Fish Tank Case Study

Themes and Situations

• Mia, who is the main character in the film is placed in certain situations such as sexual desire for her mums boyfriend. An example of this is the film is when she records Connor getting dressed and watches it back to herself when she's in bed. This represents female teenagers of being very sexual, which could be considered a stereotype of teenagers that they are very sexual. This is shown in many scenes of the film where Mia has feelings for Connor, for example she watches Connor and her mum have sexual intercourse. 
• Another theme displayed within this media text is a sense of escaping, escapism as Mia listens to the song California Dreaming a lot in the film, the film is called Fish Tank which the title itself connotes to us that Mia maybe trapped, in her life and in that estate, the closet she'll ever get to California is the wallpaper of the sunset and beach, also is her room she has sea shells and posters of the sea, this reinforces the dream of escaping. 

• Mia is also seen as being ambitious with pursing a dancing career, in the film she dances by herself in an empty room and she then admits a video of her dancing auditioning for a dance crew. 
• Another theme which is portrayed in the clip is abuse, mainly verbal abuse as the mum says to Mia she was going to have Mia aborted but she didn't and she wishes she did. There is also physical abuse as the mum pinches Mia, which could therefore result in bruises of Mia's arm you see clearly when they are fishing. 
• Crime and violence is also portrayed as Mia breaks into Connors house, she head butts the girl at the beginning f the film and she also kidnaps Keira. This reinforces the stereotype of teenagers as being violent and causing crime. 

Influence: Mia is seen in the film always going to that empty apartment, i could use this strategy because it means escaping, a place which she could be alone, 

Representation (Stereotypes) 

• Mia is represented as being rebellious as she doesn't listen to her mother and does what she pleases. For example in the film when her mother is calling her name to call her back to speak to the visitor, Mia runs off. This shows a typical stereotype of teenagers being rebellious and having bad attitude as she always swears at her mum her sister Tyler and Connor.
• The portration of single mums living in council estates and not having the ability to raise kids associates with dominant ideologies. The mum was seen as a drunk and incapable to look after her kids, her kids do not even go to school, which may be the reason why they are rude and lack manners.
• Men are also represented in this film as being sexually active as in the film we see various examples of men, males being involved in sexual activity such as whilst the mum was having a party and one man was seen doing something irrelevant to a woman in the kitchen and Connor who is an older man had intercourse with Mia who is a 15 year old girl so this is seen as being illegal. 

Influence: I could use the representation of teenagers to help for location in my film, in a social realism way. 

Mise-en-scene

• Due to the costumes we as an audience associate that with being rough and gritty, Mia always wore dark tracksuits and the same clothes all casual, no designer. This stereotypes a typical teenager, this is also could reflect her life dark and miserable.  
• The location of the film was set in local areas that people can associate with, such as Tilbury, the audience may feel related to the film and its easy recognition for the audience. 
• The council estate is a typical East London landmark as seen the film which reinforces the stereotype of single mums being incapable. The house was messy and untidy, dishes in the sink. 

Influence: The film had always portrayed teenagers as wearing dark costumes, I would use this strategy in my film to connote teenagers, in a British way. 

Music & Sound effects

• In the film diegetic music is played on an numerous amount of times, the music would be mainly rap music which would represent gritty life of the characters and regga was also used. This could also reflect the characters mood and feelings. One of the songs that Mia dances to is California dreaming, a British song 
• There would also be ambient sound in outdoor locations such as when Mia and Keira were by the beach.
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• Influence: The use of rap music in the film played often, I could use this strategy in my film to reflect characters feelings or life style.

Camera work and Editing 

• There were various editing techniques used in this film, such as close-up which is where you can see Mia's facial reactions, through her situations. There is also a eye line match where Mia looks at in a certain direction and sees the toys of Keira's. There is also rough hand held camera work for fast paced scenes which are in the film, such as Mia running after Keira. This reflects the ideologies of British films as they have low budgets. However in contrast to older British socialism films, the camerawork and editing is much much more neater and clearer but still has an rough edge and is unvarnished. 

Influence: I would use the rough held camera strategy to reflect a characters state of mind or to show British social realism films. 

Dialogue

• The dialogue between the characters consisted of swearing, every conversation held had swearing in it, such as 'cunt' 'bitch' 'fuckface'. Swearing was typically used and casually used they also use it in a funny way. In addition to that the characters use the strong aggressive words to portray their feelings and they may actually use it in nice way, Tyler says 'I hate you' to Mia, and then they hug, so the characters interpret the swearing and rude language to good and bad meanings. The representation of Mia is shown been an negative impression as she has a bad attitude and disrespects everyone. All the characters have strong heavy east  London accent.

 

Secondary Research

Institutional Background: 

• Production companies: BBC Films, UK Film Council, Limelight Communication.
• Funding came from BBC films and UK Film Council. 
• UK Film Council, are a private company and were set up by the labour government to help endorse the film industry. They distribute over 160 million from the lottery to the film industry, they provided this money for over 900 films.
• BBC Films have produced many successful films such as, An Education, Fish Tank, the also co produce with major international producers and they aim to co produce 8 1/2 films a year. 

Audience Breakdown 

• This film was aimed at the British audience and there was also many cultural references in the film. This film was screened in two scenes in America and made a total grossing $32,619 however in UK they had made £103,180 and this was in total of 47 screens. 

Marketing Strategy

• There were many posters produced for the film, an the film was also shown at Cannes festival and other festivals they had also had critic reviews on the posters, this therefore will be a seal of approval for the audience as the film has been judged by experts and as well as this more posters produce more word of mouth brings a wider audience. 
• As well as posters, Fish Tank received awards and nominations such as an BAFTA film award for best British film.