Representation (Homework 3)

Representation
 
1. Samantha Lay said that film should be acknowledged by a large commercial medium rather than an educational tool.
 
2.William's observed that social realists texts generally focused on characters one would generally find in mainstream films. The representation of specific character types in realist texts.
 
3. The phrase “social extension” means, to include a variety of individuals and groups that are not always represented on the screens in mainstream cinema.

4 .Hallam and Marshment , noted that social realist texts entice characters who live in the margins of society, that would otherwise be in the background as extras’ in, huge Hollywood productions.
 5. Hill points out that realist texts’ containing the social extension h as massively involved the representation of the working classes at precise points in time to include economic and social change. With this in mind Hill believed that specific social perspectives are products of acknowledged moments in time and they are also specific to the social realities of that given time period.

 

6. The social extension urge has led British filmmakers to relook at and rethink social and representational inequalities, relating to class.

7. Lay argues that social realist directors construct versions of ‘working class way of life’ from specific political points of view and that representations of these will be subject to change over a period of time.

8. Dodd and Dodd argued that the representation of the working class in the documentaries of the 1930’s gave them a hero status as many of the documentaries portrayed the working classes as heroes and victims of society; hence a counter- representation, extending the truth.

9. Lindsay Anderson’s opinion of cinema’s treatment of the working classes was that it was severely under-represented. He strived to inform how film-makers could improve upon previous conceptions of genuine realism during film making.

 

10. Anderson and his contemporaries work signalled a departure from what they believed to be stuffy and sterile documentary realism.

11. The representation of working class people in Anderson and his contemporaries’ films, were a lot more energetic and vibrant. The rationale behind this was that it was partly due to the film-makers’ fascination for newly emergent youth culture and the respect they initially had for the traditional working class.
 
12. The 1930’s and 1950’s documentary movements both shared an engrossed obsession with working class males.

 

13. The representation of women in the ‘New Wave’ films during the 1950’s and 60’s focused on their spiteful nature attacking their working class heroes and causing a threat to masculinity. This was often seen through the females’ obsession to settle down, marry and have babies.

 
14. Television made exceptions to the way women were typically depicted as previous man hunters. This caused controversy as displayed by the airing of Coronation Street during the 1960’s. Female characters represented a variety of the working class in society from Ena Sharples nagging and moaning elderly character to Elsie Tanner’s good natured, but tart like appearance. These characters contrasting what would be perceived as a sweet old lady and a regular Church attender.

 

15. There was a gender divide prior to the 1980’s, subsequently this needed to be addressed and women were represented as working class females, generating the importance of women in the workplace and in society as a whole.

 

16. The above situation changed again in the 1990’s with women being portrayed in social realism films as not supporting their husbands, victims of domestic violence, drug and sexual abuse.

 

17. Hallam suggests that there has been a shift from “representing working class characters as producers of labour to consumers of goods”

 

18. The significant change in narrative allows the film maker to visualise a wider scope of opportunity, relating to the story within their social realist text.

 

19. Higson ‘s contends that a feature of British realism is tied up with forever changing definitions of public and private space. Hill explained this by stating that there has been a shift from political issues to private ones to make the realism focus on personal and individual themes and issues.

 20. Samantha Lay points out that British social realist text usually focuses on representing white working class males.
 

21. The above observation led Samantha Lay to observe that Britain is a multicultural and multi-faith extension within society and therefore new areas that representation could explore would be about refugees, asylum seekers, and illegal workers.

 22. Lay’s conclusion in her final paragraph about representation in social realist film texts includes two contrasting points. The first one being that working class characters are within the framework of social extension, however they are mainly centred on the white working class male. The themes and issues associated with this type of character are typically about the problems they face battling against unemployment, violence and the addiction to alcohol or drugs. Lay believes more diversity is essential to eliminate inequality and as the move from public to private and political to personal occurs, the wider picture is lost from the frame that will in turn affect all in society, as only a narrow glimpse.

Practice and Politics, Issues and Themes (homework 2)

Practice and Politics

1. Practice is defined as the way in which a film is produced and completed. In British Realism this has generally meant independent production.
 
2. The politics will influence their practice by the varying degrees they will seek to be free or distinct from the mainstream  and will look to demonstrate a commitment to specific sets of ideas about the social world.
 
3. Ken Loach's point was 'the way you make a film is an important way of validating the ideas in it'.
 
4. Practice and Politics in film mean to refer to aspects outside of the text which nevertheless influence the form, structure, content and style.
 
5. Film makers whose intent is to show life "as it really is" areas much reacting to the way the world is 'constructed' by the majority of mainstream films and the practices, as they are commenting on aspects of temporary social life.
 
6. Social realist texts often comment on, correct, or break away from previous conventions and practices regarded as 'realist'.
 
7. Samantha Lay informs us that the different movements, moments and cycles in British Social realism have been informed by a reforming and occasionally, subversively through a political spirit.
 
8. Andrew Higson's phrase "moral realism" means that morals can be defined within texts that have been generated from an idea, a goal and even a mission.
 
9. Lay explains that separating practice from politics is difficult, because of factors such as in the 'now' movements and cycles. She also states that a film maker's politics will heavily influence their methods of cinematic codes and conventions and this will mould and reduce the practice and production of text and its crucial place within a competitive market.
 
10. Grierson’s mission was to educate and inform audiences, through documentary form.  His documentary productions stood outside of the British mainstream film industry because of their comprehension relating to social purposes.
 
11. The lack of funds and resources affected documentary production styles in Britain during the ‘1930’s and 40’s’. To overcome these factors the film makers collaboratively chose a unit style of production opting for documentary truth. 

12. Lay states that the filmmaker’s commitment to documentary truth is a sociological commitment rather than an aesthetic commitment. This reflects their practice of engaging ordinary people instead of actors also they used original location shooting.

13. The British New wave filmmakers , like previous filmmakers were heavily influenced by their political beliefs and Stephen Lacey demonstrated this conclusion though Linsey Anderson’s quote.

                “The rejection of the studio system was tied closely to a rejection of a particular view of the world, which both the theatre and the cinema attacked as being ‘snobbish, anti-intelligent, emotionally inhabited, wilfully blind to the conditions and problems of the present, dedicated to an out-of-date, exhausted national ideal’” (1995: 166)

 

14. Tony Richardson, Karel Reisz, Lindsay Anderson and Lorenza Mazzetti formed the free Cinema group. The Free Cinema group produced documentaries and short films that were both visually exciting and creative. The main principle was to make independent films that were free from profit and studio interference and this gave them the freedom of choice to choose exactly what subject

matter they wanted.

 

15. Their ambitions and intentions were to extend the range of cinematic representation; these were to include the working classes outside of London to the industrial towns of the North.

 

16. British New Wave directors claim that realism could be achieved if regional stage actors were cased in their regionally authentic location.

 

17. They establish that the character and place were interconnected. The backdrop of the actors’ location that is inclusive of their environmental factors connects them to a characters story.

18. Loaches work from the 1960’s to the 1990’s was greatly informed by practice and politics. Furthermore, he was one of the new filmmakers during the 1980 to speak out against the Thatcher government and as an extreme consequence many of his documentaries during that era were never screened. The importance of filming realism to Roach was to keep the setting naturalistic and to use non big screen actors. His political view within his documentaries was to explore and exploit conflicts in society and general inequalities.

19. The collaborative unit-style approach to filming gave the directors the banner of free cinema and authorship was particularly impossible to highlight one director to another for their personal contribution.  Overtime this unit style began to decline and the contemporary scene moved to promote films as a product of just one director as author.

 

ISSUES AND THEMES

 

20. The term content in made up two joined aspects as part of the whole. The first relevant issue is about the issues and themes that social realists intend to investigate. The second content issue is about the types of representations that are established. These content issues help to combine films and texts to their specific moment in time.

 

21. Content is usually linked to themes and issues. These are usually combined to a film maker’s intent.

 

22. Lay suggests that a filmmaker’s choice of issue relating to British social realism, will often relay a message or mission to inform, throughout the theme.

 

23. Specific issues from any era will reveal how society adapted their social and cultural attitudes.

 

24. The themes and issues of any period can be contrasted to a different point in time to answer questions and highlight the importance of change. Moreover, they will also identify the central theme for each period and depict how issues were resolved and dealt with.

 

25. The phrase “slice of life” within social realism texts implies life as it was or is.

 

26. An understanding of socio-historical context is important, because it emphasises reality at a specific point in time.

 

27. Lay’s idea that film texts are “constructs”, as they are constructed in a realist mode and it is through these constructs that themes and issues can be analysed to convey what reality is being portrayed and from whose point of view.

 

28. Lay explains the differences between issues and themes by stating that issues relate to distinctive social problems that were/are topically apparent of that period. For example drug dealing, alcoholism and sexual abuse and these can be referred to as labels. Many issues; however as time moves on, are subject to change. Different issues can be identified relating to society of that time. Lay explains themes are deeper; they are not as explicit as issues. They lie behind issues, collecting them together to give an overall theme. Some of these themes can be identified as changing gender roles, national identity and the struggles of the traditional working classes.

 
  

Social Realism in the British Context (homework 1)

Social Realism in the British Context

1.      The phrase ‘social realism’ is confusing because it is a phrase that is often interchangeably with other terms.

2.      Critical consensus is about the dominant representational form of the western world.

3.      The factors that helped the context within the realist impulse was a prolonged period and social and structural change, the move from country to the city by thousands of workers to feed the industrial infrastructures, the political ideas of socialism and communism for sweeping answers from the working classes and the  secularisation of society.

4.        The development of realism in the nineteenth century is emerged in the mode of opposition or reform seeking.

5.      Carrols suggestion is that the term should only be used with a prefix attached.

6.      The development in the arts went up as film and photography was made to capture life as it is and to create something with moving images.

7.      Photography brought new possibilities for capturing or involving a sense of life as it is.

8.      The quest for media was to present reality or the truth.

9.      The truth has as many faces as there are eyes that see it.

10.  Kracauer believed that film was uniquely capable of representing the real and should do so with as little artifice as possible.

11.  Gerhardie believed the goal of naturalism was to resurrect the complete illusion of real life using the things characteristic of real life.

12.  Bazin stated that ‘there is not one, but several realism’. Therefore, each era has its very own form of realism. Bazin argued that audiences should be allowed to establish their own realism with realist film texts and the employed, correct use of shot techniques would allow audiences to do this.

13.  All these approaches commonly seek to represent the truth through codes and conventions that have become regulary associated with realism.

14.  Branston and Stafford stated that the realistic nature of most Hollywood films would be realistic in setting, characterisation and situation. However, other realist texts differentiate as they employ one or two characteristics by the film maker. One would be to show full detail, the experience of an actual event. The other characteristic would be to convey a message or argument about the social world through a known realist conventions, such as location, characters, and camera techniques.

15.  The term social realism is difficult to define, because the ‘now’ is continually changing and evolving and what could be defined as social realism, last year would differ from social realism events of the past.

16.  Current realist texts are linked to those from the past, according to Hill by firstly investigating the truth. Then organisation skills are required to conventionally produce a quality piece, which would not have occurred naturally in the ‘now’.

17.  Samantha Lay said that the key feature of realist texts is the way place and character are linked, so that the aspects of contemporary life are identified as a form of naturalism.

18.  Hallam and Marshment explained this defining the characteristic, as the effects of the environmental factors on the development of a character. This element would demonstrate and emphasise the relationship between location and identity.

19.  Lowenstein sees social realism texts as contemporary moments of social crisis and conflict.

20.  Raymond Williams ‘for criteria for defining realist texts are as follows:

Criteria	Explanation
1.      Secular	Free form of religious and spiritual matters.
2.      Firmly in the contemporary scene	In terms of setting, character and social issues.
Social extension	To extend the range of topics and characters.
Intent of the artist	Not to influence their own political agender.