AS Media Visual Effects In Social Realisms Source Of Inspiration

Visual Effects In Social Realisms Source Of Inspiration

Brief

However, I want to explore visual effects used in social realism, so that some of our post-production will conform to common conventions. So, I looked at social realism film "The Selfish Giant" with its use of VFX and other effects including lighting, colour grading etc. to support the plot that is fairly different to our more urban narrative. I wanted to look at something slightly more different to our opening, but of the similar genre, so that I can see how visual effects are used to help the different, rural atmosphere, and hence, allows me to understand what works and apply that to similarities in our film opening. Also, any differences in narrative means I could oppose the drama's effects to see if I would create a more suitable atmosphere for our film opening, i.e. I could use opposite colour grading etc. for a more urban social realism film compared to the rural film.

The film is seen below:

Genre

Conventionally, in urban dramas editing is very minimal to emphasise the realism aspect. Therefore, as we chose to create a montage, this subverts common conventions. In urban dramas, however, montages or fast paced editing are commonly used for scenes like fight, confrontations or some sort of tension. This was analysed previously.

Post-production

In "The Selfish Giant", the shots use the effect of colour grading to alter the atmosphere and effect of the film opening. The saturation is low to add a grey, hazy effect that emphasise the poverty in the boy's situation. The character is also incredibly hyperactive, so lacking this colour contrasts his energy and anger, which consequently emphasises it. Instead, the tones centre around cold muted blues, pale yellows and muted grass greens, all of which lacks brightness due to the lack of saturation and very dark brightness. This is also planned due to the mise-en-scene. We can use this low saturation to, therefore, to show the homeless protagonist's poverty.

From left to right: Handheld, tracking long shot, a long establishing shot and a two shot with a long shot of boy waking up in background in focus.

However, the earthy colour grading emphasises the drabness of the rural Bradford location in "The Selfish Giant", therefore, to oppose this we can use more blue tones and artificial colours like red and neon colours, as analysed in "Fight Club", to portray the intimidating city life in busy, intimidating London etc.