how typical are your 3 texts of their genre

How typical is your text of it genre

fish tank
fish tank is a social realist film. the purpose of these films is for the audience to gain empathy for under represented groups in british society in this case the under class and females. the genre deals with under discussed issues that are normally avoided in mainstream texts, such as sexual abuse, drugs and alcoholism.
a convention of social realist films is the character type of the working class hero. This character is someone who strives for a better life than the one they have. In fish tank Mia does strive for a better life. she attempts to do this through her dancing career. When we see her dance for conner alone in the apartment, the walls are covered with pictures of a californian background and this theme runs throughout the house. This is their dream of escaping. It shows how they feel trapped and are trying to escape their environment though covering the house with this decor. The song she dances to is called californian dream this again shows here desire to escape. However whist this side of Mia is very typical of the social realism protaganist in this way, she is a distorted version of this character role. She does not fit in as the woking class hero. She is violent,aggressive and does not have the welfare of anyone else in her interests these are not typically heroic traits. Whilst she does poses these negative qualities fish tank ,like a typical social realist film looks into this behaviour and attempts to give the audience some understanding for why she acts this way.
Social realist films use technical conventions to achieve this empathy for the characters. fish tank uses a wide range of point of view shots to place the audience in her shoes. In the dance scene there is an over the shoulder shot of connar sitting on the sofa watching her. Even though she is the one doing the action and this is what mainstream films would focus on. Fish tank sticks with Mia and shows what she is seeing, rather than doing. This way we do not look at her through Connar and judge her but take a more understanding view of the position she is in, allowing the audience to gain this sense of empathy.
fish tank uses hand held camera techniques throughout the film. This add to the sense of realism. it puts us with Mia right next to her throughout the film, as we are not distanced from her by a swooping crane shot looking at her. in the opening scene where we see Mia wondering the streets committing various deviant acts. The camera here actually step by step follows her from behind shadowing her every move. we know this when she walks down hills and the camera man is simply walking behind her. this basic technique of filming is very typical of the social realist genre. It is again an attempt to literally put us in her shoes as much as possible and make us feel we are actually there with her and not watching a film. the casting of unknown actors is another typical feature of this genre as well know actors would remind the audience that they are watching a film. The use of these unknown actors takes this recognition away and we can slip into to the idea that we are there walking the streets with her adding to the realism of the genre. this also gives a more realistic representation of contempery Britain as you are not likely to see brad pitt strolling around the counsel estate.
social realist films seek to represent a true picture of Britain. Fish tank adheres to this convention, through the use of natural lighting and lack of filters. fish tank does not attempt to  make Mia's estate an appealing environment like hollywood films might. They do not use lighting to change the settings and show everything how it is. we see this when the lighting in the dance shot only comes through the window and the quality of light is poor. This realist representation of an undesirable location limits the uses and gratifications of this film as it does not provide escapism for the audience as they are not able to escape into a pleasant environment. this is typical of social realism and this contributes to the film having a niche audience as it does not provide the uses and gratifications that would need to be constructed into a film.


Sin City 

Sin City is a hybrid film, containing the genres film noir and comic book. this hybridity means that sin city can be established as a postmodern film.
traditional noir films often represent the time period in which they were made (after the cold war) with narrative themes such as mistrust, paranoia and corruption. Sin city shares these narrative themes that are a convention of traditional film noir, with the three protaganists all fighting against a corrupt authorative\political enemy. seintor rorke uses his political influence to hide his sons perverted crimes and frames the protaganist john hartagan. whilst trying to prove his innocence he must protect "nancy" from senitor rorke's son. Nancy portreys many characteristics of the typical film noir character role, the femme fatal. characterised as a physically attractive female who uses her sexuality to manipulate the synical protaganist often framing him or getting him to do her dirty work. However in sin city Nancy is a distorted version of the femme fatal.Whilst she is an attractive female and john does end up dying for her, she does not use her sexuality to purposefully manipulate him. she sends him letters whislt he is in jail with no intentions on using him. later on when john sees nacy many years later he says" i expected her to be a book worm too shy for her own good from what she mentioned about herself in the letters" showing that she did not attempt to use her sexuality to gain his favor. this changes the traditional expectations that the audience will have over certain characters as we see her sexually dancing in a bar and assume shhe takes on the traditional femme fatal, this un typical feature creates genre difference to shock the audience so they do not become to familar with a text and get bored. sin city uses alot of traditional film noir iconography making it appear very typical of its genre. there are alot of seens shot in gritty bars, where we see smokers, drinking and neon lights all typical mise en scenne for film noir.
in sin city each of the protaganists has a synical outlook on the world mirroring the theme of soldiers coming back from war in the 1940s these men hold little regard for themselves and are often confused and lost after the years of war. marv portreys this outlook, he holds no regard for his own saftey and says things such as "i dont even know why im on this earth" showing the negative and lost attitude of the traditional noir protaganists.
sin city uses shadows and lighting to represent the characters. in the scene where marv is killing or doing somthing wrong we wsee him in shadow however when he is killing kevin half of marvs face is shadow the rest is in light, this is to show that whilst he is not doing a typically heroic thin he is doing it for th right reasons so is not all bad. whereas kevin is always shown in full shadow until he is killed. this use of shadows is typical of film noir.
 the hybridity of this films is the mixing with comic book film conventions such as marvs super human strength or hartigans ability to survive 9 bullets.
their is persistant comic book framing and over exaggerated movements , such as in the fight scene with marv and kevin, the fight tends to stop and start as if it is the frames of a comic book.the use of the trench coat


District 9  
the genre incorporates futuristic elements and technologies to explore social ,political and philosophical issues often through a polysemic narrative.
sci-fi films often contain a polysemic narrative, with the sci fi iconography having an alternate meaning representing real life issues. for example the use of aliens in district nine are actually representing black people during  the apart ide. district nine is typical of this and uses its aliens to do so. the narrative themes of new technology and consequences is also a typical sci fi theme that exists within district nine. body horror is very typical of the sci fi genre. this is used to gain empathy or understanding for the opposite group. in district nine we see wikus acting  out against the prawns however as we see him turn into an alien through various scenes of body horror we see him gain an empathy and understanding for them. the iconography and mise en scene of district nine is very typical of the scifi genre. in the final fight scene we see, wikus controlling an alien robot, alien weapons causing distruction and in the background the alien mother ship .  all these things make district nine look very typical of its genre. sci fi films typically represent the future in eith a eutopian view or dystopian vie. district nine takes on the dystopian view point in which the world or south Africa is being controlled by one main organisation "MNU" this organastions logo is everywhere. in a scene where we see  wicus in his office we see the MNU log on the wall,equipment and on paper work also in the next shot we see this logo on the security guard. this all reinforces the control that the company has over everyone. this dystopian view of the future and control of one organisation continues when we see wikus captured and transferred into a reaseach facility against his will. the equipment is all shabby and dirty and a green filter is used to give the impression of sickness. the personal all  wearing mnu logos mutilate him are and force him to do horrid things.
district nine is a hybrid film whilst containing elent os the sci fi genre there are also use of documentary style conventions. in the experiment scene we see
the camera codes at the bottom of the shot and the time |date in the corner, we then flick to a high angle shot divided into four which appears to be from a security camera, this is too appear like the film has used stock footage which is common in documentaries. when wikus is being transported on a bed we see a tracking shot captioned 16 hours after exposeure these captions are a converntion of documentaries.