As the genre I chose was social realsim, i have decided to put together a list of conventions that i should follow.
- From opening such as Kidulthood and A Room For Romeo Brass I found that the actual story is not divulged into very fully. Although the story is not told, a strong convention is characters being introduced. I found the character is normally the main part of social realism openings. Normally the opening will introduce the main characters weather its 1 or 10.
- I also found that use of camera is very important. The camera use is normally very simplistic, not cutting very often, and having very long duration shots. There is also a range of shot type, from long shots of locations, to close ups of characters.
- I found that editing was used to create an effect in the openings i watched. I found that the editing was normally used to show a change in time, using quick cuts, to show time going fast or slow dissolves to show time going slowly.
- I think that location is very important in social realism openings. In all three openings I wrote about there was an obvious establishing shot at one point. The location was used to show something about the characters involved such as there lifestyle, social class or family.
- In terms of character i found that all the main characters in social realism came from a working class background. Some could come from a middle class, but never an upper class. This is very important, as if i broke this convention my chosen genre could go completely wrong.
- The use of sound in social realism openings varied. All were diegetic, letting the audience hear everything that is happening in the scene. This is very important as it made the openings more realistic. I also found that the music that played over the openings was all music that was either from the time period the film was set in, or the type of music the characters would of liked.
