Scene Analysis of Fish Tank

The first scene which I will be analysing consists of Mia taking Keira (Connor's daughter) from their street and chasing her to the water's edge of a large patch of greenery near Connor's house.
This scene supports and upholds the traditional conventions of a social realist genre. Plenty of drama, for example the scene where Keira is pushed into the Sea by Mia, and takes a significant amount of time to return to the surface, reinforce these conventions. This part of the scene is made extremely realistic due to the hand-held camera techniques used (also an extremely common convention of this genre) which leads the audience the believe that this situation could potentially be a realistic occurrence. Other conventions supporting this genre (which are evident in this scene) include diegetic sound, plenty of which is used in this scene. Examples of this sort of sound include the crashing of the waves of the sea (which also becomes a substantial part of the scene), the sound of the wind (which is a traditionally found in the location of this film, making the scene even more relatable and realistic) and the words spoken by the characters.

Propp's Narrative theory comes into play with this scene, with the small child (Keira) dressed in a princess outfit (a pale dress; representing the innocence and naivety of the child due to her age), with an extremely sparkly shawl and hair clip. This automatically presents her as the princess, and Mia as the villain, due to the circumstances of this particular scene, in which she is taking her from her father. By wearing black, Mia is automatically assumed to be the villain in this situation. Although this is how Mia is represented in this particular scene, it may not be the case in relation to the film as a whole. Traditionally, the Princess is supposed to be saved by the hero, however in Fish Tank, this is not the case. The princess is put into danger by, and saved by the villain.

In most situations, the villain is very commonly represented as a strong male, however this scene represents this character role as a female, with the same qualities and features of a male. Examples of these features include a strong accent, deep voice, the clothes worn by Mia (tracksuit and trainers) and her lack of make-up and hair scraped back: lack of effort, often associated with male traits.