Social-realism in Fish Tank

How typical is your chosen text to its genre?

Fish Tank is typical of its genre, social realism, through the characters roles, narrative themes, technical codes, iconography and mise-en-scene. All of these features joined together communicate the narrative of the text.

Character roles:
The character roles in Fish Tank are typical of its genre to an extent. In social realism the protagonist is typically a working class hero, striving for an improved life and circumstance than the one they find themselves in at the beginning of the narrative. Mia does strive for a better life and to escape her mundane life, however she does not have the characteristics of a hero, as she uses violence and is involved with issues such as underage drinking and underage sex.
In the clip from the scene above, Mia watches a group of girls dancing and reacts negatively towards them.
Also in the scene, Mia's mum swears at her and uses violence, this is showing that Mia does not have a good role-model, and is part of a non-nuclear dysfunctional/broken family. After the confrontation with her mum, Mia goes to her room where photographs of her and Keeley (her friend) are shown, in addition to an "i love you" ornament. This shows that Mia's family was possibly once functional and happy. Critics often argue that females are represented in a negative light in the social realism genre, often dependent on men. Mia does not have a father-figure in her life until Connor is introduced.

Narrative themes:
The narrative of the text is fairly linear. It follows the life of Mia and all of her hardships and struggles. Social realism films typically follow the lives of niche under represented groups of people, including issues such as underclass, underage and depression. This aspect is clearly shown in Fish Tank, as Mia is striving for a better life, and is involved in issues such as underclass, underage drinking and paedophilia. Fish Tank constructs a negative representation of women, as Mia uses violence to solve problems, is involved in controversial underage issues, is naive when Connor is introduced, and then runs away from her problems, re-locating to Wales with Billy at the end of the narrative.

Technical codes:
Fish Tank uses common conventions of the social realism genre. This scene and the rest of the film contains non-diegetic sound, with no edited diegetic sound or special effects e.g. CGI animation. The hand held camera aspect is one of the most important technical codes in social realism. This affect gives the viewer a sense of realism and the thought that they are in the same position/location as the character(s). The shaky camera movements and point of view shots are paramount and the largest technical aspect from the genre. Close-up shots also emphasise Mia's emotion and allow the viewer of the text to relate to her more. The lighting is always natural, with this clip proving this, giving a sense of realism. In a previous scene, Mia is standing looking out at the urban environment horizon. A shallow depth of field is being used, with Mia in the foreground in focus and the background out of focus, showing that Mia does not belong in this location as she is separated from her environment via technical codes. The social realism genre contains a linear narrative, containing an equilibrium, a disruption to the equilibrium, conflict, a resolution and a new equilibrium. Fish Tank almost follows this narrative structure, constructed by Todorov. In the text we do not see an equilibrium at the beginning, however we do see photographs of Mia happy and an ornament reading "i love you", proving that her life has previously been happy, reaching an equilibrium until the events of the film including Connor unravel.

Iconography and mise-en-scene:
The main aspect of iconography and mise-en-scene in the text is the urban environment. The tower blocks and council estate suggests the genre of the text and the characters, as the text is based around the underclass. The many establishing shots automatically suggest this to the viewer, in addition to the graffiti in the area. Mia is involved with alcohol, which is shown in the above scene. Her sexual relations with Connor is also breaking the law, as she is 15 years-old. Mia's fashion further establishes the genre and location, as she is wearing a grey tracksuit with hooped earrings and trainers in the above clip. During Mia's dance scene (shown above) the hip-hop music further establishes the genre, contributing to the mise-en-scene of the location.