AS British social Realism opening scene conventions

1. Convetions Of an Opening
Sequence
Yasmin (0.00- 2.50)

2. Introducing Setting
This is the first image of the opening scene. It is a establishing shot of an old man and a young man
walking down the street. The fact it is an establishing shot allows the viewer to see the street at a
larger scae and to emphasise the horrid conditions of this street. The lighting is all natural which
adds realism to this shot making it believeable to the viewer. This street is very rund down, gritty,
and at horrible conditions. It represents this place as a bad place where the people living there
are also bad and may be criminals. The concrete cones have tires where maybe practica jokers
vandalise the area plus one has been knocked over which represents the people livig there as
aggressive, violent and uncaring for others or anything. As both the people in the shot are muslim,
themes of religion are expressed and a genre of action or violence through the run down urban
street.

3. Introducing Narrative
This shot is a long shot of a man sleeping in a small room on a matress on the floor. Straight
away this assumes to the viewer that this character is very unwealthy and is struggling with
poverty through the horrible living space and clothes. The character is not the main character
however through using some of the shots and time on this character suggests that the
character also plays a role in thie narrative of this film. The room is very dull and basic with
no colour or carpet, lacking a warmth which adds a tense, cold view towards this character
and the story. As this room is horrible inside and the street outside is also horrible it creates
the idea that all the houses on this street are like this. This connotes that the people living on
the street are not nice people. Through the character it assumes that this character is a bad
person and may be a bad influence to the main character ‘Yasmin’.

4. Producers
This shot is the first shot. A graphic of the producers of this film. They are ‘
Parallax Independant’ and ‘EuroArts Medien AG’ a co-production. This
graphic is also important as it displays the style of this this film. It is a plain
black background with plain, bold white font text on it. The graphics are
not attention grabbing however the contrast between the black and white
make the text stand out. As the colours are basic and plain, it creates an
idea that the story and film may also include the basic, gritty media
techniques in camera shots and editing.

5. Introducing Characters
This shot is a long shot of the main charcater ‘Yasmin’ changing out of her traditional muslim
clothing into casual, british clothing. It represents her as a rebel against her religion. To
emphasise her devious behaivior while she is getting dressed, the call to prayer is being
called out that even though she can hear it loud and clear she is ignoring it like it is nothing. It
creates an idea tha a theme of religion may be involved or racial injustice. It includes all
natural lighting which makes the shot more real and believeable. The character of ‘Yasmin’
contrasts differently to the average muslim girl. Also most the main characters in a British
social realism film are usually a man or black and white. This film is very different as the main
character is asian and a girl which could connote that the story aswell may be very different
and therefore interests more people to watch it.

6. Introduce Narrative
This shot is a long shot of the old man at the start cleaning off the grafitti on the
garage shutter of the mosque. It says ‘P*ki go home’. This is very rude and
offensive and it emphasises the extremety of it that it is written on the mosque. It
connotes themes of racial injustice, discrimination and maybe even terrorism. The
street, especially at this angle looks in very bad condition. The vandalism of grafitti
portrays that some people living in these areas are rebels that go against te law
and have a major problem with muslims. It is clear that there is racial tension
however the old man reacts as if he has seen it before and that it is a regular thing.

7. Minimal Dialogue
In the whole opening sequence there is no dialogue except when the children are
laughing. Howerver the only sound we can hear is the call to prayer. There is no
music. I think that it is good that there is not alot of dialogue in the opening
sequence because when there is alot it get’s very boring and sometimes spoiles
and reveals too much of the story. By leaving little dialogue creates enigma, which
teases the viewer to question and think what this film could possibly be about. The
fact that the muslim asian people are the ones who have no dialogue in the
opening sequence could connote that the muslims in the film have very little say in
the society and overall in the film itself making them an ethnic minority.

8. Establishing shot
This is an establishing shot of the street. It shows all the houses and cars and in the
background is the countryside. The fact that bot the run down street is shown and the fields
of the countryside are shown in one shot, emphasises the horrible conditoons of the street
making theme look worse and creates the idea that these people are suffering from poverty.
The fact that the street is isolated when the call to prayer is being called displays that this
street is obviously full of non muslims. The cars are pretty old and me watching it gives me
the idea that this was filmed in the 2000’s. The houses are at a horrible state, creating an idea
that people living there are thugs, that vandalise and do not care about other people.

9. Actors
This scene is a long shot of the main character ‘Yasmin’ wearing her English clothes.
I think a great aspect of this film is that all characters and actors are not exactly
hollywood A-list actors because that would make the film less realistic. The fact
that ‘Yasmin’ is not exactly a famous actress makes her acting and the story more
believable. It is important that the story is believable otherwise it will not fit into
the British social realism criteria. It represents her as a real, normal ordinary
person which is what should be portrayed as.