This document provides examples of films that fall under the genres of social realism and white collar comedy. It discusses the conventions of these genres, including the use of handheld camera work, location filming, improvised scripts, focus on working class characters and issues, and depictions of controversial topics. Each example film is summarized briefly, highlighting how it exemplifies the conventions of its genre through its story, characters, tone, and themes.

1. Potential genre for our
short film
Social Media/Social Realism
Adea, Idil, Joseph & Leon

2. Codes and conventions of
Social Realism
• Social realism in films is a text that is
representative of real life with all its difficulties. The
narrative and characters portrayed are everyday
ones, usually from working class backgrounds.
Typically, films within the social realist genre are
gritty, and about the struggle to survive the daily
grind.​​
• The genre uses predominantly diegetic sound,
hand held camera work, a narrow depth of field
and a linear narrative. This medium reflects its
concept. The narrative is usually set in a time of
big social change and focuses on social injustices.​
• These films deal with issues and themes such as
prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, alienation
and relationship problems; issues that were seen
as controversial and often left un discussed.
Characters had issues such as, dissatisfied wives,
pregnant girlfriends, runaways, homosexuals, the
marginalized, the poor and the depressed. Issues
that were not truly accepted by society. The
narrative reflects on working class issues and
problems

3. • Many social realism films use non-professional actors or unknown actors to add to the sense
of realism. Also many British social realism films cannot afford popular, Hollywood actors to be
in their films as their budget is quite low.
• Another convention of Social Realism films are semi-improvised scripts. For example, the film
'Kes' is semi improvised as it creates the sense of it being very realistic and believable.​​
• Many films also include both humor and seriousness. Social Realism films deal with a lot of
issues that people deal with such as unemployment and gang culture. It does this with good
level of seriousness but also incorporates humor within the film.

4. Example 1 (Dilbert)
Dilbert is a white collar comedy that
began in the form of a newspaper
comic by Scott Adams, the plot of
each newspaper is different all
while retaining the workplace feel.
The animated series however
bases itself around the title
character and how he feels his life
as an engineer is unfulfilling. What
makes it a white collar is the setting,
which is always a meeting room or
a cubicle where one of our lead
characters feel like they live in.
What makes it so successful is how
office workers relate with the title
character, feeling as if they are
working with a bunch of
incompetent buffoons (like Dilbert).

5. Example 2 (Paperman)
Like the above, this is a romance, but
with a mixture of comedy. The story
follows an accountant named George
who is waiting for the train, a woman by
the name of Meg stands by, also waiting
for the same train. A passing train
dislodges a piece of paper that flies into
her face, leaving a lipstick mark. The
rest is him trying to get her attention
with varying degrees of failure much to
the dismay of his boss.
What makes this a white collar romantic
comedy is the concept of the character
of George. Being an accountant can be
a boring and highly unfulfilling career,
the romance comes in around when he
notices her on the other building. (see a
trend with these things?)
What makes it a comedy is the varying
degrees of failure, showing how far
George will go just to meet her again.
The climax of the short highlights the
comedy where the failed paper planes
cling to him as he heads home, only to
bump into Meg again.

6. Example 3 (Horrible
Bosses)
Horrible Bosses is a feature length comedy film based
around how our lead characters hate their bosses in different
ways, one hates his boss because he spat on the memory of
his dead much better boss.
One hates another because she sexually harasses him and
blackmails him while another hates his boss because he is a
self obsessed annoyance. What defines this as a white collar
comedy is the various workplaces the protagonists are set in,
one a warehouse, one a dentist and the other an office.
The target audience though is limited to adults because of
the story itself along with the questionable content, with two
of the bosses ending up killing each other due to a botched
plan. But what makes it relatable to adults is if they had a
horrible boss in their life they wish they could kill, but can’t
because of the law. The movie in essence is a stress reliever.

7. Example 4 (Fish Tank)
• Fish tank could be said to be a very typical social realism
film due to the generic conventions. The use of hand held
camera shots and natural lighting give the film a minimalistic
look, expected by the niche audience of social realistic films.
This could also be seen to portray the economic factors of
the film. The basic camera shots, lighting and mise-en-
scene used show a low budget is likely to be used; the film
has a very documentary type feel, as if the audience were
there with the characters.​
• The very first shot within this extract is a medium shot of a
teenage girl, wearing a tracksuit and a top, in a bleak, empty
room, panting. This instantly shows the director is trying to
represent the council estate teenagers of society. The use of
the medium shot gives the audience a sense of setting,
where the girls is, and help to show the emptiness of the
room.​
• The costume within this shot, help the director to represent
the typical council flat teenager. The use of tracksuit
bottoms and a top are expected clothing for teenagers of
this type. The audience now know the type of film this is and
who it is about. They can expect to see issues linked with
teenagers of this type in reality to be represented here such
as drugs and alcohol abuse. It also helps to establish who
the director is aiming the film at.

8. Example 5 (Signs)
Signs is a white collar romance involving
a office worker feeling lonely in his life,
always going through a daily process
where he hears messages from his far
away mum. That all changes for him
however when he meets a girl on the
opposite building, they then decide to
send each other messages using copy
paper with bold marker.
What makes this a white collar again, is
the setting with a bit of romance thrown
in. The audience can feel relatable with
either one of the characters, because the
life of an office worker can feel lonely and
boring so having someone to speak to
would feel very welcome in their lives.

9. Example 6 (Billy Elliot)
• The main character, Billy Elliot, is the first character to be
established. Throughout the film ‘Billy Elliot’, Billy expresses
his emotions and releases them through music and
movement. In the first few shots we do not see Billy’s Face,
instead it is of him being cautious with a vinyl record. These
establishing shots may have many reasoning and meaning
behind it, for example it shows the time the film is set in which
is 1984. It also shows that the vinyl player is very dear and
important to him or it may not be his (the audience later
discovers it is Billy’s brothers).​
• When Billy’s face is finally shown, he is represented as a
happy, youthful boy by playing and jumping on the bed
listening to music with a smile on his face. This gives the
impression that ‘Billy Elliot’ is a feel good film and that it will be
happy throughout. The slow motion parts could be seen as
comical because of Billy’s comic, childish expressions. The
shots in this sequence also show all of Billy’s body parts in
separate frames, this may symbolize how when a dance
teacher or examiner is assessing a pupils skill, he/she looks at
every part of the body, like making sure the feat are in position
or that their back is straight.​

10. Example 7 (Trainspotting)
• The choose life clip at the beginning of the film is a clip from
later on in the film, but is used as the opening sequence to
foreshadow what happens in the future. The diegetic sound
playing underneath is Lust for life by Iggy Pop who is
mentioned numerous times throughout the film which
highlights which time the film was made and what was
popular at the time.​
• A close up of the characters faces and feet at the beginning
introduces the characters and also highlights that they are
running away and committed a crime, as we notice the items
falling out of their pockets whilst running. The tracking shot
also allows us to understand who the voiceover belongs to
and who we should be following.​
• The repetition of ‘choose a…’ in the non- diegetic speech
explains the meaning behind the story line, that life is what
you make it and that anything is possible if you try hard
enough. A close up of the characters faces and feet at the
beginning introduces the characters and also highlights that
they are running away and committed a crime, as we notice
the items falling out of their pockets whilst running.

11. Example 8 (Flatlife)
• This is animation short film that
comments on how we are all
affected by our neighbours. This
film also doesn‘t have any
dialogue and we see four
neighbours that are constantly
knocking on each others doors for
something or other. This film is
very simple yet effective in
showing that we are all
interconnected and are effected
by each other.

12. Example 9 (Soft)
• This is a social realism film that
focuses on gang culture, its about
a father and sons reaction to a
gang of ASBOS. The film also
comments on a fad that was very
popular in the teenage community
at the time of the films making;
happy slapping. This film
comments on teenage violence
and bullying and is relevant in a
society where we hear about
stabbing and gang crimes all the
time.

13. Example 10 (Adulthood)
• The film Adulthood is a Drama with a sub-genre of social realism. The
conventions that show it is a drama are the constant intense tension
that is shown through in each scene, however the most tension is
between Jay and Sam, as Jay is very keen on getting revenge for his
friend that was killed by Sam. There is also high tension between Jay
and Moony’s friendship. As Moony is trying to get out of violent cycle
that Jay is still in and Jay is trying to pull him back into this violent cycle
in order for them to get revenge together.
• The use of costume in this film is very typical of the genre, as it is used
to follow the conventions of this genre and to also emphasizes the age,
background and culture of individuals. The costume that Moony and
Jay both wear portrays the difference within their characteristics.
Moony challenges the stereotypes given to teenage males by his smart
appearance. Whereas Jay reinforces the stereotype due to the dark,
hooded and urban costume he wears. Throughout the whole film Jay
and Sam wears hoodies, jeans and trainers. This costume enables the
audience to easily identify their social class and backgrounds and
lifestyles.
• The body language the characters use in this opening sequence is very
typical of genre as it is used to portray their social background,
behaviors, attitudes and what actions individuals are likely to do. Sam’s
body language throughout the film is paranoid and unsettled. This is a
contrast to Jay’s body language in this film; his body language portrays
arrogant and heartless attitudes and behavior.

14. Why we chose this?
We chose this particular genre because you are able to comment
on real life issues. Also it should be very easy to find a suitable
location for our film due to the fact that social realism films use real
life locations. This we feel is a great advantage to us during our
planning stage as we don't need to spend a long time location
scouting. Furthermore as a group we all thought that it would be
interesting to explore the genre of Social Realism as there is a a
lot of sub genres to discover and work with to create a interesting
short movie.