Fish Tank Analysis.

Themes and Situations

• Drug and alcohol abuse.
• The mother and both the girls in the household drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes and other substances.
• Isolation of the girl
• Struggles of teenagers
• Young girl with an ambition 
• Bad influence of family and the society
• Violence
• The main character is a very tough feisty girl. An example of this is when she hits one of the girls dancing in the beginning of the film.

 Representation (stereotypes and archetypes)

• The film is based on a young teenage girl who acts in a rebellious way, and doesn’t have any interaction with her family or friends. This keeps to the conventions of a BSR very well as many other BSR films include the same content.
• The mother in the film being shown as very weak as she is a single parent who doesn’t build a good relationship with her daughters and neglects her children. This is a typical representation of a BSR film as this shows why the main character acts the way she does.

Mise-en-Scene

• Council flats/estate buildings. This is a very typical convention of a BSR films as the characters shown in these films are generally poor, showing their living conditions through an unvarnished picture.
•  The use of props such as a cigarette, her Walkman etc. The Walkman shows that although it is not very expensive, she keeps it with her all the time as she listens to music to escape her problems and practise her dance on the terrace.
• The costume of the main character of joggers and a hoodie and big hoop earrings which she wears throughout the film. This shows how she is supposed to be a typical British teenager and also fits under the stereotypical image of a “chav”.

Music and Sound affects

• The ambient sound in the film allows you to hear background sounds such as the wind, shouting, and other background sounds.
• The soundtrack ‘California Dreamin’ is used in the film which was sang by a British band called ‘The Mamas & the Papas’ who were very popular.
• They use sound perspective in the end of the film when the girl gets into the car and leaves her sister behind. The effect of the voice getting quieter shows she is distancing herself from her sister and this emphasises the content of BSR films focusing on sad situations rather than making films for entertainment.

Camera Work and Editing

• High angle shot looking down on the girl, making her look weaker. Often in BSR films we are invited to feel sympathy for these characters because we see how they are struggling.
• Jump cuts are consistently used throughout the films when the scenes show the girl being in 1 place and then in another immediately after.
• Some of the shots are almost 20 seconds long without any cut or edit which shows how BSR films have less skills in editing  and these longer scenes are more effective.

Dialogue

• The mode of address is very direct and cockney in the film.
• The younger daughter calls her mum a “tram” and a “bitch”. This is very typical in a BSR film because the parents don’t tend to have good relationships with their children.
• Throughout the whole film, all the characters are swearing at each other  which fits the convention of BSR films as their purpose is to show how some people actually behave and the conditions they live in.