Fish Tank Analysis

Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold, a UK director, in 2009, follows the story of a troubled teenager, protagonist, Mia (Katie Jarvis) who seems to be struggling to survive in a world where it seems that she has no one but herself. 

The title of the film came from Arnold creating and bringing to life the sense that there is often a lot of life within a fish tank despite it being such a small space. The opening scene of the film is a room that Mia breaks in to and does what she feels best doing, break dancing. The room she dances in looks to a view which may be a metaphor for Mia as she has so much potential and life that she has yet not discovered, much like a fish in a fish tank.The macro-features of Fish Tank is shown through the genre of the film which is Drama/Social Realism; Fish Tank focuses on giving its audience a true indication of what life is like for the characters within the film, it does this by exploring the different themes of crime, which is shown by a number of things such as underage drinking and smoking, underage sex, adultery and child abduction.

Cinematography is used to show the scenery, revealing reactions and emotions of characters and narrative views to piece a story together.
The shot taken from behind Mia shows she is looking towards her future and foreshadows her leaving and going to explore the world, leaving her “fish tank”.
We can also see through this shot of Mia’s body language rather slouched revealing from the very beginning that the protagonist of the film is Mia and her mood will be the mood of the film throughout. This shot also suggests to the audience that this film could be about her or based on her life.
The use of two long establishing shots also suggests her character to the audience implying that she is a big character to the film.
The movement of the pan is hand-held, giving a sense of realism to the shot and allowing the audience feel like they are there with Mia.
In all shots of the opening sequence, the angle of the camera is the same level as Mia, possibly signifying to the audience that Mia is on the same level as everybody else, and her stereotypical “Chav” attitude does not make her any higher or lower than anybody in terms of feelings.
The landscape shot taken of the surrounding is an establishing shot. This effectively shows the audience the location of which the film is set. This is an effective shot as it shows the urbanised area within which Mia lives in.
Furthermore showing the contrasting visual imagery of binary opposites by showing the natural scene in the foreground and the urban location in the background.

The shot where Mia is in the car with the diegetic sound of California Dreams plays in Connors car while driving is very effective and visually appealing as it is a close up of Mia. The entire shot is blurry which conveys the mental state of Mia effectively. The blurred shot represents Mia’s confusion as to which path she should take in life. The blurred trees behind Mia represent the distance between herself and her primal roots.

From the beginning of the film, the audience can only hear diegetic sound. The opening sequence which starts with the title ‘Fish Tank’ is accompanied with the sound of Mia’s heavy breathing and a far away background noise, of which seems to be busy roads suggesting the typical urban area. This raises the enigma code for the audience as it raises the question of why Mia is out of breath. The sound of Mia’s heavy breathing while the film title is being shown, shows to the audience that the film may be full of tension and a sense of frustration, giving the film a different edge. This is similar to film ‘Wasp’ also directed by Andrea Arnold, as the opening scene is of the diegetic sound of violent footsteps of bare feet, raising the questions to the audience of why the woman, who is shown bare foot which may signify that she is the protagonist of the film, is walking so angrily. The hand held pan creates a sense of realism and makes the audience feel as if they are walking with her. Similarly to ‘Fish Tank’ where Mia’s footsteps are heard by the audience on the balcony, again making the audience feel like they are with Mia. A diegetic sound of a man shouting “What’s going on?” in an aggressive tone is heard, just like in ‘Wasps’ where a scene of violent shouting and a fight occurs, which matches the location in both films of a busy, rough and urban area, where violence may be the norm.