Social realism - the history and the conventions

The conventions
Social realism is a genre of film that focuses on topical issues alive in a modern society which is represented by different ideologies. Themes such as money, drugs, prostitution and sex are quite usual in modern contemporary social realism films as well as class, religion and political views. Social realism is often there to fight against the stereotypical view in which often other countries perceive the UK to be about. They fight the white, middle-class, southern english and small close knit village stereotype which often other film companies such as working title imply as it is more attractive to the US box office. This is backed by Charles Gants rule which highlights the fact that companies create stereotypes for financial gain in overseas box offices.

Social realism is often centred around working class life amongst, a majority of the time, council estates situated in rough areas within Britain. Social realism captures the normal working class lives which often involve crime and gang culture. There is often a dark and sinister approach to these movies which means they are not for everyone with the average BBFC rating being 15. This means that the audience variety is inhibited immensely and therefore whilst the big stereotypical films are busy exposing a wrong image of what Britain looks like the stereotype is only going to grow stronger. Below is a list of the conventions.
- Explore issue of drug, street violence, crime and murder 
- Always reflects life of 21 century, were sex is currency, drugs are easy to come by and violence is a way of life
- Characters experiencing extreme poverty, and are unable to provide for family
- Characters in debt
- Majority of characters working class
- Live in poor environments and houses – typically set in council houses, and areas where crime , drugs and violence are rife 
- Sons and daughters are usually influenced by example set by parents
- Camera angles and shot are usually hand held
- As the are realistic fictional film’s there’s usually no special effects or CGI
- Protagonist characters are usually rebels and are against the capitalist system.

History

Early British cinema used the common social interaction found in the literary works of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. One of the first British films to emphasize realism's value as a social protest was James Williamson's A Reservist Before the War, and After the War in 1902. The film memorialized Boer War serviceman coming back home to unemployment. Repressive censorship during 1945-54 prevented British films from more radical social positions.

After World War I, the British middle-class generally responded to realism and restraint in cinema while the working-class generally favored Hollywood genre movies. Thus realism carried connotations of education and high seriousness. These social and aesthetic distinctions have become running themes; Social Realism is now associated with the arthouse auteur, while mainstream Hollywood films are shown at the multiplex.

Producer Michael Balcon revived this distinction in the 1940s, referring to the British industry's rivalry with Hollywood in terms of "realism and tinsel." Balcon, the head of Ealing Studios, became a key figure in the emergence of a national cinema characterized by stoicism and verisimilitude. "Combining the objective temper and aesthetics of the documentary movement with the stars and resources of studio filmmaking, 1940s British cinema made a stirring appeal to a mass audience," noted critic Richard Armstrong.

Social Realism in cinema was reflecting Britain's transforming wartime society. Women were working alongside men in the military and its munitions factories, challenging pre-assigned gender roles. Rationing, air raids and unprecedented state intervention in the life of the individual encouraged a more social philosophy and worldview. 

A British New Wave movement emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. British auteurs like Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson, and John Schlesinger brought wide shots and plain speaking to stories of ordinary Britons negotiating postwar social structures. Relaxation of censorship enabled film makers to portray issues such as prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, and alienation. Characters included factory workers, office underlings, dissatisfied wives, pregnant girlfriends, runaways, the marginalized, the poor, and the depressed. "The New Wave protagonist was usually a working-class male without bearings in a society in which traditional industries and the cultures that went with them were in decline.

This information was retained from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_realism#In_film