Wasp
Andrea Arnold was born on the 5th of April, Dartford, Kent. She is known to be an academy award winning filmmaker and former actress from England who made her feature film in 2006 with Red Road. Her mother was 16 years old and her father was 17 when Andrea was born. She is the eldest of four children. Her short film, 'Wasp' won Sundance Short Film prize in 2005 and many other awards since, it was commissioned by Film Council and Channel 4 Britain.
Wasp is directed and written by Andrea Arnold. This 26 minute film was released in 2003 where it was shot in Arnolds hometown, Dartford, UK. It starts off with Zoe (mum) rapidly walking downstairs with a baby in hand and three children behind her. She gets into a physical conflict with another woman, the tension remains high as their children watch and shout insults. On the way home, an ex-boyfriend Dave (Danny Dyer) pulls up a car and asked Zoe as who the children are, Zoe tells him that their a mates and she is just looking after them. Dave asks her out for a drink. Zoe accepts the invitation. but what will the children be doing while their mother is gone?. The film shows the cruel and gritty, heartbreaking reality of the world, the story was powerfully seen through the eyes of 4 children and a single mother trying to raise them herself. It changes our opinion on the world we live in and how it portrays on the people who desperately need help. The council estates, bare-footed woman with no job or money is effectively done that not only a casual viewer can judge but decide whether the situation is real or not. Its so well directed and filmed that you almost feel like these people are real. This film shows a life of a typical unmarried, poor woman who dreams of finding her 'David Beckham' and being 'Victoria Beckham' living in a rich house and children aspiring to go to McDonalds.
Majority of the time, the camera follows the central character, Zoe to show the complexity of her life. The way she treats her kids makes the audience judge her ability as a mum but also feel sympathetic towards her. As a person's obstacles and environmental influences can change their behavior and the way that they treat others around them.. Most of the shots in this film are handheld and shaky to emphasis on the nervousness and tension of the family, allowing the audience to view the realistic side of the movie. The high angle shots are often shown when the mother is talking to the children showing that she has power over the family and a low angle shot to illustrate that the children have no power at all. The Mise-en-Scene in this film is the most essential part, allowing the audience to stereotype the characters and make out what the character is like throughout not only through costumes, location as well. There were no music involved in the footage because Andrea Arnold wanted to make the audience feel the tension and more focused on the characters feelings and dialogues. Cutting to a simple credit of the film title 'Wasp' on a plain black background relating to the story line, with a cut of sound it lets the audience think about the upcoming scenes with a sense of seriousness giving them a hint of what genre this movie is. Some wonder if this is a biographical film of Andrea when she lived with her single mother in Kent, she explains ''I grew up in a working-class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know''.
The short film depicts the poverty that's faced by the family in a very realistic way. When David ask Zoe to buy drinks, she sacrifices her breezer for her kids, so that they can have crisps and coke, I guess in some ways, Zoe does care and still would sacrifice anything to take care of her childfen even though the audience doesn't see that but because we know that Zoe is in poverty, she can only show her love and caring personality through very little actions (e.g dancing and singing with them outside the bar to keep them entertained). The song 'Be my girl' plays in the bar represents the conflicting mother and the girl inside her captures the emotional struggles that the mother and the innocent children go through creating a sympathetic atmosphere to the film. Similar to the film 'Fish Tank' where the central character is based on Mia, a troubled teenager who lives in a council estate with mum and little sister - we experience and see events that Mia goes through on her daily life.
I think the characters, clothes, props, location and story line successfully portray a real life situation that Britain faces and majority of us ignore the situation because of our fear of knowing the truth and not wanting to know the harsh reality that we live in.
Fish Tank
Andrea Arnold's movie 'Fish Tank' was recieved the Jury Prize and awarded best evening standard film awards honored at the 20th Annual woman in film and TV awards in 2010. The movie was backed by Limelight Fund, BBC films and UK's film councils new cinema fund. Andrea won academy award winning filmmaker and was a former actress from Kent who featured in Red Road in 2006.
'Fish Tank' was written and directed by Andrea Arnold in 2009. It was filmed in Mardyke Estate in Havering, Town of Tilbury with a budget of $3 million. Mia Williams is a 15-year-old teenage living in East London Council Estate with her single mother, Joanne and little sister, Tyler. The family doesn't get along together so Mia is isolated with loneliness, she often practices hip-hop in a deserted flat to keep her away from the destructed events of her past and the upcoming future that she may encounter in the next few scenes of the movie where she meets Connor, her mums boyfriend who changes everything. The movie is mainly aimed for 15 - 18 year old's who can relate their life to the movie, for others its an eye-opener for people who don't experience this harsh reality that helps them to understand what goes on in the world around them. Mia (Katie Jarvis) performs a sensational performance although she's never had an acting classes but was spotted at a train station arguing with her boyfriend. She delivers a great blend of fearlessness and tension to her part.
The camera shots in 'Fish Tank' is similar to Andrea's other film, 'Wasp' where the camera follows the character with shaky handheld cameras that gives of an uncomfortable and unstable feeling that reflects Mia's conflict with herself and her mum. A lot of close-up and reaction shot was involved as well as tracking shot to view a characters feeling. The way the title is called 'Fish Tank' explains Mia's life is like repeating the same issue everyday like a fish swims in the same direction everyday, so Mia has to escape the destructive environment that she grew up to know and start off a new life in Wales. At the end, when Mia was in the car, and looks back at her sister leaving her behind while she's chasing the car hints to the audience of whats going to happen to Tyler (Mia's little sister) and a shot of a balloon floating into the air signifies a symbol of hope. Each characters clothing style all represent their personalities and roles, it helps the audience to stereotype the characters and view them in a certain way for example, Mia is dressed in tracksuits, hooded jumpers, hair tied up with gold earrings. Its essential to identify their personality through their costumes but location is just as important, it creates a realistic feel to the movie; Council estates are very often used in Drama/ social realism genre. The only audio that was heard throughout the film was the dialogue and the environmental atmosphere - the only music that we heard from the film was when Mia was dancing in a deserted flat. All these create a successful British Drama.
Mia builds a wall around her heart to protect herself whenever she meets someone new, Connor was the only father figure that Mia ever had and gives her the attention that she lacks in - encouraging her to dance, laughing at her jokes and even take her family out on a fishing trip; Slowly Mia starts to feel more comfortable around Connor to a point where she feels sexually attracted to him. Arnold cleverly shapes the emotions of Mia towards Connor through the way she films her emotions and behavior to him, Intellectually leads us to another disastrous twist to the plot. Love can conquer all but in reality, finding friendship and loyalty is never easy. some questions are left unanswered. Did Mia become successful as a dancer? does she change into a different person? who will she meet? In the end, we all know that she escaped from the domineering mother and sister and hoped to find something better on her own.
