British Social Realism Timeline.

1960’s

• Kes

The little boy is the recurring character who is acting rebellious and as the ‘class clown’. The teacher comes across as strict but is mocked by the children. Themes include bullying, growing up, and authority. Uses shot reverse shot, establishing shots. Locations of a school. All the children in the clip speak with an accent.

• Poor Cow

Establishing shots, long edits used in the beginning of the clip. Match on action used when the car is coming round the corner. Non diagetic sound of the voice over in the characters voice, telling the story. Themes include single mother, economic problems, she acts insecure with in herself.

1970’s

• Quadraphenia

Very urban, rundown locations, dark lighting creates mystery as the characters are unclear. The locations of the house, which is very scruffy and unvarnished, creating shadows.
Dialogue is very strong, bad swearing, disrespectful. Themes of violence, isolation, drug & alcohol abuse. The boy is the recurring character who acts as he pleases thinking he knows better than his parents.

1980’s

• Made in Britain

Close up showing the character in the beginning, showing the audience the Nazi tattoo on his head. Again the recurring character showing a rebellious boy being questioned in a court. British rock music playing in the background which is supposed to be associated with the boy. Themes include violence, drug and alcohol abuse. The boy is representative of a typical white ‘Skinhead’ character in the film.

• Scum

A group of young boys chilling out, intimidating the other characters. Themes of violence and abuse. Use of match on action and continuity editing, rule of thirds used. The other characters sitting around watching are seen as the weaker characters who don’t want to get involved and are scared.

1990’s

•    Train Spotting

smash mouth concept, as we are thrown straight into a chase where we are introduced to the main character. The main theme being drug abuse. The dialogue in the scene is a voice over. Location of this film is in Edinburgh. Rough camera movement used, and cross cut between the 2 situations where in 1 he is taking drugs and the other in which he is on a football pitch. This shows what the main content of the film is about.

• Nil by Mouth

The themes shown in this film refer to domestic violence where a husband is beating up his wife due to his own insecurities and doubts. The recurring characters in this clip would be both the husband, wife and the young daughter. The man beats up the woman because he feels as though he has authority over her, and the women has to be quiet and deal with the consequences. This is often something that happens in many households which is also shown in BSR films and the young girl who always over hears the problems and is often always young as this creates more tension and the audience feel sympathy for her.

2000’s

• Kidulthood

This clip also includes all the conventions of a typical BSR film. All of the boys being recurring characters being young rebels. Themes of violence, drugs, alcohol abuse. The girl is also a recurring character as she acts like shes 'blonde' and cheats on her boyfriend with another guy who shows no loyalty. Locations of a council flat within a very urban area and the dialogue used to communicate includes foul language. Also has a crosscut between the clip.

• Bigga than Ben

Uses the location of London, and includes themes of crime (shop lifting) within the trailer. Also, the costume worn by the characters show they fit the BSR  theme (hoodies). When speaking, the characters have accents. Many close ups used to show the faces of the main characters so the audience are familiar with them.

The analysis of these films over the decades show how BSR films have evolved. The changes show that the content of the films changes, according to the time period and what the main issues of these time periods are in terms of society. They also begin to include more and more slang terminology in their films. Due to an improvement in technology, the camera movements and editing have also improved. Another thing I noticed was that most BSR films are inspired by one another as now they tend to focus more on young characters, particularly teenagers who struggle in life.

BRITISH SOCIAL REALISM: a film made by a British institutions which displays powerful themes in the style of using young characters in real life situations, and showing the audience their struggle and their life as a raw, unvarnished image in modern urban drama.