presentation

1. The word ‘practice’ in the means
of British Social Realism defines
the way in which a film is
produced and completed.
Politics influences practice as they want to be
unique and different from common texts,
they also want to adhere to their ideologies.
The term ‘practice and politics’
refers to points outside the
text which affect the form,
structure, content and style.
Filmmakers who was to
depict ‘life as we know
it’ are reacting to the
way the world is
‘constructed’ by the
majority of mainstream
films.
Social realist texts
often comment on
parts of modern life,
and often subvert to
previous conventions
to do with ‘realist’.
British social
realism
movements are
informed by a
change or a
‘revolutionary
political spirit’.
By the phrase ‘moral
realism’ Higson means
there is a goal or aim for
the characters to try and
reach in the film.
There was a low
amount of money and
resources in the 1930’s
and 1940’s, which
meant that the
production crews were
non professionals and
just ordinary people.

2. Ken Loach believes an important
way of verifying ideas in a film is
through the way its made.
Lay explains the inextricability
of a practice from politics as it
being difficult to separate
practice from politics because
the moments, movement, and
cycles inform each other.
Free cinema was formed by Richardson,
Reisz, Anderson and Mazzett.There aim
was to make creative and visually
interesting short films and documentaries.
Their principles being to make independent
films, without thought of profit and studio
editing and with freedom of choice on
what it’s about.The objectives being to
help aspiring people to get into the
directing career.
The British NewWave
filmmakers were
interested in widening the
range of cinematic
representation to include
working class in industrial
towns and cities in the
North of England, and
used unknown regional
stage actors.
British NewWave directors claimed to
base realism on having ‘regionally
authentic casts in regionally authentic
locations.The British NewWave said
that characters and places are linked
together, as based on the
environment of a character the future
of the character lies.
Griersons mission was to inform
and educate his audience. His
productions stood out from
mainstream texts because of
their conception of social
purpose.

3. The key points that Lay uses to affirm
Loach’s importance of realism are, he
avoids using famous people, and uses
real locations, he does this because of
his political beliefs and film intents as a
socialist. Although because of this some
of his documentaries that explored
issues in life, were of such nature that
they were never screened.
Lay defines the term ‘content’ as
the issues and themes that the text
look at as well as the
representations that are created.
Lay states that content issues are
relevant because they connect the
text to the moment in time in
which they were made and
provides a contrast between
different moments, movements
and cycles.
The content is usually linked to
the filmmakers intent.
Lay says that the intent usually as a
purpose which means they usually
want to send a message to the
audience.
Specific issues coming into
prominence at different
points in history can reveal
a lot about the social and
culture attitudes from the
time in which the text was
made.
Looking at the way an issue is dealt
with in different time periods is
important when seeking answers to
questions about why some themes
might have been important earlier on
but are now just background themes.
The
understanding of
the socio-
historical context
is important to se
what a ‘slice of
life’ was back
then.
The way Lay differences
between issues and themes, is
that issues show social problems
in films whilst themes aren’t
often as clear in the narrative
but are usually just implied.
The idea that film texts are
‘constructs’ is significant to
Lay as we can see which
reality is being created and
from which persons point
of view.