Fish Tank - Everyone's favourite social realist film

The first convention that is typical of the social realism genre are the character roles we're exposed to in Andrea Arnold's 'Fish Tank' Mia, much like most working class protagonists, is working towards the goal of an improved life. She's been stuck with difficult circumstances through the situation she was born in to, their dysfunctional family constantly at conflict. The final scene where they're all dancing is one of the rare moments in the text they're all at peace with each other. Another factor is the area she's grown up in. In our scene in particular, she drives off into the sunset with the hope of bettering herself, and changing her life for the better.

The technological conventions may be the most typical of the genre in this text. The Point of view camera shots add to the realism of the text and the handheld camera's and the editing used is designed to make the audience feel as if they are part of the film. They use a POV shot in the final scene when Mia drives off, and looks back to see her sister chasing the car. As the text focuses so heavily on Mia, the shot turns to a POV when she looks back to see her sister. Also the common use of natural lighting that is anything from direct sunlight to the glow of the TV exaggerates the realism aspects of the text.

Typical mise-en-scene and other iconography appear frequently throughout the ending sequence of the film also. The unvarnished locations continue the theme of typical conventions, as the director tries their best not to glamourise any of the locations. For example, the inside of Mia's family's flat is incredibly bare, except for a TV and a couch. The characters also wear very normal clothing for a social realism film, showing their slightly poorer backgrounds, in the final scene this is verified through Mia's mother in her dressing gown, and Mia in a plain black hoodie, tracksuit bottoms and hoop earrings. They also use only diegetic sound throughout, to stress the normality...