Media

‘Fish Tank’ trailer analysis

Shot types and camera

movement• Establishing shot of the ‘gritty’

council estate, which allows the

audience familiarise with the

setting.

• The audience are then shown

the protagonist, Mia looking over

the estate she lives in. It looks as if

she’s evaluating the life she lives.

• The trailer consists mainly of

scenes within the council estate

which suggests a lack of future

direction and being trapped.

• Tracking shots are also used to allow

the audience to follow her on her

journey and also remind the audience

to feel like Mia is being watched twenty

four-seven.

Mis-en-scene• Most of the characters are wearing

track suits, trainers to fit to that

stereotype of a ‘chav’ which is

associated with the British Realism

genre.

• One of the only times Mia is

away from the council estate is

when she’s near a stream, this

gives the audience a sense of

escapism, like a fish trying to

escape from its fish tank hence

the name.

•Materially deprived working class, from

their inadequate housing, in addition to

their income. They hardly have any

basic resources for their household.

Sound• Non- diegetic is played at the

beginning of the trailer; fast pace

RnB music which corresponds

well to the genre of the film as it is

a social realism. To add, the

genre of is linked to gang culture.

•To add, the genre of is linked to gang

culture giving the outlook of the film

uninviting from the start.

•At the end of the film, we are shown

Mia looking tired, exhausted and

determined with corresponding loud

audible ‘bang’ which makes the

audience want to know what will

happen to her next and therefore want

to go and watch the film in the cinema.

Editing•Throughout the trailer the pace

of the editing gets faster and

faster due to the action. Towards

the end of the frailer Mia is

kidnapped and put in a van with

various camera shots and cuts in

between, this shows the audience

that she’s scared for her life in

addition to building suspense for

the audience’s own thrill.

•Shot –reverse -shot, over the shoulder

shot, point of view allow the audience to

show the audience the relationships the

protagonist has with her family and also

follow her on her journey.

•The continuous blackouts at the end of

the trailer connote the phrase ‘my life

flashed before my eyes’ showing most

of the recent events in Mia’s life which

suggest an unhappy ending, in most

British social realisms.

Narrative theoriesTodorov’s theory of equilibrium

Young teenage girls lives in

a council estate with her

mother, sister and pet dog

alongside practising how to

dance.Mia develops a very strong

relationship with her

mother’s boyfriend.

Mia then decides to run

away with her friend

Billy.

She then moves away with

Billy, to Cardiff.

Narrative theoriesPropp’stheory

The villain – Mia’s mother

The donor/the helper/ the dispatcher - Billy

The hero/the princess - Mia

The false hero – Conner

Narrative theoriesLevi- Strauss’ theory

Narrative theoriesBarthes’ theory

Action codes:

• Mia gets kidnapped

•Mia gets involved with her mother’s boyfriend

•When Mia throws a stone at someone’s window

Enigma codes:

•Why is the protagonist running?

•What do the kidnappers want from her?

•What happened to her and her mother’s relationship?

•When she’s talking on the phone to a ‘Keeley’ who is

Keeley?

•Signifier – a chained up horse

•Signified - chained down like she is in

society•Sign – she can not escape due to poverty

Semoiology: