FISH TANK Trailer Analysis

Rebecca Richards

Company credits Fish Tank is a 2009 British drama film directed by Andrea

Arnold. The film won the Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. It also won the 2010 BAFTA for Best British Film. It was filmed in the Mardyke Estate in Havering, the town of Tilbury, and the A13, and funded by BBC Films and the UK Film Council.

Production Companies BBC Films (presents) UK Film Council (presents) Limelight Communication (as Limelight) (in association with)

(presents) ContentFilm Kasander Film Company Distributors Artificial Eye (2009) (UK) (theatrical)

How is the genre of the film conveyed? The genre of a ‘British drama film’ is portrayed through its

use of music at the very beginning of the film, R’N’B music, this representing that of an urban setting and lifestyle which coincides with the setting and locations shown in the trailer which furthers this representation. The blue/ grey filtering that has been used within the trailer also connotes this lifestyle. It also matches with the blue text and title of ‘Fish Tank’ used.

What is the effect of the pace of editing?

The pace of editing is very quick and this suggests that the film provides a lot of action within it. This also coincides well with the genre and the lifestyle represented of urban Britain.

How has the trailer been structured? Structurally, how are temporal shifts denoted through use of

transitions?

The trailer has been structured in a chronological form,

What connotations does the use of colour/mise en scene have in the setting up the audience’s

expectations of the film?

What connotations do the use of camera shots and angles have?

When does the trailer convey institution information? (Production company, director, cast) What associations do these create?

What connotations does the film title’s typography create? When does the title appear?

The use of the colour blue, fits the meaning of the title ‘Fish Tank’. In which represents the way in which the world that the female protagonist, Mia lives in. She is within a fish tank in her world, one of many fishes, but a lonesome one at that. The transitions used are a fade from and to black, furthering this emphasis.

How has text been used to convey key points or create narrative

intrigue?