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Social Realism - Trainspotting

What are the conventions of social realism ?
Social realism is a film genre that concentrates on enlightening the audience on what representation and problems that exist in todays society. They usually revolve around the themes such as money, drugs, class, religion and politics.
The codes and conventions of British Social Realism are:

  • location shooting - urban environments
  • wide shots
  • non-professional actors
  • semi improvised scripts 
  • humour and seriousness
  • the erosion of regional identities
  • wider social issues explored via emotional and dramatic individual stories
  • triumph over adversity
What kind of political ideologies are most associated with this style of film making ?
Ideologies are the sets of basic beliefs about the political, economic, social and cultural affairs held by the majority of people within as society.
  • democracy 
  • capitalism 
  • communism
  • conservatism
  • anarchism
What is Hyperrealism?
Hyperrealist art is art that tries to be as true to real life as possible so a hyperrealist film would be something like Gummo which features almost no narrative structure, no character development, and a complete lack of any kind of conflict. A film having any kind of traditional narrative pretty much precludes it from being considered hyperrealist as a narrative is almost always an imposition on reality.

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