Fish Tank is a social realist film which focuses around issues that individuals of the underclass face during their everyday life. A typical convention of the social realism genre is the use of unknown actors which is key this genre of film because it makes the film seem more realistic. Fish Tank conforms to this convention as the actress who plays Mia was scouted from a train station while arguing with he boyfriend and she hasn't worked on a project since. Social realism focuses upon real life situations which occur within the underclass society and represent what actually happens to these people and to achieve this social realism films tend to shoot on real locations instead of shooting on sets; by shooting within real settings it contributes to making the film seem as realistic as possible. The same goes for the lighting; natural lighting is always used and studio lighting doesn't tend to be used as it can give a artificial effect which isn't what the social realism genre is about. Technical conventions such as different camera techniques contribute to a social realism film. One camera technique which is frequently used is hand held shots. By using this technique it agains gives a sense of realism which makes the film more believable. A scene where this technique has been used is within the first few minutes of the film where Mia is walking through the estate and the camera is tracking her and it gives the effect that you are walking by her as the camera is hand held which creates this effect. Another scene where there is a hand held camera is the scene where Mia is drunk and Connor puts her to bed. Another technical technique that has been used in this scene is slow motion. The slow motion occurs a lot throughout their film, predominantly whenever Mia and Connor are together in a close environment. This gives a sense of fantasy and escapism as this never occurs on real life, this is the one techniques that doesn't conform to the typical conventions of the social realism genre.
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