Pros and cons of social realism:

After focusing on the social realism genre in a huge amount of depth, I have composed a list of the pros and cons associated with this genre. I had an idea from the very start of what I wanted to work on, and that idea was social realism! However, creating a list for both genres was a useful thing to do, as it helped me to compare my thoughts, and come to a final conclusion.

Pros

• Finding a location would be quite easy, as some parts of Bury St. Edmunds look rather run down and uncared for - perfect for social realism. Many social realism directors (Shane Meadows in particular) often choose to use parts of the country that look dull and enervated. 
• In my opinion, finding actors would be quite a straight-forward task, as I would like people who can just be themselves, and feel comfortable in front of a camera. In 'A Room For Romeo Brass', directed by Shane Meadows, a lot of the actors improvise their lines! I think this makes the situation seem a lot more realistic, so I could try this technique for certain parts of my opening sequence. 
• As social realism is meant to be realistic, finding costumes should be very simple. If I did choose to create a horror production, I would need to spend money on makeup, costumes, etc; however, I could easily produce a believable social realism opening sequence on a very low budget, as I don't think I'd need to purchase anything out of the ordinary! 
• Social realism deals with issues that people have to face/live with every single day. With this in mind, I think that relating to people's lives would be quite an easy, yet interesting task. With horror, it is hard to scare people successfully; however, with social realism, it should be quite straight-forward to relate to people's own situations successfully. 
• Furthermore, I think that social realism is quite a vague genre when it comes to choosing a storyling, which gives me more room to be creative. Pretty much every aspect of horror has been covered previously by other film directors, so if I created a horror opening sequence, I fear that it would look very cliché. 

Cons

• Although Social realism is quite a vague genre in terms of the story-line, it is also quite a 'detailed' genre when it comes to the dialogue, and information. There is a lot of dialogue and information fitted into the duration of the film; therefore, this genre would require a lot of acting, in order to make my opening sequence effective. 
• With horror, you can usually walk out of the room, come back in a few minutes later, and gather what is going on in the film very quickly; however, with social realism, you really need to focus in order to pick up the key areas of the story-line. My actors would need to be able to speak comfortably and clearly in front of a camera, as well as recite a few lengthy stanzas.