how typical are your chosen texts of their genre?

Social realism is the key genre represented in the film Fish tank. The Social realism genre aims to present the closest image of reality as possible to the audience, it contains generic conventions that audiences would expect and fain gratification from. Some conventions of social realism are the use of urban locations, unknown actors and working class characters. These conventions can be found in the opening scene of the film where Mia played by Katie Jarvis confronts her friend over the phone, her friends dad after she throws stones at his window, and a group of teenage girls when she criticises their dancing. Firstly Katie Jarvis has never acted before and was picked for the role of Mia when she was seen arguing at a train station- in the film she plays a character similar to herself which makes her acting and emotions more believable. Whilst she is looking out of the flat window the audience are able to see the location of where Mia is- as there are high rise blocks of flats all around her, also the diegetic sound of traffic shows that it is set in an urban area, which is typical of the social realism genre, this links to the class as it is filmed in Tilbury which is a deprived area of London and known for its high crime rate and anti social behaviour. Other ways in which the audience can see her class is through the clothes in which the characters are wearing, Mia is wearing a tracksuit and trainers and the other girls in the scene are wearing cheap-looking clothes. The language which Mia uses also reflects her social class as she has a common accent and she swears at least 5 times in the opening scene e.g. she leaves a voicemail on her friends phone saying "ring me back you bitch".

Even though Fish tank is of the Social realist genre, the genre can not be called typical as it adapts to social change in different films. An example of this is in the film "A taste of Honey" which was made in the 1960s. In Fish tank there is a sex scene between Mia and Connor where the audience can actually see the two having sex, in todays society this is much more accepted even though it may make the audience feel uncomfortable, however in A taste of Honey this is not seen at all and the audience only see the scene before and after, as this was not ever seen on screen in the 60s