to it. The whole short film was filmed on DSLR without
using any steady cams or gimbals, this gives the whole film a very rustic look as the dirty council
estate also adds to the cheap low-budget feel that the film has. The main actors Natalie Press
and Danny Dyer were both in the very early stages of their career, meaning that they would not
have been very expensive. Having an actor who is early on in their career is important because
if you had Anne Hathaway for example, and you placed her in that environment then the
audience would see it as extremely unrealistic. This is because they know that at the end of
filming and after the day is over, she is going to go back to her expensive, luxuriant lifestyle and
not have to face the problems the character was. Having smaller actors who are not known yet
is really important for social realism because it takes away the whole sense of realism and
would others just be a film about social issues, which might cause it to be a bit of a
documentary.

Social realism in films was not overly seen until 1902, when James Williamsons released the film
‘A reservist before the war, and after the war’. The film was about a serviceman coming back
home from the war to unemployment. (Social realism - Wikipedia, 2022) ‘Repressive censorship
during 1945–54 prevented British films from displaying more radical social positions’. Due to
censorship, it meant that all films had to be censored to only give a certain perspective on
something, because the government didn’t want particular messages being put out. For
example, if you fought in the war then you would come back and be unemployed and struggling
with life. They didn’t want to be seen with these attachments being put back to them.

The style was developed from previous filming styles. Filmmakers wanted to create ‘more
believable stories and characters’ so that the films weren't as unrealistic as they sometimes
came across as. (What Is Realism In Film: The Essential Guide • Filmmaking Lifestyle, 2022)
Realism meant that some stylized cinematic techniques and special effects were gotten rid of as
the films were becoming more relatable to audiences. Early films were more about
action/adventure storylines as using that style of filming created a formula that through testing
previously was clearly more popular with viewers. Films also featured ‘glamorous actors’ who
played roles that were clearly exaggerated, this also created a huge feel throughout films that
they were unrealistic and sometimes uninteresting because of how unrealistic they were.

Sometimes films can be a social realist piece, however they have a different spin on them, this
could be to keep the industry of social realism more interesting by not just having real stories.
For example, ‘Dead Man’s shoes’ is counted as a social realist piece but has a thriller feel to it.
When watching the film, you are on the edge of your seat a lot with unexpected things
happening all the time. It was filmed in rural locations so it's harder to pinpoint the kind of area
you are in and how these certain characters will act in that setting as it's uncommon to have
rural locations for a character-based film. The camera techniques used are very basic, for
example the camera is on a tripod with the subject moving in the frame. This is because if the
camera was moving then we would be looking at the locations and what's around rather than
the characters and what they are doing.
One of the issues and debates with social realism is that the context of the films changes as
social issues are changing over time. Above are Ken Loaches works in order of release and time
they were made. In 1967 (one of his first works) Loach created a film called ‘poor cow’. It is
about a young girl who has a child with an abusive thief who then goes to prison, in a moment's
thought she realizes what is most important to her as her son goes missing. This film is more
about an individual and her experience, whereas now I think that he creates films that are
aimed at a wider audience and are more of a communal problem. One of loaches most recent
works is the 2016 release of ‘I, Daniel Blake’. This is about the benefit system and the problems
that come with it. It tells the story of people's experiences with it and how the ‘flaws’ in the
system have affected them. This shows the gradual change between the fact that actually
people are more willing to show what's wrong with society instead of just somebody's personal
story/ experience.

For my final project I am planning to make a social realist short film with a dramatic twist. This
is by creating more of a storyline by changing up the ending and having a female spike a male.
By keeping it ‘pure’ social realist, it would have been quite challenging as it meant that I would
have to keep to the typical storyline. This is that a male spikes a female through her drink, then
does something to her and then just leaves her and abandons her. My plan is to have a twist at
the end that she spikes herself after she has spiked her victim. I want to have extremely basic
shots as I think if I have anything too ‘artistic’ then it will take it away from the actual film. This
essay has taught me some fundamental things that I need to remember for example, that the
actors need to have an influence in the characters, and they really need to put themselves into
the characters footsteps/positions because the way that they portray that character makes the
film work. Another is that I can't have a load of crazy moving/tracking shots as it takes away so
much from the film and otherwise causes the audience to look at other things in the frame that
shouldn’t be the focus.

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