The Typical Social Realism Genre Conventions Present in Fish Tank

Many social realism films hold different conventions, making them typical of their genre. In Fish Tank this is present in several different ways. In a short clip of the film, viewed in lesson, these genre conventions were clearly present on screen.  

The clip starts of with the protagonist, Mia, dancing in her kitchen to a music video on the television. As she is watching the video she is copying the moves and expressions of the woman on screen being shown as sexualised and provocative. This is a feature that happens more than once in the film when Mia is dancing or watching people dance. As this film is based in urban, working class environments, many of the representations of success and wealth are shown through the television and music videos. This causes Mia to aspire to be a dancer as she may feel it is her only way of becoming successful and getting away from the environment she seems to be stuck in.

Another convention which is extremely typical of this genre is the male character role. During the short clip of the film, Connor, the lead male character is introduced to Mia. As she is dancing in the kitchen she turns around and he is standing in the doorway watching her. He also compliments her on her dancing, to which she then responds in quite an aggressive and defensive manner, however when his back is turned to her, she begins to admire his body, looking him up and down as the camera shoots from her point of view to capture the sense of realism in the scene. It also becomes apparent, later on in the clip when Connor leaves the flat, as the calm between the characters suddenly turns into chaos 

Sci-fi Conventions Present in The Hunger Games

A narrative theme that appears in the sequence of The Hunger games is the anti establishment ideology. This is shown through the story behind The Hunger Games. It describes district 12 as one of many who tried to rebel against the authority and wealthy district. The underclass districts lost however, and the one power district remains to this day the establishment district. As punishment for rebelling, the poorer districts are forced to compete in The Hunger Games and fight to the death, This is showing them that they will never be in power and they are forever controlled by fear.

Another convention that appears in The Huger Games that also fits in with the sci-fi genre is the iconography of technology. Certain objects such as the train they travel on is clearly an example of the high end technology that the hierarchy have use of. This district also show clear iconography of their power through their extravagant clothes and make up. This contrasts with the iconography shown by district 12. This, and many of the other districts competing are shown a very poor and under established. There is no clear signs of any technology present, in fact, it is represented as it is from the past, as the children know how to hunt. This technology and contrast within the district is also shown when Katniss is being tested on in a lab. She is made to look almost like an experiment, showing where the power lies.

Noir Conventions present in "Drive"

In the 2011 film Drive, there are several different noir genre conventions present throughout. In the 20 minute clip we viewed in lesson, this is clear to the audience. As the clip begins, there is a conversation happening between Ryan Goslings character, Carey Mulligans character, her husband and their son. In this part of the scene, Ryan Goslings character has a flashback of himself, the husband and a man who seems to be a business partner of theirs. This in itself is a classic noir conventions as it shows part of the narrative as being non linear. When the scene switches back to the conversation between the four characters in their home, there is tense non diegetic sound playing over their conversation, even though it is a positive one. This shows the contrast and juxtaposition in the storyline, which is also a noir convention as it is showing that whatever is happening, something bad will soon follow or is already there in the background. 

After this scene the clip carries on to show Ryan Goslings character and the husband, along with a female who is also part of the job they are about to go through with. Again, there is tense non diegetic sound which helps control and influence the motions of the audience as well as foreshadowing the nature of this particular scene and the 'mission' they are on. As the male and female go into the pawn shop, Ryan Goslings character remains in the car and is in the drivers seat. Although the camera does not follow the two characters into the shop, it is clear that a robbery is taking place. As this is happening, the character follows a car into the car park where Ryan Goslings character is waiting. This is shown as threatening to not only the character but the audience as well, even though it is unknown what the other vehicle is there for. The camera begins to zoom on Ryan Goslings characters face, and the non diegetic sound begins to fade, turning to complete silence. 

Throughout this clip, low key shadowing is often used on many characters, especially Ryan Goslings, such as when he is in the car waiting for the arrival of the male and female characters and also at the start when he is in his friends home. This is a classic noir conventions as it indicates the personality of certain characters. For example, when Ryan Gosling is in the car waiting and the camera is shooting a close up of his face, there is a dark shadow on one side of his face, portraying two sides to his character, one being bad and the other being good. This could be to show that although he is prepared to be a criminal and do bad things for money, at the end of it all he is only doing it for one thing and that is for the love of a woman. This, along with the shadowing is another common convention in film noir. It is that every protagonist, whatever the narrative, will always risk himself for a woman and her wellbeing. 

Further on in the scene, after the robbery when the the female and Ryan Goslings character are in the hotel room together, another two conventions of film noir are used. As the female is in the bathroom, there is a clear shadow coming through the window an being shaped like venetian blinds. She then gets shots by a man through the window, who then continues into the hotel room and tries to kill Ryan Goslings character. From this it is clear that the narrative involves mistrust and paranoia as they have been found without knowing how. Mistrust and paranoia is also shown just before the woman is killed as she is found to be lying to Ryan Goslings character about what happened within the robbery, just before the male character who went in with her got shot and killed by the shop owner. 

After this scene, the clip goes on to show Ryan Gosling searching for the men the had crossed him over and caused the death of the male and female characters who committed the robbery. As he is on the way to a club to find them, which in itself in a film noir convention, shots of a dark, damp back alley and sidewalk are used which indicated yet another film noir convention.

From just a short clip of this film, it is clear that although this is not a film of the Noir genre, there are many conventions from the genre used to create the themes of this film