FILM JOURNAL 03: Fish Tank (2009) - Mise en Scene
Mise en scene and realism in Fish Tank.
In order to let the audience understand the characters’ preference, personal characteristics, emotions, as well as their socialeconomic conditions, the setting played a big role. For example, when Mia walking out of the room, disappearing in the messy corridor that filled with many randomly hanged clothes, the untidiness give audience the information that Mia’s family belongs to the lower class with messy neighbors. Shooting the back of Mia instead of the front when she’s walking away also evokes a lonely and helpless feeling towards Mia.
In another scene with Mia’s mother dressing only thin sexy vest and underwear dancing around the kitchen and Mia was at the messy living room watching her gives audience the information that Mia’s mother was not a good role model. Therefore, when Mia shout impolitely towards her mother, sister, or others, the audience did not feel bad about Mia but felt sorry for her because she does not have a good role model to tell her what behavior is proper.
As a result, when Mia was wearing only underwear in the kitchen in front of her mother’s lover, she did not feel embarrassed and the audience also understands that this behavior is copied from her mother. In that scene, Mia drinks water directly from the tape in the kitchen also gives audience some clues about their daily lives.
Moreover, when Mia is walking around her place, there is always noisy music around and hip-hop dancers dancing on the streets, this setting together with the frequent shouting between Mia and her mother made audience understand why Mia always listens to her own music, hide in the abandoned apartment to escape from the noisy real world. With these settings such as a messy corridor, drinking tape water inside their apartment, a drinking, smoking, and messy mother who does not dress properly and does not do housework, the noisy environment, as well as being easily raped at her own apartment by a stranger helped audience understands the miserable conditions of Mia and feels the emotion of Mia and understands why she decided to leave at the end.
For the composition, there are many shots showing Mia walking lonely with the camera shooting her from the back. The audience follows Mia’s walking pace and watches the same thing that Mia is watching and experiencing. Most of the time, the back of Mia was in a shade but the environment around her or in front of her was bright and colorful. This contrast made the feeling of loneliness and helpless even stronger.
In another scene with Mia met Connor the first time in the kitchen, the sun shine brightly on Connor’s healthy body but Mia was in a big shadow that audience only sees her back. The contrast of light shows the relationship between the characters.
For example, as Mia found a feeling of safety and fatherhood from Connor, she frequently went to see him uncontrollably and even unconsciously raped by him. This composition design showed the audience how weakness Mia is.
In the scene when Mia playing with her dog and visiting the horse, a close shot of Mia’s head with clam and smiling face, and in soft colors, helps the audience understands that Mia is kind and does not shout all the time. Those compositions create the significance of the characters.
In the scene starts from 14:15, we firstly see Mia preparing breakfast from an eye-level shot and moving according to Mia. When she starts dancing, the point of view changed to a low-angle shoot that leads the audience to look up at Mia slowly. This angle made Mia looks confident and positive. Then the camera made a close-up to the TV that audience can see a black man and girl dancing intimately. Suddenly a voice at the back scared Mia that the point of view changed high-angle shoot towards Mia, especially during her conversation with Connor. This high-angle made Mia looks small, inferior, frightened, and weaker than Connor. And the previous seductive dancing video on TV and the half nude Connor made the audience connect the sexual relationship between Connor and Mia.
In order to let the audience understand the characters’ preference, personal characteristics, emotions, as well as their socialeconomic conditions, the setting played a big role. For example, when Mia walking out of the room, disappearing in the messy corridor that filled with many randomly hanged clothes, the untidiness give audience the information that Mia’s family belongs to the lower class with messy neighbors. Shooting the back of Mia instead of the front when she’s walking away also evokes a lonely and helpless feeling towards Mia.
In another scene with Mia’s mother dressing only thin sexy vest and underwear dancing around the kitchen and Mia was at the messy living room watching her gives audience the information that Mia’s mother was not a good role model. Therefore, when Mia shout impolitely towards her mother, sister, or others, the audience did not feel bad about Mia but felt sorry for her because she does not have a good role model to tell her what behavior is proper.
As a result, when Mia was wearing only underwear in the kitchen in front of her mother’s lover, she did not feel embarrassed and the audience also understands that this behavior is copied from her mother. In that scene, Mia drinks water directly from the tape in the kitchen also gives audience some clues about their daily lives.
Moreover, when Mia is walking around her place, there is always noisy music around and hip-hop dancers dancing on the streets, this setting together with the frequent shouting between Mia and her mother made audience understand why Mia always listens to her own music, hide in the abandoned apartment to escape from the noisy real world. With these settings such as a messy corridor, drinking tape water inside their apartment, a drinking, smoking, and messy mother who does not dress properly and does not do housework, the noisy environment, as well as being easily raped at her own apartment by a stranger helped audience understands the miserable conditions of Mia and feels the emotion of Mia and understands why she decided to leave at the end.
For the composition, there are many shots showing Mia walking lonely with the camera shooting her from the back. The audience follows Mia’s walking pace and watches the same thing that Mia is watching and experiencing. Most of the time, the back of Mia was in a shade but the environment around her or in front of her was bright and colorful. This contrast made the feeling of loneliness and helpless even stronger.
In another scene with Mia met Connor the first time in the kitchen, the sun shine brightly on Connor’s healthy body but Mia was in a big shadow that audience only sees her back. The contrast of light shows the relationship between the characters.
For example, as Mia found a feeling of safety and fatherhood from Connor, she frequently went to see him uncontrollably and even unconsciously raped by him. This composition design showed the audience how weakness Mia is.
In the scene when Mia playing with her dog and visiting the horse, a close shot of Mia’s head with clam and smiling face, and in soft colors, helps the audience understands that Mia is kind and does not shout all the time. Those compositions create the significance of the characters.
In the scene starts from 14:15, we firstly see Mia preparing breakfast from an eye-level shot and moving according to Mia. When she starts dancing, the point of view changed to a low-angle shoot that leads the audience to look up at Mia slowly. This angle made Mia looks confident and positive. Then the camera made a close-up to the TV that audience can see a black man and girl dancing intimately. Suddenly a voice at the back scared Mia that the point of view changed high-angle shoot towards Mia, especially during her conversation with Connor. This high-angle made Mia looks small, inferior, frightened, and weaker than Connor. And the previous seductive dancing video on TV and the half nude Connor made the audience connect the sexual relationship between Connor and Mia.
Comments
Post a Comment