Fish Tank Genre

How typical is your chosen text to its genre?

Fish Tank is typical to the social realist genre and displays a realistic, hard look at contemporary Britain. The film is typical to the genre as we see typical conventions belonging to the genre of social realism. The conventions could be categorised by; character roles, narrative themes, technical conventions and miss en scene/iconography. A common narrative theme is a representation of the under class life and their desires to create a better life for themselves. This is evident in the narrative when Mia breaks into an empty flat to practice her dance. We see her force to door open and close it behind her before she puts her belongings down, switches on the CD player and practice her routine. We see that her dream is to dance and by dancing she can get herself out of the run down environment that she's lives in. She has to practice behind closed doors as dancing is usually seen as a feminine quality and she is only good at being masculine. This is very typical to the social realist genre as she see's that her own ambitions can get herself out of a bad situation, which in this case is her environment. The shallow depth of field and use of natural lighting in the tower block is also a typical genre convention. This is evidenced in the narrative when she breaks into the flat and stares out the window and we see a long shot at her mother crossing the road in the area they live in. By looking out the window it gives the audience an indication to her surroundings and by using a shallow depth of field it allows us to see things as Mia would, allowing the audience to empathise with her. This is almost like the human eye as when we look at things far away, the closer things are in focus rather than blurred. The medium reflects the films concept of representing the lives of people going through hardship and by looking out of the window into the distance it almost mirrors the title and could have connotations of the 'fish tank' that she is trapped in. The typical protagonist in social realist films are usually a working class hero that strives for an improved life than the circumstance they find themselves in at the beginning of the narrative. Mia doesn't typically fit into this role.

The Hunger Games

The hunger games contains typical and re-occuring conventions from the Sci-Fi genre. The genre conventions could be categorised into themes such as character roles, technical conventions, narrative themes and iconography/mise en scene. This makes the narrative typical to the genre in many ways. There is as anti establishment ideology theme present in the Hunger Games and this is usually projected through a polysemic narrative device. This is evident in the narrative when the tributes are being chosen and we discover that the districts are ruled over by the government (or the capital) and the annual hunger games are a way of punishing the people as an act of rebellion against them. It is explained that the districts rebelled against being controlled and being left in poverty when the capital has all of the wealth and was flaunting this when people like Katniss are left to hunt their food to provide for their family. This is a typical Sci-Fi convention as usually there is someone in position of power and therefore reflects a hegemonic society. A technical convention which frequently occurs in the Sci-Fi genre is the use of advanced technology. A particular example of this is when Primrose goes to get her blood taken and advanced scanners are used and when we see the tributes lying in the laboratory.

What noir conventions are present in the film 'Drive'?

Technical Conventions- We see a series of technical conventions in the short clip that help us to establish that Drive is of the film noir genre. We see that shadows are cast on many of the characters to show a contrast, this is done by low key lighting and shadows which are cast by venetian blinds. This is evidenced in Drive when Ryan Gosling (the main protagonist) is sat round the table and also later on when the female gets shot and Ryan creeps in and out of the bathroom, between both the shadows in the darkness and light creeping through the windows. This is a classic Noir convention and because he is half covered by shadow we begin to question if he is good or evil. It makes the audience question his character and makes us feel uncertain about him. The darkness displays the bad acts he is committing which in this case is shooting and killing and the light shows how he is doing the actions with good intentions. 

Character Roles- The character roles also fit the typical character roles of the film noir genre. We see corruption, Femme Fatales and Cynical Protagonists. Ryan is the cynical protagonist and this is evidenced in the narrative when he doesn't accept money from the man and is willing to put himself in danger in order to make sure the woman is protected and safe. He is willing to sacrifice his wellbeing to make sure the woman lives showing how selfless he is, this is evidenced in the text when he kills the man in the lift to make sure she isn't hurt, he then lets her escape, showing his willingness to go to any length to safe guard her. This is typical of a noir protagonist as they are selfless and sometimes lonely. They usually have a femme fatale to protect and are dragged into dangerous situations. They are usually mentally damaged or have some kind of deflect from their past experiences. It could be argues that Ryan's is his mental state as all the time we see the same facial expression, he tends to show no emotion and gives off the impression to the audience that he is depressed. 

Mise En Scene/Iconography- In various parts of the narrative we see different icons associated with the film noir genre.