Social Realist vs Mainstream Opening Credits

Social realism openings are very different from mainstream film openings as they focus on getting straight into the themes and issues in the film. They do this by showing small pieces of video in between the opening credits, so that the audience get a feel for the setting and understand what is going on around the characters. This also helps to hint toward what the film is about.

On the other hand, mainstream films concentrate on the displaying who is in the film and who produced it as the do not have any video before or during the opening sequence. Non-Diagetic music is often used as well, which distracts the viewer from thinking about what the film is about and the themes and issues in it.


Conventions of Social Realism Opening Sequences

In social realism films, there are opening credits that last for a maximum of 3 minutes. This is where everyone that worked on the film is credited but not as in depth as the credits at the end of the film. Most social realism film producers tend to credit the entirety of the production team, such as Ken Loach, whilst others do not go to such an extent and leave most of the credits until the end of the film. Below you can see some of the conventions that can be seen in the opening credits of a social realism film.

• The name of the studio(s) that helped produce the film
• The names of the actors
• The title of the film, usualy not too complicated in social realism films
• Editor
• Production Designer
• Photography
• Director
• Screen Writer
• Who helped fund the film
• Who did the casting
• Who the film features
• Here are some of the conventions
• Name of production company
• The studio's name
• Producer's name
• The director's name, introduced by "A film by"
• Starring, showing the biggest names in the film
• The film's title, usually more flashy than a social realism film's title
• The name of the caster
• The screenwriter

Sweet Sixteen – Ken Loach


00:03 – Sixteen Film Production logo
00:10 – Another production company, Road Movies and Tornasol/ Alta Films
00:16 – Audio (Child and adult voices)
00:18 – Picture introduced, almost no lighting, orange light behind the character
00:23 – Production Company (Scottish Screen and BBC films presentation)
00:38 – Pov of the stars through a telescope, planet is shown and then loses focus on it
00:44 – Funding support
00:54 – Ambient sounds (Cars, wind)
01:00 – Soundtrack is introduced (High obo sound, lonely sound)
01:07 – Sweet Sixteen logo appears, simple text and font
01:12 – Longshot with close up sound
01:37 – Audio changes, soundtrack becomes more upbeat. Another setting is introduced
01:40 – Change of lighting, different atmosphere. Names of actors are appearing
01:55 – Production Designer’s name appears
02:02 – Photographer’s name appears
02:08 – Sound recorder’s name appears
02:17 – Researcher’s name appears
02:30 – Assistant director’s name appears
02:44 – Jumps to another scene, no match on action, line producer’s name appears
02:52 – Editor’s name appears
03:09 – Co-Producer’s names appear
03:51 – Coming to the end of the important production members
03:56 – Producer’s name appears
04:02 – Director’s name appears, End of important production team credits

Sweet sixteen has quite a long opening sequence for a social realism film. Ken Loch has chosen to have a fairly long opening sequence as he would like to give credit to as many people as he can before the film starts.

In the opening sequences of mainstream films, they tend to mention most of the production team such as the person that designed the storyboard. This is not featured in most social realism films as they like to get straight into the themes and issues that are apparent in their film. Opening sequences in mainstream films are also much more flashy as they have big budgets, whilst social realism films have very simple opening sequences as once again, they like to focus on the content of the film and the themes and issues.

Mainstream films also draw a lot of attention to the biggest name in the film as it would draw more attention to the film, whilst in social realism films, the director is more focused on as it is their film.

Nil By Mouth

00:01 – Sony pictures logo appears
00:02 - Music is introduced, western theme
00:07 – Luc Besson’s name appears
00:11 – SE8 Group’s name appears
00:14 – A scene is introduced. Low key lighting, atmospheric sound of people talking. A close up is used.
00:26 to 00:42 – Actors names start appearing, it is noted that it is alphabetical order rather than most well-known to less known actors.
00:43 – The film’s title appears, simplistic text is used and the background is black, with the aim to draw the attention away from how the
title is presented and get the audience to pay more attention to the story, with help from the setting, etc.
00:47 – Video is then re-introduced and again, the character is in the same setting, with the same ambient sounds. The character is clearly waiting for something.
00:55 to 01:00 – More actor’s names appear, this is now showing the less important parts in the film as it states that these actors are starred ‘with’ other’s rather than having their name on it’s own.
01:14 – The main production teams names are starting to be displayed, starting with the composer's name.
01:17 – Caster’s name is then shown
01:21 – Production Designer’s name is then shown
01:24 – Editor’s name is shown
01:29 – Director of Photography's name is then shown
01:30 – Video is once again introduced, same setting, character receives his drinks.
01:42 – The production team’s name begin being shown again, starting with the Associate Producer.
01:45 – Co-Producer’s name is displayed.
01:48 – The producer’s names are then shown all together, to give each producer equal credit.
01:50 – Video is once again introduced, in the same setting. Showing a steady flow of the action.
02:04 – Production team’s names are once again shown, starting with the writer/director.

Nil By Mouth has an average length opening sequence, that focuses on introducing the setting and themes as well as giving credit as it switches from giving credit to small parts of video, showing what the characters are doing.