Entry One: Genre

Social Realist

We've decided to a do an opening of the social realist genre. Within this genre, we have decided to focus on mental health, and a person living with autism.

From watching a range of Social Realist films and films that focus on mental health, I've compiled a a list of genre conventions and techniques that are used to convey this effectively.

As social realist films are representatives of real life situations, they have to look believable. This is achieved by:

• Using a lot of long shots with little camera movement. Any movement that does happen whether it be tracking, panning or so forth are usually slow as fast movements draw attention to the camera, destroying the illusion of what you're watching is real.
• Long takes as this allows the actors to semi-improvise their dialogue, creating a more naturalistic performance which looks real.
• Not having flashy editing as this, again, causes the focus to be more on the camera and editing.
• Trying not to use non-diegetic music as it doesn't make the film look real. However, in Half Nelson, a lot of non-diegetic music is used.
• In British social realism, the cast tend to be predominantly British, therefore speaking in strong regional accents. For example, in Paul McGuigan's The Acid House, had to been shown with subtitles in the USA and Canada due to the strong Scottish accents of the actors.

There are many different types of films that focus on mental health with a variation of conditions, settings, locations and characters. Despite this, they use very similar conventions in order to establish this.

• Voiceovers/Internal Monologues are used often in the mind of the protagonist. This is to provide them with narrative agency, and also to establish what is going on in their head and to help the audience understand their condition. Films like Taxi Driver and Girl, Interrupted; have voiceovers from the protagonists.
• Dramatising mental health to make it entertaining. If a true representation of a person with mental health problems was portrayed, it has the potential to be boring. Extreme stereotypes of often used for shocking or comical effect on the audience like Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs and Jim Carey in Me, Myself and Irene. This creates stigmatisations of mental illness.