'How typical is your chosen text to it's genre?'
Clip 5
Fish Tank is a social realism film made in 2009, directed by Andrea Arnold. The film adheres to social realism as the technical and narrative conventions, character roles and mise en scene/iconography clearly demonstrate this.
At the beginning of the narrative, Mia is shown in bed, with a dog barking in the background and children shouting in the distance. This is a technical convention, used to demonstrate the surroundings of where Mia lives, and this adheres to the social realist idea of urban environments and the typical underclass area. Most of the time, the camera shots are hand held, following Mia wherever she goes, giving the audience the chance to feel as though they are presently there and giving a sense of realism. The lighting throughout the clip is natural and there are no really technical effects, this can be referred back to the social realism genre, how the use of natural lighting produces a realistic setting. When a scene is cut and focused on one particular object, we see from Mia's point of view. This is evident in the clip when she is shown watching a YouTube video on a computer, when the camera is on the screen, that is the only object in front of the camera, shows Mia's point of view.
The iconography evident in this clip helps to construct that sense of realism, Mia wears a tracksuit and carries a plain rucksack around with her - this can be a typical social realism convention, showing the type of fashion used in these urban, working class areas. A further use of iconography would be the short clip we see of the dog eating a dead fish, this could signify the fact that Mia has no way out, and could relate to the title 'Fish Tank'.
When she leaves her house, the next scene is of her walking through town, she then notices a dancing advertisement, and takes it with her. This could link with the idea that Mia's ambition to go far with dance to escape her life and get a better one, the sense of realism that this may not happen is another convention of social realism.
Your introduction is good as it establishes the text and clearly states the genre and the categories that the conventions fall into. You have answered the question well and it is clear that the text is typical of the genre. You have used plenty of technical conventions and have said why they have been used e.g. it needs to be realistic and hand held cameras enable you to see from Mia's perspective. However, you could try to give a shot by shot analysis of the scenes you are describing so that the reader can visiualise what is happening.
ReplyDelete