Fish Tank Case Study

In this, i will be analysing fish tank and all the conventions within it.

Themes And Situations

In this long shot, we are shown the young girl dancing and this shows her aspiration towards and passion for dancing and shows that no matter about the conditions she is living in, she wants to make it out of the hard life and make something of her talents. This keeps tot he BSR as one of the main themes is aspiration which is shown in this scene of the young girl dancing in an abandoned flat with nothing other than her iPod.

This is where the mother is having a party downstairs, whilst her kids are upstairs smoking and drinking and is showing the theme corruption of youth.. They are watching TV whilst swearing smoking and drinking and are aged younger than 10. This is used to shock the audience at how such young girls are corrupted due to their surroundings.

In this scene, we are shown the "father figure" who is now sexually abusing this young girl. She is 15 years old, and he is drunk so what he is doing is illegal and is morally wrong. Sexual abuse is also another key theme for a BSR as it shows the reality of how disgusting some people are and how their lifestyle is.

I would like to use the aspiration theme inside my BSR as it shows real courage and dedication towards something and this is what would really attract a larger target Claudine to see how an individual can achieve so much from such little help.

Representation

In this mid shot, we are shown Mia waling towards a group of girls, and on her way there, we see in the background the sort of area she lives in. We are shown the cheap gritty council estates in which she lives in and this suggests her families lack of wealth and their struggle for money. This shows how hard their day to day life must be for essential items, such as food and water and how they must earn their money. This reinforces the stereotype that people who live in estates do not have a lot of money and so we see this also through how her mother gets money and the way she dresses. She is not like a typical girl who has loads of makeup and clothes and the reason for this is her lack in money.

This is where Mia goes to to her secret flat and buys cheap alcohol off a friend. This also symbolizes their lack of money to have buy the cheap worthless alcohol and it also represents her character as the rebellious type as she is underage but still drinking which is illegal but she seems used to it and doesn't care about the law. This also reinforces the stereotype that teens on the estate are all rebellious and we are shown this throughout with her use of language, and her habits of drinking as we would not expect to see this from a typical 15 year old girl but how she has grown up, she has become a product of her environment.

In this shot, Mia's Mother is hosting a little party and does not care that her two kids are drinking and smoking but on top of that shes abusing her kids as she wants to party and life her life without caring for her kids and this shot represents her as the counter typical mother who is not caring for her kids but doing the total opposite and its disgusting to see a mother act this way but this shows the BSR genre in truth and also we see how bad the struggle for some is. This contradicts the stereotypical mother that you would usually expect to see.

I would like to keep my setting in a council gritty estate where the true difficulties in a character are shown as it creates an atmosphere of shock to see how some people live and i would like to use certain aspects, such as the struggle for money in my production as it connects with the BSR genre effectively.

Mise-en-scene 

In this shot, of Mia drinking and putting on makeup, we are shown natural lighting, not only in this scene but throughout the whole film, This is used mainly for Budget reasons but i feel as though it also adds a sense of seriousness and reality as there are no effects and this keeps to the BSR of being serious.

In this long shot of Mia walking away from her flat, we are given a real sense of the setting and area she is living in. We are shown the gritty conditions inside her flat and also outside with rubbish on the floor, graffiti everywhere and clothes hanging from the balcony. This shows the everyday struggles they must go through and how hard it is to get a council estate like this.

In this scene, Mia is trying to free the horse, but the horse owners stop her and we see through this, that they live in caravans. This leads to the judgement that they are gypsies and are very poor and have no money. This represents the BSR of all characters feel the struggle in an everyday life, not just the main ones.

I would like to look more into costumes and setting as these are 2 key concepts in a BSR and this makes a huge difference to how the movie will pan out as the setting and costumes will be typical conventions from a BSR.

Music and Sound Effects

In this shot, Mia is staring at a bunch of the girls from the estate dancing to Cassie- "Me and You" and this soundtrack used it to emphasize the dancing and also to associate the movie with the song as it is such a known song so as soon as it is played, everyone will know the song and this also gives a sense of the era.

Mia in this shot is dancing to a classical song which is a  lot older but shows that the movie has been constructed to fit all kinds of target audience and not just base it on the newer generations, but also have classical music.

In this shot, Mia is shown trying to break the horse free using a rock to try break to lock. This is where Sound effects are use to emphasize the struggle and the break for freedom and how hard it is but the use of sound effects over natural is that an atmosphere is created for the escape to freedom not only for the characters, but for the horse as well.

I think the use of Foley sounds/sound effects are really useful to a British social realism as it emphasizes the main objective of this genre which is lifes struggles and how hard day to day life is and i would like to use this in my BSR as it seems very effective.

Camera Work and Editing

 In this Establishing shot, we are shown a sign on the area, Tilbury which suggests the movie is based in and around East London and this is to emphasize where they live and to create a link with the area and the conditions the people live in.

 In this shot, we are shown another establishing shot of the countryside where there is peace and freedom and this lets the audience see the comparison from the gritty estates and shows how little things like a countryside helps the individuals get away from the struggle and shows the break for freedom that they wish to achieve and this links back tot he theme off aspiration to get out of the hard life and struggles to somewhere relaxing

This shot of Mia on the phone trying to call her mate shows, in the background her home and the lifestyle she is living in. This shot is very effective as the individual has been blurred to make the background stand out where the audience get to see the gritty typical BSR settings and conditions for the individuals.

I would like to use the concept of blurring out my main character to emphasize the background as this shows the conditions and the setting clearly for the audience to see that there are real life problems, and through the conditions they are living in, this is made very clear.

Dialogue

 In this scene, we are shown the Girl talking to Mia and see her call her a "Skanky Little Pie Head". This shows to the audience the sort of bringing up the kids on the estate have had where there parents do not care about their rude, disrespectful tone. Also it is used to establish where they are from through their accents.

In this shot, we are shown Mia's mum handing her a letter for a special unit and her mum saying to her "you can fuck as many asbo boys as you like there". This shows how disgusting a mother can be to her kids and shows that their own role models are shaping their lives in a wrong way. This is also to show how much the mother wants to get rid of her kids so she can have her single life back as she is having a struggle for money and does not care much about her kids.

This is the scene where Mia watches the girls dance and goes to start an argument with them as she says "Your dancing is my problem". Through this dialogue, we are given a clear idea that she is from East London due to her cockney accent and her disrespectful rude tone.

This is an essential part for the BSR genre and i must make sure that the accents are clear and also slang and swear words must be used to represent a lack of punctuality and to represent where they live just through their tones and accents.

Fish tank was produced by BBC Films, UK Film Council and Kasander Film Company but was distributed by IFC films. Their Budget for the film was $3 million and in box office, they got $2,357,852. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film. IFC Films have also distributed such movies as "Looking For Eric" and "The Human Centipede" so this will attract a large audience due to their previous successes.

The age certification was given 15 so this movie has been targeted at teens to young adults, both males and females in England. This movie will also relate to anyone who goes throught similar problems on a day to day basis so having an age range is not suitable for this type of a movie as i think its open to anyone.

The movie having such sound tracks by Jay Sean and Cassie are really big names so this will attract a large audience of people who are into this genre of music. Also they used the actor Micheal Fassbender who has had many successes in the past, such as x men makes the audience want to watch a movie with such a successful background and this is what they use as their marketing strategies.