Textual Analysis of Fish Tank

The first scene starts with a simple black and white title saying ‘Fish Tank’ and non-diegetic sound of someone breathing heavily, this is followed by a long shot of the female character, Mia, bending over whilst catching her breath. She then stands up straight and is wearing grey tracksuit bottoms and a tank top which gives off the impression, along with the heavy breathing, that she has been doing some form of exercise. Mia then moves towards the window to make a phone call and you can hear the edited diegetic sound of her dialling numbers. She is difficult to make out when she is stood by the window because the natural lighting from outside makes her look like a silhouette. From the view out of the window, it is possible to tell that she is overlooking a large town and is situated in a council estate.  There is then a diegetic conversation of her on phone, Mia’s character is made clear at this point because of her strong Essex accent and the rude language she uses. She seems like the stereotypical ‘chav’ because of her scraped back hair, large hoop earrings, tracksuits, accent and language, using words such as ‘bitch’.

There is then a tracking shot of her walking outside, she storms towards a building, picks up gravel and begins to throw it at a window.  The next part of dialogue shows a lot about her character, she swears at her friend’s father which shows a lot of disrespect. The next shot is another tracking shot of her walking, during this shot you can see the area that she lives in and from this you can see an unused park and many council flats. This gives off the impression that is a very run-down place, and slightly reflects on Mia’s personality. The first two minutes of this film mostly show how obnoxious and uncouth she is.