Exam Question Practise | Fish Tank

How typical of your chosen text of it's genre?

Fish Tank includes many typical conventions of its genre, social realism. There are typical social realism technical conventions that are common in the film Fish Tank, one in particular being the use of natural lighting. No extra use of lighting occurs in the movie unless it wouldn't already be there in the scene in real life. One particular scene that shows this technical convention well is when Mia is waiting for someone to bring her some alcohol. Mia is waiting in the shade watching a boy do back flips of a wall and Mia and the boy are both unlit as they are in the shade and no extra lighting is used to light their face. To show the contrast the teenagers playing football in the sun are lit fully like they would be in real life. Another scene that shows the use of natural lighting is when Mia is dancing in a room of an empty flat. The only light source within the room is coming from the daylight from the window. When Mia is dancing she is moving her body in and out of the shade and the direct sun light. At one point Mia is bending down so that her whole body has no direct sunlight on her or shadows, and then when she lifts her body up she has a bright line across her face when the sun is directly on her and shadows occur from where it is not. This has purposely been left this way instead of being fixed to show the realism of the film. This could not be fixed in real life so therefore they are not fixing it within the film. You are viewing the film as if you are there with them in real life so using the natural lighting and shadows helps create this.

The typical female character role in films for mothers are usually domestic, loves her children and treats them correctly and looks after appearance. However the typical character role of the mother in Fish Tank is opposite. She doesn't look after the children correctly and doesnt treat then nicely. Instead she looks after herself and cares more about her own love interest Connor. One particular scene that shows this occurring is when Mia arrives home and her mum immediatley starts shouting and swearing at her telling her the police have been over looking for her and pushes her over. Mia and her mum then start arguing with each other and treating each other badly. This behaviour does not conform to the typical stereotype of a mother. 

Exam Question Practise | District 9

'Most texts today mix their genres'. How true is this of your chosen texts?

District 9 adheres to the statement 'most texts today mix their genres'. It includes conventions from the sci-fi genre and documentary style genres. As the text is a hybrid of both of these genres, it would appeal to a larger variety of people as it includes aspects from both genres which they might enjoy. 

One particular science fiction convention that 'district 9' conforms to is that it covers political and social issues. The city of Johannesburg is largely controlled by cooperations, specifically MNU. When the aliens arrived there, MNU immediately took charge and put them in a compound called 'District 9' in which they are not allowed to leave unless they are under supervision. One particular example of the cooperations taking charger and controlling the situation is when it is revealed that Wikus is transforming into an alien. MNU immediately take him to the science lab to be experimented on. The first shot we see of Wikus being taken to the lab on a hospital trolley he is in a body bag which shows that he is trapped and has lost control of his body. In this shot we also see who it is that is controlling him by the MNU logo being printed on the uniform of the MNU staff. The next shot is a low camera angle looking up towards the MNU staff from the perspective of Wickus, which shows that they have power over him with a following high angle shot looking down on Wikus, showing he is the weaker human in the situation. A few shots later there is a shot of wickus with a breathing mask on, showing he has even lost control of breathing while MNU cuts into his arm. This issue they are covering in 'District 9' relates to how cooperations take over in the real world. 

One particular science fiction convention that 'District 9' conforms to is characters being transformed t o something else. In the case of 'District 9' Wickus goes through the transformation from human to alien after he is accidentally exposed to liquid from the aliens. This is shown to the audience in various parts throughout the film. When