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.