Fish Tank - Portrait Film Poster (BBC Films)

Fish Tank - Portrait Film Poster (BBC Films)

NARRATIVE - PLOT SUMMARY:

The film is about Mia Williams, a volatile and socially isolated 15 - year - old who lives with her single mother, Joanne. The mother's new boyfriend, Conor, becomes a person of intrigue to Mia, which results in an illicit affair, as well as the heartbreaking revelation that Conor is not entirely what he seems. 

PRODUCT CONTEXT:

Fish Tank is a 2009 British drama film written and directed by Andrea Arnold

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 14 May 2009 

The film went onto screen at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival

The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 September 2009

Fish Tank was released on 11 September 2009 taking £103,180 on its first weekend and a total of £332,488

Fish Tank 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 Rainham, and the A13, and funded by BBC Films and the UK Film Council

Fish Tank featured on BBC's The 21st Century's 100 greatest films, ranking 65th on the list

ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAIT FILM POSTER:

• The poster of this British Social Realism Film: Fish Tank, uses a character on the main poster. Therefore, essentially the poster features one character and not much information into the plot of the film
• Three colours are used primarily within this poster: blue, white and orange. The background of the image shows a clear blue sky with white clouds. This connotes the characters freedom or attempts for freedom within the plot. The colour of the text is a bold orange making it stand out and seem the most important image on the poster
• The main characters face is half lit with the other half shaded by her hood. This suggests to the audience her character could be filled with a shady past and is trying to find a bright future. The lighting of the sky creates a light atmosphere of hope but still adds to the rural mise - en - scene of the social realism background
• The poster only shows one image, of what the audience can see is the main character. She is taking up at least 2/3 of the poster implying her importance to the story and her facial expressions show her looking into the distance creating enigmas. Her clothing is a grey hoodie with hooped earrings with her hood up, however, hoodies in media have different representations mystery, intimidation, youth, hiding identity etc, therefore all these enigmas are created for this character by placing her in a hoodie
• In the background an industrial estate is shown suggesting the rural part of London in which the character is from (Social Realism). By placing it behind her the creators could be suggesting it is in past and she is going forward
• The text which is shown on the poster doesn’t give the reader much substance about the plot. The poster involves a lot of film reviews enhancing the films advertising showing which film festivals the film has been shown in. The tagline at the top of the page reads: 'the most honoured British film of the year,' straight away this adds to the British Social Realism genre it falls under. It also includes cast members names on the poster and even though many British Social Realism films involve unknown actors, the films distributors have included their names giving the audience a sense of identity with the cast members. At the bottom of the poster it involves one tagline which could give an insight to the plot: 'live, love and gives as good as you get'
• The layout is portrait with the main figure appearing as if she is towering over something. This adds to the main character feeling a sense of freedom and attempting to take over her new life. With the main title being central, in all caps and bold it is in the face of the audience and becomes the first thing that catches your eye
• This poster clearly shows the genre of social realism from the background as it is set in a realistic urban environment which is a convention of social realist films. This films audience appears to be a teen audience as they would be able to relate to the character because the character is around that age group