This poster for the British social realism film Fish Tank features a single character taking up most of the space. Her facial expression and hood create an air of mystery about her past and future intentions. The colors blue, white, and orange are used to represent freedom and a rural social realism setting. Very little text is included to summarize the plot, focusing more on reviews and awards to advertise the film. The poster aims to intrigue viewers about the character and her journey through visuals and limited details.

1. Analysing the poster of the British Social Realism Film: Fish Tank
A character main poster where the poster features one character and
not much information into the plot of the film

2. Use of Colour and Lighting:
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
rural mis en scene of the social realism
background.

3. Use of Images 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. Her
facial expressions show her looking into
the distance creating enigmas such as:
where is she looking? Is she looking at
someone or something? Is she admiring a
new future? Her clothing is a grey hoodie
with hooped earrings with her hood up.
Hoodies in media have different
representations:
mystery, intimidation, youth, hiding
identity. 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.

4. Narrative: Use of Text
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. 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. Could this me a motto the
character gives herself? Or the story her life
follows?

5. Layout
Portrait Layout: the layout is portrait
with the main figure appearing as if she
is towering over something. This adds to
the main character feeling the 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.

6. In relation to my poster
When creating my character I will take into
consideration the minimalistic use of colours and use
of one main character to create an atmosphere. I will
also look into the use of a social realism skyline or
rural part of Britain to add to the atmosphere of the
genre: British Social Realism. When looking into the
costume my character will wear I will look into
representations of the age group used to use clothing
(e.g. The hoodie) to complete the British atmosphere.