Analysis of some Social Realism Films

There are lots of social realism films, made by different directors who have their unique rationale on how they see the film should be. I have chosen two social realism films made by different directors and have analysis them; these films are “This Is England” and “Half Nelson” To make the film successful the director would have to think about all the macro and micro elements of making a film. Amongst the analysis of the two films I have attempted to decode the director’s rationale.

The opening of ‘This is England’ is very interesting, because there are so many technical elements. The whole of the opening has clips of events that happened in the 1980s, such as Margaret Thatcher the first women Prime Minister, Diana’s wedding, the Falklands War, Games (the cubic cube), Cd’s being made, Robotic machines as well as everyday events that where happening on the streets, like Violence protesting, graffiti everywhere on flats, Boys at school, lots of people parting/celebrations. The director Shane Meadow has done this to bring people back to the 80s and there way of living. Shane Meadow has created the beginning of this film without it feeling like it is a social realism film.

The first clip of the opening has a static shot of Ronal the rat saying ‘testing, testing 123, is it working Kev’ this is the only clip that has diegetic sound, from this it sounds like the film is going to be told by Ronal the rat. After this clip there is a non-diegetic sound which is a piece of music by Toots and The Maytals – 54 46 was my number, all the clips from the 80s are playing whilst this non-diegetic sound is playing, so no other sound can be heard, again there isn’t any sense of this film turning into a social realism film. Shane Meadow has managed to create an opening scene that would attract the wider main stream target audience.

Shane Meadow has kept everything naturalistic; he hasn’t added any special effects on the clips. Amongst having historical clips, he has used many other shots of flats, and working class people, having fun partying or protesting what they believe. Every shot creates a sense of actually being in the 80s, this is done by using hand held shots properly taken from news reports or first hand experiences, there are also some static shots, for example the shot of the graffiti on the walls would have been taken from in a car, or on a track, having this shot near the beginning creates an eye view account as if the audience was driving down the road looking out there window watching as the world goes by and history is made. It all links with being apart of England, and our British culture.

The beginning of ‘This is England’ is completely different to another social realism film ‘Half Nelson’ by Ryan Fleck. This is England is a British film whilst Half Nelson is an American film. The opening of ‘This is England’ consists of a mixture of clips edited together with non-diegetic sound. However, ‘Half Nelson’ goes straight into the film with shots of Dan Dunne in his apartment.

At the very beginning of Half Nelson, there is a black screen with some non-diegetic sound playing, then an alarm clock goes off and there is a side close up shot of Dan Dunne. It then goes to a long shot of him sitting on the floor in his apartment, as this present time there is a sense of depression, because he doesn’t really care about the alarm going off. He is just sitting there in a shirt and underwear. Within this scene the director Ryan Fleck has used dark lighting and hand held camera shots of Dan this gives and impression of depression, loneness and restlessness. From here you can tell that Dan is someone that doesn’t like his life so he is taking substitutes to make him feel that little bit better about himself. When Dan goes off to work, he sorts himself out and seems happy, he turns on the lights in the classroom; from the lighting the scene has a better atmosphere then when he was at home. He’s keeping his professional and private separate from each other.

The director Ryan Fleck has created a naturalistic opening through technical elements; the apartment looks messy as if someone doesn’t care about their life. He has also chosen to use hand held camera shots this creates an eye view account as if the audience is watching Dan in his apartment.

Both directors Shane Meadow and Ryan Fleck have created social realism films and the opening are completely different from one another, this has been to bring in a wider main stream audience as well as the niche audience. However, their techniques of doing this are different Ryan Fleck has drown the attention of substitute abuse into the opening scene by using handheld camera shots and dark lighting to create the scene. Where as Shane Meadow has used non-diegetic sound and lots of clips from the 80s to bring the audience to feel as if they are in the 80s.