To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

Fish tank is of the social realism genre and contains typical conventions of this all the way through, to make the film seem more like reality. Viewers will be able to relate to issues within the film, but also they could see it as a form of escapism from there own problems. Some conventions of Social realism are unknown actors, no flashy editing, and a strong regional accent. In fish tank these are all obvious as it is set in essex the majority of the characters have a southern accent, also some of the actors are unknown and unprofessional e.g. Katie Jarvis was casted as Mia when she was spotted arguing with her boyfriend at a train station. By using an unknown actor it makes the film more realistic as they havent been previously seen in other films or television.

 In the opening sequence of Fish Tank the mise en scene creates a negative image of an Essex council estate, long shots are used to show the setting and also no non-diagetic sound or flashy editing has been used to make the scene more realistic. The characters seen are all wearing normal everyday clothes and it is obvious they are of the working class- you are able to tell this from the way they act as they swear and Mia starts a fight with a group of girls- which is unlikely to happen in a middle class area. They also have a strong regional Essex accent. Social realism texts are often based on working class families as these are the people who face a daily struggle with things such as money for example when Mia goes in the lake her mother complains that her tracksuit cost her £20.

In the film Mia aspires to be a dancer and the scene where she records her audition tape there are many conventions of social realism. Firstly it is being filmed/recorded on a hand held camera which she was given by Conor, By using a hand held camera it makes it look unprofessional as we see the actual footage from the camera. All the sound in this sequence is diagetic as you can hear Mia breathing heavily, and also  the music she is dancing to is from her headphones and has not been added on. This was filmed on location in an abandoned flat- most social realism films are not filmed in a studio.

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre?

Sin City is a post modern text as it is a hybrid genre which includes conventions of film noire, horror and comic book. By creating Sin city in this post modern form, it mixes genre conventions to create a new identity and broadening its audience by not just having it based on one genre which would exclude viewers who hold an oppositional reading of them. Including all three genres makes the film more appealing and all the conventions put together make it different to other horror or comic book style films.
 Film Noir is a genre which mainly describes hollywood crime drama's that can emphasise cynical attitudes and sexual motivation. Film Noir was discovered around the 1940's and 50's, this may be the reason why Sin City was made into a black and white movie, where colour has only been used for extra effect. The style of film noir is majorly influenced by social, political and economic problems of the twentieth century, Sin City......

Conventions of film noire include faces and reflections obscured through objects, jump cuts and jaring juxtaposition and is usually set in the wrong end of town.