Fish Tank - analysis

NOTES:
smoking
mum dancing around
un-educated language
"lifes a bitch then you die"
diegetic sound - know the music is playing
typical clothing - trackies, chain, hoops
non-nuclear family
typical location
background noise - kids screaming
"bye ya skank"
turns head when looking out the back of the car, camera then cuts to her inter - see what she is seeing
natural lighting, light from windows lighting up the living room - untidy, messy
slow pace - the dancing scene last longer then it should last
when mia is leaving, saying goodbye to both her mum and inter, don't show emotion, harsh face typical masculine trait

How typical is your chosen text to its genre?

My chosen text Fish Tank is very typical to its genre, which is Social realism. Throughout the film, the director has used technical conventions, narrative themes, character roles, iconography and mise en scene, to help make it typical to its genre. Typical Social realism conventions are, the represent ion of real life difficulties and negative representation of the underclass. I watched a 4 minute clip, of which Mia is leaving home and she is saying bye, within this short clip i was able to identify many conventions typical to its genre of social realism.

A technical convention which is often used in social realist film, and is used throughout this clip is natural lighting. Within the living room, we can see that the only source of lighting is from the open window. This creates a more natural feel to the film, as we can see the source of lighting and know that it is real, therefore the environment and atmosphere feels more realistic. As an audience this allows us to empathise with Mia more, as we ale to relate more and sympathise.                                   Another technical convention is the simple camera cuts that the director choses to use. We see an example of this when Mia gets into the care to leave, we see the protagonists head turn to look out the back window, then the camera cuts and shows the audience what Mia is looking at, which is a shot of her little sister running waving goodbye. This enables us an audience to be put in the same perspective as Mia, and see life from her eyes. The director ables the audience to be placed in the shoes as the protagonists, and this helps create empathy and sympathise for Mia.

A common character role in Social realist films, is a non nuclear, often dysfunctional broken family. This is exactly what Mia, her mum and sister are. For example, when Mia is leaving and going to say bye to her mum, her mum turns around and says: "what you waiting for, fuck off then". This shows that there is no emotion, or trying to hide her true feelings towards her daughter leaving by being cold hearted and unloving. As an audience, we feel uncomfortable watching this, as it is showing how unloved and how hard life must be for Mia, and how her mother is so cold and laid back. Which is also a narrative convention of the representation of real life difficulties.

Noir Conventions in 'Drive'

In the film "drive" it also conveys typical Noir conventions, within the Characters, Narrative, Mise en scene and Technical codes.

In the first scene of of the 20 minute clip, we experience non-liner narrative. This is because they are all sitting around the dinner table, and suddenly it cuts to a flashback of the protagonist (Goslings character). This is a very typical convention, as Noir films are non-liner, and are not in chronological order of events.

The narrative theme of mistrust and paranoia is also a typical noir convention, which Drive also adheres to. For example, just after the robbery scene, and when they are in the hotel room mistrust and paranoia occurs. This is because, the protagonist Gosling, begins to question the red headed female on the events that had just happened. We begin to see backstabbing and corruption take place, and Goslings begins to believe that the women had set them up. This is then backed up, when two men enter the hotel room in order to kill Ryan Gosling, however because of the previous mistrust he was prepared. As well as narrative conventions, they also use many technical codes.

A typical technical code to noir films is the use of high contrast and low key lighting. The scene within the hotel room, before the two men intrude, high contrast lighting is used upon the protagonist face, however as soon as the men intrude and he kills the two men, low key lighting is used. It helps represent his bad side of his character.

The score is another noir technical code convention. The use of the dramatic, loud, low toned sounds, in the scene of the robbery builds tension and drama. It helps the audience guess the consequences before it happens, we get the feeling that something bad and dramatic is about to happen, because the music gives off a bad vibe.