The film genre that my sequence will be from will be a 'Drama'. More specifically, a social realist drama. Films like '
This Is England', '
The Full Monty' and '
Kidulthood' fall into the category of 'Drama' and 'Social Realism'. Directors such as Ken Loach (
'Raining Stones') also create social realism in their films and it can usually be shocking and make audiences uneasy. I will be using this realism approach to shock my audience.
The conventions of drama is usually a dramatic storyline, which can touch an audience in numerous ways. Drama can be used in many different story types, and usually consists of a struggle of the protagonist. Drama's don't tend to be comic but can have comedic tendencies ('The Full Monty'). A Drama works well if it consists of an epic struggle, sometimes a struggle of the entire human race in films such as 'The Day After Tomorrow' and 'Independence Day' however social realist dramas tend to be an individual/small groups struggle against less significant and realistic battles against crime, drugs etc. which is the conventions I will be using in the Drama genre for my sequence. The drama genre usually uses realistic characters and home-life until a more unrealistic/rare disruption takes place in the characters lives. The drama genre links well to the Romantic genre and the Historical genre rather than Action or Syfy.
I found these websites:
helpful in my research of the drama genre conventions.
Drama/Social Realist genre conventions essay
The genre I am using for my sequence is the Drama convention. More specifically a social realist drama. Films that fit into this genre and sub-genre include ‘The Full Monty’, ‘This Is England’ and ‘Raining stones’.
The Drama genre holds specific conventions which stand out between all drama films, whether they are romantic-dramas, social-dramas, period-drams/historic-dramas etc. The main conventions that appear in most Drama films are realistic characters, setting and story plot, and usually can succeed based on the acting and character development in the plot rather than special effect etc. that typical blockbusters rely on. The characters usually have deep emotional connections with other characters or the setting of the film, for example if a character’s home burnt down, the audience could identify with the distress and deep sadness that the character will portray and usually without the need of any other aspects of film making to drive the plot forward.
The sub-genre Social Realism is usually associated with British films and consequently the genre is referred to as ‘British Social Realist’. Films which fit into this genre are usually documentary-like and give a shocking insight into what seems a very real view into British life, and usually feature working class families/individuals. To add to this realism, actors that are hardly known in the film industry are used and therefore viewers will be able to relate to characters in experience and understanding them as real people, rather than the actor themselves and any other characters that actor may have played. This helps to add to the whole ‘realist’ feel about the film, therefore fitting it in this sub-genre umbrella. Directors such as Ken Loach use improvisation to create the next level of realism in the Social Realism genre. He will give the actors a plot to follow whilst filming scenes but then allows the actors to react each other in order for the plot to flow in the same way it would in real life creating much more realistic character development. A scene in a Ken Loach film ‘Raining Stones’ gives a great example of how improvisation is used, in the scene a Loan shark appears at the main characters, who owes a large sum of money, and the characters wife and daughter are making treats in the kitchen. The loan shark bursts into the house and shocks the wife before insisting that she gives him the total money that her husband owes or some possessions worth that amount, including her wedding/engagement rings. This scene is shocking and uncomfortable to watch due to the extremely violent and tough nature of the loan shark as he uses aggressive actions such as shouting in her face, confiscating important possessions and threatening to harm her daughter, which is beyond what you would expect to experience normally. What really makes this scene a quality realistic scene is that the actress actually had no idea that the actor that plays the Loan shark would act in this way and therefore genuine shock and emotion, such as hysterical crying, is shown from the actress, and this is an extremely effective tactic used by Ken Loach and many different directors of Social Realist films which creates a very real viewing experience.
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| Raining Stones Film poster |
The genre Drama and sub-genre Social Realism share very similar conventions and therefore complement each other well when used together in films, especially when the shock and emotion value is put into consideration. Films like ‘This Is England’ and especially the spin-off TV 4 part film based on the original film ‘This Is England ‘86’ use the dramatic and realist conventions that you would expect to see in a typical modern British film and more. For example, in the ‘This is England ‘86’ the character named “Loll’s” dad appears back in her life and for unknown reasons to the viewer, Loll becomes angry that he had dared to enter back into her mother and sisters home, especially when he suggests the idea of becoming a family again and that he is a ‘changed man’. The audience soon realises the reasons why Loll is so angry after part 3 of the 4-part film, because soon after Loll threatening her father with violence the audience is put into shock he sexually assaults her and as even then when events unfolds, due to self-defence, she murders him with a blow to the head. Like in ‘Raining Stones’, the shock value unfolds very quickly throughout this scene. Shane Meadows (director of ‘This Is England’ and ‘This is England ’86’) used the same methods as Ken Loach including using actors skill and improvisation in order to create a real viewing experience for his audience, both in the original film and TV film. Shane Meadows, when in the casting process, used young aspiring and unknown actors for his first ‘This Is England’ film which provides unfamiliar actors, and therefore characters, creating this realistic ‘documentary’ feel in the film, which can be described as a ‘fly on the wall’ viewing experience. Meadows even used kids off the street from the area in which the film is set, especially in the case of Thomas Turgoose, who plays the young character Shaun, who was selected for the film whilst he was on the street when he was supposed to be in school. All of this use of unknown characters is an effective way to create realism.
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| This is England Cast |
The characters in ‘This Is England’ act just as we would expect young people to act and this is due to the improvising used in the filming process. Unfortunately in ‘This Is England ‘86’, the actors have clearly had more practice in their acting career and don’t seem to have that same natural feel about them which is found in them original film due to lack of experience in feature-length acting, however they are still realistic and effective characters and they are familiar to old fans of the original film.
