Three Social realism conventions and scenes to show them

Conventions.
The social realism genre aims to give a accurate "representation of real life with all its difficulties." Many techniques are used to make the films as realistic as possible. These include:

1. Handheld camera

A hand held camera is often used in social realism films to make them more realistic. For example when someone walks they're field of view changes, this is then reflected by using the hand held camera movement.  This is used in many scenes in the film Fish tank. A example of this is when Mia has just brought Keira back to her house. Mia is walking down a road when she sees Connor approaching in his car. She jumps over a fence at the side of the road and then starts to run away from him. The camera, which is film side on, then starts to move quite violently up and down as she is running. This camera shake shows the viewer what it is like to be running like the character and therefore makes the scene more realistic to the viewer. 

2. The use of Diegetic sound

Most social realist films only contain Diegetic sound, this is sound that is in the scene. This is not added in later in post production (editing). This makes it more realistic because we only hear what we would hear if we were actually in the scene. In most scenes the viewer sees the source of the sound or noise. This maybe the person that is speaking or maybe a speaker or music device. This film is typical of its genre because it contain the use of diegetic sound, when Mia is practicing her dance for the competition in the abandoned flat. We (as the viewer) see the source of the music that she is dancing to. We see a close up on the music device, which is a pair of speakers plugged into a CD player on the window sill. 

3. Shallow depth of field (shallow focus) 

This film is typical of its genre because a shallow focus is often used. A shallow focus means that only one person/object is in focus and the rest of the scene is out of focus. This is used in social realist films because it is how our eyes see things in real life. This is used when Mia is in the scrap yard looks for car parts with the boy. The camera pans round the scrap yard and a wall of cars. The camera is behind Mia. Mia is only thing in focus and the wall of cars are out of focus.