Right from the beginning of the film, the audience
learns who funded the film, who the producers are and if there are any other
sponsors. These are all presented to us from the company logos. As for the film
‘Fish Tank’, before the film starts and from the credits at the end we can see
that the producers of the film are the UK Film council, Limelight
Communication, Kontent Film who is also in association with Limelight and
Kassander Film company. The director and writer of Fish Tank is coincidentally
the same person who directed and wrote the short film ‘Wasp’; Andrea Arnold.
However this is to be expected as both films share many similarities between
the two. The protagonists in both the films experience the same poverty ridden
lifestyles from what we gather of how they live in a first would country, the
behaviour that both of them exhibit is shunned upon in our society but the
same. However both of their situations are fairly opposite but also similar in
a sense where they are both involved in romance but a certain impetus conflicts
The setting where most of the film is shot and set is
filmed in a sub urban area which incorporates many rural buildings and estate
flats. From the establishing shot of where the protagonist Mia
lives, the audience gathers information about the narrative of the film
which we can tell that the plot is going to revolve around the troubled youth
and teenage delinquents of today’s modern society and suggests the low quality
of life the protagonist experiences throughout her life. From what the audience
gathers, the residents living in the estate exhibit rebellious behaviour such
as drinking alcohol without much clothing on and playing loud negative urban
music which further enhances what state of mind Mia and her neighbours/friends
have; the tattoos on some of the other cast also highlights the how rough the
society she lives in. This is an effective way of providing hints to the
audience as to what’s going to happen later on in the film thus also
foreshadowing future evets which suggests she is going to have a discouraging
future ahead of her. The desaturated colours of the environment and flats shows
that where the protagonist lives is a filthy environment that only the minority
of less fortunate people live in which indicates what kind of experience the
audience will get from watching the film, Fish Tank. From this, the audience
can figure out what type of genre this film leads into; which is social
realism.
Cinematography techniques are astounding to indulge
the audience into feeling like they are there with Mia on her journey. The
handheld camera is used to try and make this effective as possible, for example
when she is walking somewhere or if the camera is mainly focused on her at
times this camera technique is used to feel like the audience is there with
her. Such as seen in the beginning of the film from the start after the title
sequences up until the end, the handheld camera is always being predominantly
used for the realistic effect. Her general mood and situation gives the
audience a feeling as to feel like she’s in prison, which is also backed up by
the camera shot of the horse through the gate; resembling a animal in a cage.
As for the mise en scene, In a few scenes throughout
the film, a grey horse is seen locked up in an abandoned site that’s now run by
thieves. Mia tries countless times to free the horse from captivity, but fails
to do so. There is great symbolism here as what Mia is wearing when she first
goes there, her clothes are the same colour as the horses skin, grey. I
believe that she keeps trying to free this horse because she doesn’t want the
horse to go through what she is currently experiencing, thus the colour scheme
of her tracksuit matches the horse which symbolises that they are the same,
just different circumstances. This is also another technical code that’s
similar to the same technical codes Arnold used in her short film Wasp. As
mentioned before, the insects are compared with the children to make it seem
like they’re in the same situation or practically the same status.
The film focuses a lot on the protagonist’s individual
lifestyle; I feel that the director Andrea Arnold was trying to convey a
message through the technical codes that she employs. For instance the extreme
long shot where Mia was sitting down in the middle of an open field with her
head on her arms in a childlike position where one would seem troubled suggests
that she is lonely and on her own, how no one is going to help her and she’s
struggling all by herself in order to try and have a glim of light to act as a
sign of hope for her future. The lighting especially signifies how lost and
lonely she is due to the use of dark lighting with the addition of the sky
being abnormally more pitch black than a usual sky, due to editing techniques,
she is trying to put more emphasis on the characters loneliness. These codes
are there to create meaning in the moving images of the film, which are used a
lot in the short film Wasp. Such as when the protagonist of the film’s children
have nothing to eat and therefore have to gather left over food that has been
thrown away on the streets, then the film transitions to bugs feeding off of
the food as well clearly implies that the children and the insects are treated
the same way, where the director tries to show how similar these poor children
are compared to insects. This is how this scene creates meaning through the
visual aspects.
We often see Mia dancing around in an empty room by
herself that looks like it hasn’t been rented in a long time, presumably a
vacant place where homeless people sometimes sleep judging by the worn
mattresses placed next to a radiator. The first time we see this place, the
lighting used is significantly dark so the director uses low-key lighting to
generate an understanding of how she feels each time she goes there and
back. As she keeps going back throughout the film, she dances there which gives
us the idea that this is the only place where the protagonist can seek
happiness. The lighting changes during these scenes over time as the brightness
of the lighting goes up, this suggets that her mood heightens as she becomes
enlightened each time she is there.
Overall the film’s narrative is told In an order of
how Mia is going through times of hardship and how she tries to live a better
life through the means of a potential lover but also a fatherly figure at the
same time. The film tells the audience how she would deal with these aspects,
considering her status in society. I like how the film is directed and shot,
especially the use of the handheld camera to make us feel like we are there,
however I would of preferred the use of the point of view camera in certain
scenes to add to the realistic aspect of the film to generate a more practical
approach of the audience being fully involved to get a better understanding of
how Mia feels throughout the film.
No comments:
Post a Comment