Fish Tank Case Study

Themes and Situations

In the film Fish Tank we are shown the themes of drugs, alcohol, sex, violence and slight child abuse. These themes are portrayed to us through the characters shown in the film. They all have a specific attitude and personality which help reflects these themes in a realistic way. Each character is used to show a specific theme for example both daughters are shown with alcohol a lot and drugs and the mother is shown a lot in a sexual way shown in a lot of sexual scenes. Violence again is shown through the daughters and slight child abuse with the mother and the eldest daughter. Some of the main situations shown are under aged sex, affairs, relationship problems etc. The film being a British social realism film is captures the true struggles people face and doesn't lighten them up so it doesn't seem as bad, it keeps it as close to as what really happens as possible. For example the run down estate scene where shown truly capturing every aspect without changing it from the broken up walls and stairs to the tight space and wore out furniture.

Representations

In Fish Tank the representations are clearly shown to us through the characters and certain stereotypes. The main stereotypes shown in the film are due to influence of violence, drugs and alcohol.

Eldest Daughter: is shown as one of the strongest characters who goes through the most in the film, she is portrayed to us as a strong female who doesn't really rely on anyone else but herself. Throughout she is faced with many problems but doesn't really break down as much till the end where she is shown to have broken in to someones house and doing bad things in there. She is represented as a teenage misfit, who causes trouble and doesn't want to obey the rules.

Younger Daughter: is shown to be quite similar to her older sister but also is shown to be way ahead of her time engaging in smoking and drinking alcohol. She is shown to be very rude using a lot of curse words very regularly without any reason too. Also treating her elders with little respect.

Mother: The mother is also shown not to be a good mother not giving her children the time of day and love that they should get, she is mainly seen happy with the male character and it's shown to us she rely's heavily on him because later on when he leaves she breaks down crying. 

Male character: He is represented as the peacemaker not looking to make any trouble but only help the family, he takes them out and lets them bond together a lot as a family bringing them closer together. But after developing feelings for a 15 year old girl he leaves. He is shown as the uncommitted type and a stereotypical male because we find out he has a wife and child. 

Mise-En-Scene

The mise-en-scene in this film is all based on local areas and the places shown are re-occurring a lot. For example we see a lot of the flat they live in the surrounding areas and some local places around. What is shown to us a lot on camera are the cheap furniture and appliances, alcohol and drugs. The area it is based in is Barking which is known as a run down area where the atmosphere is very dark which links in with the film because the film has some dark aspects to it. When it comes to costume it's nothing fancy due to the area they are in and the amount of money they have. What we usually see are tracksuits with the two daughters and with the mum more feminine revealing clothing. The mise-en-scene used is very typical because it shows the real conditions people live in and what they have and make do with. 

Music and sound effects:

There are hardly any sound effects used but there are loads of music used and the music that was used where songs that were hits in the time this film was aimed at. All the songs were hip-hop/urban/r'n'b based which helps show what type of people they are listening for it or what was current of popular at the time. The songs that were being played, some of the songs related to love a lot showing what was maybe on some of the characters minds but this helps to show British social realism because its what stereotypical teenagers at the time listened to and what they where into. But also some of the songs were quite rough and some of the lyrics talked about the struggle life brings connecting to the characters life giving them something to relate too.

Camera Work and Editing

The camera work and editing used was very simple throughout, because the film had a low budget most of the camera work done was probably hand held or done on a tripod. Also due to the small space they had to film they wouldn't really be able to fit in a lot of cameras or technical equipment in the space anyway.  Simple shots where used such as mid shots, two shots, long shots and close ups. A lot of fast past editing was used in scene were tension was building up or when she was in trouble. The unsteady editing helped add an effect to the film helping to show the edge of things. Editing was used to a minimum with mainly cuts and a few dissolves to end certain scenes. Having a lot of effects/editing would take away from the film and make it seem happier than what it already is.

Dialogue

The dialogue used in this film was stereotypical, form the accent to the words they were actually saying. But it was also shocking because the rude language that you would expect from teenagers was shown through younger children showing you the influence adults have on them being able to pick up on such foul language and using it at such a young age. Words such as "Fuck", "Cunt", "Slag", "Bastard" etc. was used from adults, teenagers and children in the film. A lack of respect is shown when they speak because they talk to adults like they are children but then again the adults don't show them any respect and treat them badly using foul language whilst talking to them like it's nothing.

Secondary Research

The film was directed by Andrea Arnold, the film had the UK film council, limelight communication and kasender film company. 

The film was mainly aimed at teenagers, but being an independent film it was aimed towards a niche audience and teenagers don't usually fit into that niche category, they fit into a mainstream category usually. The audience for this was people who could typically relate to the film because why would someone who has a good life and lives in good conditions want to go watch a film like Fish Tank which has no relevance at all to them. Although it shows good British social realism throughout the film the audience it's targeted at is niche and with a niche audience its always hard to make money of them, because they are so little.

The film having a very low budget had to stick to low budget marketing which included mainly posters and trailers but which where only shown online not on television. The film was shown at film festivals, getting it out there also helping to spread it through word of mouth. The film was only shown in selected cinemas making it harder for people who wanted to watch and making them have to travel more which puts the niche audience off.