Week 2 production log

British Social Realism films focus on struggles that represent the society, themes mostly include drugs, money, class and race. BSR films are filmed on real everyday locations such as council flats and the streets, not on set. This makes the film feel much more real and genuine for the audience to watch. 

Non-professional actors, just ordinary people are used as the budget is low and the acting will come across much more real and their scripts are mostly improvised so that the dialogue is much more realistic, this enables the audience to relate to what they are saying much more. The main character in Fish Tank was spotted at a train station arguing with her boyfriend, they decided to put her in the film because of this.

British Social Realism films use a variety of shots throughout but mostly long, wide shots so that the audience can see everything going on in the shot including the background, this connotes the type of area they live in. 

Appropriate accents and language is used throughout the film by the characters in order to represent the characters and the type of area they live in. For example, most of the characters live in council flats and they are shown swearing alot, this represents the type of people that they are and the type of area they live in.

The lighting in these films is mostly natural to come across as realistic to the audience, and when outside it is mostly dark in order to set the mood and atmosphere, eg if a gang fight was being shown, the lighting would be dark to set an eery atmosphere. The colour design for BSR films is mostly blue, this is to create a cold feel to the film to go with the storyline. 

This will inform my production because I now know what I need to include in order to make it a recognizable British Social Realism Film. Such as, wide shots when filming to connote to the audience the type of area it is set in and shows everything that is happening around the characters. I will use everyday locations such as parks, flats, the streets etc in order to come across as very realistic to the audience.
I found The Selfish Giant very influential because it shows the clear archetypes throughout the film, it represents a variety of themes such as disabilities, class, gender etc. Also, the Fish Tank because it has a clear representation of the different types of characters throughout, and it has a sense of realism to the audience.