How typical is your chosen text to its genre?
The chosen text is the 2009 social realism film 'Fish Tank' directed by Andrea Arnold. It gives an insight into what life is like for a dysfunctional family in Essex by using social realism conventions such as natural lighting and unknown actors.
The use of hand held camera shots create a social realism convention. The shots that the camera captures are somewhat jumpy and follow the on-screen action directly. It creates the sense of physically being alongside the characters and it gives the audience the ability to empathise more as they can to see and feel what the characters see and feel. This is typical to the genre because social realism films aim to force the audience to empathise with a usually under represented group of people. The hand held camera shots follow the gaze of the protagonist Mia, and as her head tilts or her eyes wander the camera follows this movement too. After she has met Conor portrayed by Michael Fassbender, she watches him walk up the stairs. Her eyes tilt upwards to follow Conor up the stairs, and so the camera tilts upwards and follows the movement of climbing the stairs. The camera then slowly pans down to Conor's feet and then the shot cuts back to Mia. This camera movement represents Mia's gaze and again allows the audience to really experience what Mia is experiencing. This is again typical as the audience can empathise with her.
Another typical convention of social realism is the aspiration to lead a better life. Mia believes the way to achieve this is by becoming a dancer, especially in music videos. In this particular clip while in the kitchen, Mia gazes adoringly at the TV and after a while begins copying the dancers in the video and she starts moving along to the music. This shows the audience she is unhappy with her lifestyle and desperate for a new life and better future. The music video portrays wealth and luxury, and this is ultimately what Mia wants. This is thought provoking and upsetting for the audience as it becomes apparent she has little or no money or luxuries in life, which represents the so-called under class.
- Your introduction is concise yet informative, it gives a good first impression of your answer. You could add any themes that you can apply to your answer, such as uses and gratifications.
ReplyDelete- Each point you make is clear and you follow the answer structure of PEE and you have a good use of media terminology!
- You repeatedly link your answer back to the question by saying things like "typical of the genre"!
- Your explanations are really strong and you offer multiple meanings, you could talk about the type of audience that is targeted.
- Your narrative examples are really detailed and specific so the reader can clearly understand what is happening within the scene before you talk about the genre features.