FISH TANK

ANALYSIS OF FISH TANK

Fish tank is a British social realism film.  This is based in an estate in England  "Mardyke" estate in Havering. Other screenings include the town of 'Tilbury', as well as the sighting of the A13.  The film 4 production received many honors , the outstanding honor is for the ; 2010 Bafta for best British film. As well as achieving this , it one the 'Jury prize' at the "2009 Cannes film festival".
Budget : $3 million 
Box office : $2,357,852
Cast : Katie Jarvis as Mia Williams
Kierston Wareing as Joanne Williams 
Michael Fassbender as Connor O'Reily
Rebecca Griffiths as Tyler Williams
Harry Treadaway as Billy
Sydney Mary Nash as Keira O'Reily
Sarah Bayes as Keely
Director : Andrea Arnold
The home exhibition methods , were a bit more luxurious then maybe previous film 4 films . it was released on Blu-ray , meaning people can watch the film in better quality.
The film was funded by BBC films as well as UK film council. 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1232776/
Themes and situations:

Tyler passing on a cigarette and sharing beer.  

One theme which has emerged from fish-tank is in fact illegal doings , something which occurs a lot in the estate area's of Britain  A major example of this would be the under age and smoking in the film. Normally it is a teenager breaking the rules however in this situation it shows how serious the corruptness is . This is because there are kids under the age of around 10 year old smoking as well as drinking .
a strategy of using children in a way to show how they are breaking the innocence. As kids are usually associated  with being , innocent such as Connors daughter who was shown as very innocent playing on her scooter. However in contrast to Tyler the other young child , she is very independent . When Tyler is holding the dog , and sunbathing the other child is playing on her scooter. This shows the difference that Tyler is more independent and doing more mature things however only forcefully due to the environment she was bought up in.  Tyler's smoking and drinking shows the bad upbringing by her parents as well as the  development in generation. While Connors daughter is wearing nice clothes on the other side  Tyler has a more budget able approach towards her style. Meaning that the status comes into play. Tyler being the lower class , she is shown in a very negative way. Almost as if there is a hierarchy and Tyler is lower in every aspect due to her background . I would use this in my film to display the realism of what actually goes on in the run down area's of Britain and to what extent the children are of being alienated from a good upbringing. And a perfect example Fish Tank have used is the contrast between the two young girls.

Another event to match this , would be when Mia is having sex with Connor .Mia only being , 15 ,  makes this illegal. As the legal age of sex is 16. This provokes a lot of themes but one main theme it has as well as legalism is the fact that Connor is possibly seen as a pedophile.  And Mia could be seen as easy going. A stereotypical view of this is that the woman who live in the estates could be seen as easy going and easy for sex, this again comes back to the status. as she is lower class , she has lower standards. Again i would use this in my film to portray what goes on. As i truly believe the children who live in estates give up their virginity way too quick. Also Mia was saying to her mum " just fucked him up-stairs actually" , and her mum replied saying "that's nice.". Prime example of the up bringing and parenting. her mother is almost influencing her therefore Mia would not see it as a bad thing. After all Mia's mum and Connor have a sex scene in the film. This shows the life style of the lower class in Britain and will raise awareness of the realism going on in the estates .

Representation (stereotypes & archetypes): 
A lot of stereotypes were shown from the film , and through most characters.  Firstly Mia's mother is of course a single mother. She is shown to be care-less in her lifestyle. Her kids do not respect her as a kid respects a mother. Showing she doesnt care in what way she's treated. Overall her representation as a mother was very poor. In fact the closest her and Mia got is shown in the picture below.

They are performing a slow dance. Overall the representation of a single mother in today's British culture is exactly of her kind. A young mother who cares less about life and wants to enjoy her life , probably as much as her children do. I would use this for the British audience to relate with , because single mothers are almost a trend in today's Britain. Therefore it is great for a British social realism film.

One other stereotype would be of women in general. That they are the less dominating with in the genders. The picture below connotes that as well as the stereotypical view that the lower class people have no mannerisms.

Add caption

As they are under going sexual action during a party and somebody obviously walked in as you can tell from the camera shot. This could also mean women are very desperate for the loving of men.

A representation of age is one of the main topics throughout fish tank. Mia being only a teenager , her representation is some what called typical in the eyes of the audience. As she is a stuck up character , who does not listen to her mother. And is very rebellious , which is shown through her acts of kidnapping a child , smoking , drinking and of course under age sex with Connor. The younger Generation tend to have other stereotypes along with this , one main one which was shown through the film is violence. 

Mia being harassed by two young men.

Youngsters are normally associated with violence in today's day and age. Especially in Britain. One real awakening of course was the riots. However fish tank had already shown their representation of the young generation and it also consisted of violence. In a British social realism it is important for stereo typcal views to be accurate or at least relevant. Youngsters being violent is the main cause to Britain crime today , and therefore inputting this representation in a film defines exactly what British social realism is about. Showing the external audience on what actually happens in parts of Britain and showing to some audiences what they can relate to. 

Mise-en-scene 

This is the setting of which Mia lives in , therefore her background. This is typically run down , and like most film 4's , it reveals the grittiness of the place. Being in a flat means many things. Words can even describe the scene ; condensed , antique , cheap , life-less. These are my words to describe the place it is set in. 

However it definitely outlines the message fish tank are trying to give , which is Mia is of a lower class background. These buildings are common in Britain , and if i was to make a British social realism film i would definitely use this because there is a huge population of Britain living in flats. Therefore the way Fish tank have used this is great because it shows us that people really do live in circumstances like Mia does.

Inside Mia's house it is scruffy , as well as the outside inside it is also condensed. Meaning on the outside it looks very packed with a lot of people living together , and inside the space is limited for those people to live in.  As you can see many of the things are scrambled upon the place . Showing that as people they are Un tidy and careless. As well as this the circumstances are also shown in this , the size of the TV is considered to be very small in an average household. 

From this picture Mia's clothing , is a loose polo and jogging bottoms. In Britain today people who are associated with these clothes are called some thing like " chavs" .Which is a working/lower class look that youngsters have these days. And it is looked negatively upon because it is very cheap and a Un hear-ted approach of dress sense. Overall this gives Mia herself a very negative portrayal . Using this to show what British youngsters are like and dress like is a part of realism. And for fish tank using this is a great way of showing British social realism . I would definitely use this for a way to show what some working class and most lower class people have adapted to wearing.

The emblem on top of the television , is Football club West ham united . West ham are based in the east of London , east ham. Statistically that borough is the most poor in Britain. Therefore it then matches what Mia and her family are ; poor. As well as this west ham united are associated with a lot of violence. There fans who refer them selves to as irons , are extremely violent and run there own firm . Which they conduct violence with other clubs in the league which they play in. Overall the west ham connotation has a massive representation , because it matches what fish tank are actually portraying of Mia and her family itself. As they are violent as well as lower classed people. This is a great technique to use because people will automatically identify it as British , and use the stereo typical views they have on the club and associate it with the people who own the item. Which is most probably what the directors hoped had come out of this setting.

Music & Sound effects

Music is a very big factor in the film. One big song in the film is the song which Mia decided to dance to in her audition , "California Dreamin".  There is a connotation in the title aswell , mia has big hopes and ambitions from this audition. She therefore decided to use an inspirational track to maybe keep her on track and in fact keep her "dreamin". It is from the late 1960's , a singer called Bobby Womack was the owner of the song. He is known for sometimes mixing all genres in to one song.

Mia is dancing to an Ashanti song , who is mostly known for her Rn b and hip hop style of music. However she features with Ja rule . A rapper who has got involved in a lot of conflicts in his life , and mostly raps about violence. Therefore the music choice again was suitable in here as Mia can relate to the genre of the music.
Another rapper mentioned in the end which Mia discusses her fond of is , Nas. He is from the same hip hop and Rn b genre , however unlike ja rule, he raps about living life and the way of life mostly. Almost seen as inspirational. And one trait he has is to discuss what happens in the american culture and daily on goings , just like how film 4 are showing through fish tank what goes on in British culture in some areas. therefore i believe this artist and Mia's reference towards him is very significant and works very well as what Nas raps about is the wa Mia may inspire to live,.

Camera Work & editing 

The camera work in most film 4 films are very rough . And almost to make it look as if it is make shift. This is because they want people to feel more engaged because it seems more realistic with the way of editing and camera shots. Rather than having special effects every single shot. 

As you can see from this low shot of Connor it shows that Mia herself looks more powerful and he looks weak against her. 

The shots in the film do describe the relationships very well. And in the picture above the over the shoulder shot is showing that they are both in a conversation , on the same level. 

The use of shots and the quality of shots are extremely good for the type of film , it is not a product from the mainstream institution, therefore the only way film 4 can engage with their audience to make them film as if they are involved. Most of this is done by British social realism , which they can relate to but the shot in the film also give a great feeling of reality in the film as it is very makeshift and it looks how it would in real life. 

Dialogue 

Mia's use of dialogue and her family's are full of expletives. "Ring me back you bitch" , Mia had a rift with her friend , and she had called her. She was apologizing however in seriousness she used an expletive to adress her friend. This is saying the people are being shown as very low class people who have no manners or education as they would not be addressing people like that. Of course it is revealed Mia doesn't actually go to school at the moment and also rejects the chance for a new school. Her lack of education is possibly one reason in why her dialogue is of such a poor quality. This was at the beginning of the film , towards the end Mia was leaving for Wales . And she had bidden farewell to her sister however using the opposite of words. " i hate you" . She said it comfortingly , showing that her toughness ,as well as her stubbornness ; makes her avoid her true feelings. And the dialogue also gives us a better insight on Mia's character .Tyler and her mother also are people in the film who use many swear words. Tyler refers to her mother as a "bitch" and then calls Mia the same word out of anger. Again this shows how the characters , because for a child to be referring to adults like that is rude. And it is a lower class trait to be using words like them with your guardian. Overall the dialogue used in fish tank is spot on. It is of the urban era , therefore it identifies the characters , the swearing and rude manners is something that the British are known for. therefore the British social realism is effective as the dialogue matches the characters and there backgrounds.