My film opening used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real social realism films. We looked at similar films such as London to Brighton, Bullet Boy, Shank and Goodbye Charlie Bright for inspiration. The beat used in the opening is non-diegetic and carries through the narrative to portray a gritty and urban atmosphere, linking to the fast pace of the main character's lifestyle. Both diegetic sounds of police cars and children were used to create a communal environment. Institutional logos from Film 4, UK Film Council and National Lottery were used because they fund social realism films like This Is England. The film's settings on council estates, blocks, streets, and parks make it

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
My film opening used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real social realism
films.
As a group we looked at similar media products to ours for example we looked at the film London
to Brighton, Bullet Boy, Shank and Goodbye Charlie Bright. These films all gave us inspiration and
gave us the idea of what conventions we needed to include to create the British Social Realism
film we wanted.
The beat we used when the film first opens is non-diegetic and carries through until the
narrative, we decided on this beat because we thought it was gritty and urban which is what we
was trying to portray throughout. It also links with the fast pace of his lifestyle as we see his
journey. We used both diegetic sound with the sound of the police cars and the children playing
in some of the clips to create the communal atmosphere of the environment.
We used Film 4, UK Film Council and National Lottery for our institutional logos because they are
all institutions, which we know, would show a Social Realism film. For example, from my research
film four are known to back a lot of unknown films made in the UK such as ‘This Is England’ also
funded by UK Film Council.
The settings/locations played a big role in creating the Social Realism film because they are a key
convention. From our research we found that the locations used are places like council estates,
blocks, streets, and parks because it makes the film seem more real for the audience so they can
relate a lot more.
Another convention of British Social Realism is their range of shot types which helps the audience
establish the location, for example after the ‘Road Runner’ title we show a panning establishing
shot showing the audience the area which gives them an idea of where the film is set.
From my research I learnt that Social Realism Films tend to deal with modern day issues such as
money, drugs, crime, sex, prostitution, alcoholism, class and religion. The storyline that we chose
is about a young drug dealer who gets himself into trouble when the money he made for his boss
gets stolen. This reflects social issues that affect many people so it helps the audience relate to it
as its something that goes on a lot in modern day society.
Another convention is the naturalistic lighting that was used in every social realism film my group
and I looked at. It again helps force that realistic reality feel that the films convey. We used
natural lighting through out our film except the scene where our character is in the bin shed
room as there is an automatic light in there.
We made a montage of shots for the opening to show the audience our characters lifestyle, the
shots show him riding his bike as his bike is his transport for getting him around to do his job, we
showed various shots of him going to do drug deals and going into blocks.