Fish Tank Analysis & Research

Secondary Research:

BBC films, who produced Fish Tank, also have made some of the most successful British, like StreetDance 3D, and An Education. They co-produce around eight films a year, working in partnership with major international and UK distributors.

Fish tank was release in 2009. It had a budget of around 2million, and won a bafta for outstanding British award and 2 British independent film awards, best director and most promising newcomer.
In the opening weekend Fish Tank gained £103,180 and made £598,162 overall in the UK. So fish tank was a flop as the budget for this film was around 2million, but critics gave it a good reviews.

The film has a niche British audience as that is what BBC films usually aim for. The film would have an audience of people who live in bad conditions, and people with aspiration to be someone, as they can relate to the film in this way, the age range would be 16-25 as the story line is about a teenager, and had many soundtracks from the Hip Hop and R&B genre which mainly appeals to younger generations.

The film was released on blu ray and DVD.

                                

Themes and Situations

One of the themes in Fish Tank is sex. Throughout the film, the main character, Mia liked Connor, her mums boyfriend. We see them getting close in the film and she turns to him for comfort, Near the end, Connor had sex with Mia, even though he had sex with her mum as well, so sex is quite a big theme in this film.

Violence and aggression is also a situation in this film. When Mia tried to free the horse, the 2 male characters that were there harassed Mia and picked her up,this is very aggressive behaviour especially because its two males harassing one girl. This keeps with the conventions of social realism films as they represent real life, which in some parts of England from working class people there is a lot of violence and aggression.

Another main theme in this film is breaking the law. All through the film people are breaking the law. One example would be when Mia had sex with Connor. Connor is an adult, while Mia is only 15. The legal age to have sex is 16 so this would be classed as rape. This conforms to social realism as there is always crime in social realist films as there are many laws being broken in real life and these films just show it to the audience that these things happen.

Representations

Mia's sister Tyler, challenges the typical stereotypes of a child. Usually, in most societies little girls are seen as sweet, innocent and cute. However Tyler is portrayed as the complete opposite. She is rude, smokes and drinks, which is all illegal for a child of her age. She has become like this due to the rough area that she lives in. This conforms to British social realist films as it shows children in rough areas are not innocent as they grow up learning these foul things, and it shocks the audience that they are seeing this kind of behaviour.

The stereotype of Mia's mum breaks the typical mother stereotype. In the film she is seen to be very sexual, even with two children, and also aggressive towards Mia and her sister. Most mothers are portrayed as caring, loving mothers who puts her children first, but here it is not really the case. This shows British social realist films as they show the dull, depressing side of life, so portrays the mother in this way and Mia has to look after herself which shows the hardship of their lives.

In the film, we see Gypsies when Mia goes to try and free the horse. They are mostly typical gypsies as they are seen to be violent, live in a caravan that doesn't look very nice, and generally look like they haven't got much money. This is typical of the gypsy stereotype as they don't have a lot of money and they are violent. One of them who becomes Mia's close friend goes to a car dump to find parts for hes car as he doesn't have enough money to buy it. This is typical of social realist films as it shows real life situations and uses real life people to use as their representations.

Mise-en-scene 

The costume that Mia wears in the film looks very rough and cheap. The clothes look very dirty like they are not washed very often, and she seems to wear the same clothes nearly everyday. This use of costume emphasises the fact that they are struggling for money, and is common in British social realist films because it makes the characters more realistic of the stereotypes they are trying to portray.

In the area that the live in, the street looks very untidy and dirty, and the flat they live in also looks very dirty and not very well kept. This use of Mise-en-scene shows the audience that the area they live in is not very nice, and connotes that they are living rough and working class. This is common of British social realist films as it shows the rough, poorer areas of the country.

Many parts in the film are very low key lighting or quite dull in the day time. This sets a dull mood for the audience and connotes to them that they are living in a rough life, as it shows the characters mood which would connotes they are never really in a good mood either. Dull lighting conforms to British social realist films as the story lines they use aren't meant to portray happiness, so using the dull colours sets the dull mood.

Music and Sound Effects

The  music in this film is mainly from the Hip Hop and R&B genre. One example would be Cassie's song 'Me and You' which was played at the beginning of the film , when a bunch of girls were dancing. They would  use songs like this to increase the verisimilitude as its would the representations of the characters would listen to in real life, so songs like this would be typically in social realist films as the working class lifestyle listen to these genres of music.

There is a lot of diegetic Foley sound in the film like cars driving past and babies crying. This use of sound, for example the baby crying, would increase the verisimilitude for this film, as they live in rough areas and have a hard life, in these areas the baby's standard of living would not be as good and may not have caring parents so they would cry a lot, and also it emphasises the dull, depressing mood of every ones life. This is typical of social realist films to make it more realistic for rough lifestyles.

Camera Work and Editing

They used a lot of hand held camera work in this film. This shows the budget for the film was quite low, as they could not afford good equipment to take nice shots. But also hand held shots make it seem more rough and aggressive  This would be used a lot in social realist films, because they usually don't have a large budget, so they use hand held to keep their costs lower, but it does also add the rough affect to the film which makes it seem more realistic as well.

Also, they film uses many long shots and establishing shots. The long shots show a lot of the background and area that the characters are in, and the establishing shots show the audience the area. In the film when Mia breaks into another flat, they use a long shot to show her point of view, and it shows the rough area below her. This would be seen a lot on British social realist films as it denotes to the audience the bad areas and connotes their standard of life style.

In the film we see many long clips. One example is when Mia is dancing with her mum near end of the film. They would use many long clips when editing, because as the budget for social realist films aren't very high, this would have been away to save a bit of time, which would be common in these films to keep a cheaper 
budget.

Dialogue

The dialogue used in Fish Tank is very rude. Tyler uses words like 'C*unt' and 'F*ck'. These use of words, especially from a young child, increases verisimilitude, and connotes to the audience about how young children are raised in working class, tough areas of London, and shocks the audience that they hear this stuff from someone so young. This use of dialogue conforms to conventions of British social realist films because the young generations of tough areas in Britain do use this language, and as they aim to make films based on reality, it relates to real life situations.

Also, the dialogue used in the film is very uneducated. the characters speak slang words. This also makes it more realistic, and it connotes that people in this sort of lifestyle aren't very educated, and are very aggressive, which Mia being kicked out of school also emphasises they are not very educated. This is common in British social realist films because it also relates to real life situations as the use of slang is mostly what the young generation in urban areas use, so they connote to the audience how urban areas are life.