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FISH TANK (REPRESENTATIONS (Strong female lead, working-class female youth…
FISH TANK
KEY SEQUENCES
opening scene
- medium shot of Mia, wearing a tracksuit and a top, stood in a bleak, empty room, panting.
- use of the medium shot establishes the setting and helps to show the emptiness of the room, which raises questions to the audience about where the girl is, why she’s there and what she’s doing.
Mia is stood in the middle of the frame with a lot of empty space around her - unconventional for a blockbuster film, but fits in with this genre which has conventions of its own
- clothing clearly represents typical council flat teenager and Mia is represented as a young, urban character.
- grey track suit, with a black and white vest top underneath - suggests she isn’t a very feminine character as her outfit makes her seem quite masculine. Her clothing could be associated with the stereotypical ‘chav’ look, giving a sense of the location.
- Diegetic sound - Mia’s heavy breathing and the background noise of busy roads (urban area)
- raises the first enigma for the audience as they will begin to question why she’s so out of breath and what she’s been doing.
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- second long shot of Mia on the balcony - establishes the location, focusing on the view from the window rather than on the character
- natural lighting here is an expected convention of a social realism film.
- shot focused on the outside leaves the character unclear - helps to reinforce enigma of the character
- adds to the mystery of the character as the audience can’t even see her properly, as she is out of focus
- view from the window shows high-rise council estates - emphasises representation character.
- character is likely to be of low income due to the place she is in and the costume she is wearing.
- diegetic sound - people arguing along with the noise of traffic, male voice shouting ‘What’s going on?” in an aggressive tone. This further establishes the location of a busy, rough, urban area, which often involve violence.
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- camera pans to the back of her, allowing the audience to see the character close up from behind and also to give the audience a greater view of the location.
- pan is hand-held, giving a sense of realism to the shot and allowing the audience to feel like they are there on the balcony
- the balcony is a motif - shows the boundary between her limited life and all the opportunities available beyond it.
- However, the fact that she’s still looking out at the view of the council estate even when she’s in the flat shows that despite her being in her place to escape, she’s still trapped.
- Natural lighting - audience can infer that this film is from the independent film industry, which use much smaller budgets for production compared to more mainstream films.
- lighting makes audience feel they are in the shadows, giving more of a sense of realism as it seems the audience are watching her directly from behind, making them feel more connected to the film, which is a big feature of the independent film industry.
- The camera focuses back on the location as Mia walks away, once again conveying the location to the audience
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- location changes from the balcony to the bottom of the housing estate, and a tracking shot is used as Mia walks across the park, seeming oblivious to everyone else as she heads towards another building.
- She scoops up stones, throwing them at a window to get man’s attention, who she starts arguing with.
- A low angle shot is used of Mia throwing rocks up at the window. Mia is big within this shot - suggests she has power, however the fact that she is ignored by Keeley’s dad shows that she has no real power, but instead has false power, making her believe she’s stronger than she actually is - emphasises her naivety
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- A tracking shot is used of Mia as she walks away from the other building and through the park, stopping to watch her friend Keeley dancing with friends
- Mia is clearly represented very differently to the girls dancing, showing the contrast between stereotypical femininity and Mia’s femininity.
- Throughout the film, Mia challenges stereotypical femininity by swearing, drinking and wearing tracksuits/trainers, all of which give her quite a masculine style and persona.
- This contrasts her with other females in the film, such as her friend who wears a short skirt and pink top, showing a lot of skin, her mum Joanne who is often wearing revealing clothing, and even her little sister Tyler who is seen sunbathing with her friends.
- This sexualised imagery suggests that females of all ages in this environment are largely sexualised and grow up too fast.
- This is especially shown through Tyler as she is the youngest character in the film and is still quite childlike as she has a pink room with kitten stickers and a hamster, however she still drinks, swears and smokes like the older characters do, showing that the gap between adults and children isn’t that large in this environment.
MISE-EN-SCENE
TV - shows like MTV cribs, hip-hop/rap videos - urban feel, helps underline characters and area
- horse - motif of entrapment & desire for freedom
- shows Mia's soft side, but also naivety as she assumes it's being mistreated
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EDITING
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cutting on movement - jarring, contributes to realist/documentary feel
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SOUND
diegetic sound - shouting, traffic, urban area
R&B music - provocative, seductive etc.
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diegetic sounds heighten tension & sense of danger e.g. when Mia fights with the boys about freeing the horse.
Mia's breathing as she runs away - putting spectator in her position - turning up tension & drama of sequence
REPRESENTATIONS
Strong female lead, working-class female youth with limited opportunities but with aspirations
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Representations of working-class family life within dysfunctional family & challenges of single mothers
Male characters are realistic - Connor's character suggests he has positive qualities (while he is cheating on his partner and on Joanne)
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location, Essex - represented as a place where people are limited, bored, poverty and lack of opportunity
- Connor - most affluent character, has a job/car, middle-class
- Billy (Mia's boyf) - similar to Mia, just trying to get by e.g. scavenging for car parts
Regional identity is prominent through representations of life on housing estates in East London/Essex
AESTHETICS
film establishes strong sense of realism through characters, everyday events & situations and significance of settings/locations
'look and feel' of movie develops visual style of British Social Realism, 'kitchen sink dramas' - absence of gloss & glamour in Hollywood
CONTEXT
Social
Fish Tank continues tradition of British cinema since the 90s - strong focus on social issues: family issues, absence of fathers & single parents
Social class - Joanne is unemployed & living on a council estate, whereas Connor is a manager who can provide money for both Mia and her family and his own (suggests middle-class)
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Tradition of British films since the 90s, debates about social issues in 'Broken Britain'
Historical
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Fish Tank is distinctive in developing a strong female lead from which to explore social/political issues
NARRATIVE & IDEOLOGY
- Dramatic tension centres around conflict: Mia's struggle for freedom conflicts with her environment/circumstances
- Joanne's struggles as a single mum & her need for love/happiness conflicts with her mother role - leads to neglect
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Connor's secrets & circumstances lead to the ambivalent/unsure role he plays in Mia's life - creating psychological intensity & insight
Binary oppositions
poverty/wealth (social class) - contrast between the lives of middle-class & working-class . Connor has a nice house/car whereas Mia lives on a rundown council estate - creates a larger divide between them & makes their relationship more unlikely
Adults vs Children - Mia and her sister are often conflicting with their mum - emphasising social problems in family. Boundaries between youths & adults are blurred as many of the kids drink, smoke & swear
stereotypical femininity vs Mia's femininity - Mia doesn't conform to 'feminine' conventions, she wears tracksuits/trainers & uses harsh language - challenges other female representations who are seen in revealing clothing
- her dancing also isn't sexualised but conforms to hip-hop culture, compared to girl's dancing in the park
nature vs industrial - Mia is trapped in the rough industrial qualities of her council estate & only offered freedom from this when Connor enters her life e.g. when he drives them to a river
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