social realism.

Fish tank is a 2009 british social realist film writen and directed by Andrea Arnold. the film adheres to the social realist genre in a number of ways. in the section of the narrative where we see Mia in bed and her mum shouting her we get a close up of her asleep and as her mum enters the room the film cuts to an over shoulder shot for us to see what she does; this being a technical convention of socialrealism. there is also a close  up shot of a cd cover which reads 'An England Story' which adds a sense of realism as we see what music she listens too and also a glimpse at her situation and struggle. the film then cuts to her walking down the stairs where she talks to the social worker who wants to get her into a special school; her mum also wants her to go but doesnt adress the matter lightly and she ends up making sarcastic remarks to mia. this shows us that the family is dysfunctional, also when the worker asks about another daughter there is no mention of a father telling the audience that it is also a broken home. at the point where mia runs out the door we then see the movement from the camera as it follows her; the hand held camera effect allows the veiwer to empathisewith mia and feel more part of the situation as the camera acts as our eyes when filming her in shallow focus and mia's eyes when we get a close up pov shot of whatever she is looking at. for example in the narrative when she looks at the window to read something, the film instantly cuts to a pov close up of the dance audition flyer which she is reading. the lighting in the shot is plain and natural, and not overly lit; doing this, the film conforms to yet more convention.

hunger games

Sci-fi conventions in the hunger games.

the narrative theme of anti establishment is present in the hunger games. this is seen in a particular scene   where the people are walkking to sign in to be pick for the games. we have mid shots and log shots of them walking in the masses. the birds eye shot shows the muddy floor giving the impression that it is not a nice place to live. this is then back by the low angle shots of the guards who are stood on platforms above the rest of them. the fact they are being herded tells the audience that there is this anti establishment ideology, as the government is clearly heartless and abuses their power. it is a polysemic text controlling the mass via the media.

as they approach the sign in dest we have an over shoulder shot of the small girl who is probed by some sort of tazar that has a unrealistic sound ,which is a technical convention seen in sci-fi, that possibly has been edited in to sound diegetic. the girl then draws blood and they force her finger on the page leaving a print. the officer then uses some sort of futuristic scanner that registers the blood. this iconography is strongly used throughout many sci-fi films.

Drive and Noir

in the clip show we see driver sat round his friend standards dinner table with his wife irene and son. immediately we see low key lighting and shadows across drivers face in a slight low angle shot. it then cuts to a mid shot of irene with half her face in shadow. it is key that we see driver like this as it tells us that he is the protagonist but also does bad things. standard is telling the story of how he met his wife to his son, all the time we hear a non diegetic sinister score which builds tension and adds an uneasy feel to the scene. the next convention we see is the femme fatale Blanch as she is introduced with "she is beautiful" by the character Cook. we then get a mid shot of her sat down smoking a cigarette, typical noir mise en scene. also she has red hair and red lips; this shows her as very seductive and also dangerous. as the robbery is about to take place we see Standard walk past the side of the building to the door of the pawn shop, this is done with a long tracking shot of him passing the windows where neon signs can be seen; this being another convention. when the camera cuts back to Driver in the car we then get a shot reverse shot of a car entering and parking near by.  when it cuts back to the mid shot of driver he begins to look nervouse. at this point the music begins to fade, once again creating unease and we see that driver is looking over at the car now with a sense of paranoia.

    After the robbery and standard being shot , driver and blanch are in a very dimly lit motel room. the narrative shifts to mistrust and paranoia when driver see on the news that the owner of the store said that standard had acted alone and there was no money taken. he realises that blanch is working for someone else. the camera stays level with blanch as driver stands up tightening his fists. theres a cut to a high angle over shoulder shot when driver hits blanch and jumps on top  of her. we now see the dark side to driver, like in noir where the protagonist does bad things, driver threatens her by holding her down by the throat and raising his hand to her. it is now apparent that blanch had used him and knew that standard was going to die, although she did not sleep with either of them. As blanch enters the bathroom to make a phone call there is a long shot of her from behind allowing us to see the shadows/ light coming through the venetian blinds; again adhering to noir.