Representation of Ethnicity:
First of all in the clip there is a sound of a
opening this straight away lets the police officers gain entry and instant
authority over the place, next the director uses a over the shoulder shot to
show the two officers have established their authority over the whole hotel and
have brought the building into lockdown this shows similarities to a jail
because no one will be able to get out.
The next shot is a slow zoom in on the women
this has been done to give the audience the feeling of walking in to the hotel and
shows her working conditions which is just the posh section of the hotel with
expensive features. She has been portrayed by the editor to be well made out
and well spoken, also the clothing she is wearing is white , expensive and
cleans this symbolises to the audience the fact that because she is white and
working upstairs in the hotel her ethnicity is a more significant factor in her
getting the well paid job.
In the next shot the director uses a reverse
shot to show the police entering the building and the women behind the counter,
during this a non-diegetic sound is added this is the sound of percussive music
which has been done to increase the amount of tension in the particular scene. The
next shot is a over the shoulder shot to show the main policeman’s perspective
on things, in this shot he seems a lot taller than the women which shows
because he is the policeman he has more authority than her. This shot also
shows the facial expressions of both characters he seems angry and annoyed
whereas she seems concerning and alerted to the fact there is policemen in the
hotel.
The policeman himself is dressing how he feels
comfortable, for example he is wearing a plain t-shirt and no tie this
highlights the fact that he has extra authority compared to his literal wingmen
who are dressed in full uniform however this particular camera shot shows him
being a lot shorter compared to the women which has been done to show the
switch of power once again.
When the woman gives the code that the police
have arrived the policeman instantly recognises it the policeman gives a little
smirk and the director purposely zoom’s the camera in on him to show a close up
of his face which shows this.
Once the code has been given the panic starts
to set in, this has been portrayed by the director through the use of a stead
cam which follows the character down the corridor and is a more natural camera
shot, this and the use of percussive non-diegetic again intensifies the
audience greatly.
When the character Jackie finds out about immigration
she instantly starts rushing around and picks her large keys up which signifies
a lot of locks similar to a prison. This can show the ethnic immigrants are
being locked up and treated the same way prisoners are. She then progresses on
and starts to run through the kitchen and starts to shout instructions about
what has happened and how to deal with it in many different languages this infers
that there is a large range of ethnic groups working in a small place.
As we move on through the clip the audiences
sees a shot through the railings in the hotel this shows all the immigrants panicking
and rushing around this was done by the director to be a visual motive and a
metaphor for the constant theme of imprisonment of the immigrants.
Furthermore as Jackie unlocks the door to the
store cupboard the audience can really hear the sound of her keys jangling this
has been to by amping sound of them up and giving the audience the impression of
the running them imprisonment of the immigrants and that Jackie is more a
prison warden to them compared to their manager in the hotel.
Next the director has put a series of close
ups to the immigrants and zooms in on each ethnic group, this is a good use of
connotation by the director because it has more than one meaning first of all It
shows the audience the facial expressions of the immigrants and how alarmed they
are by what has just happened and also it shows them standing in a small area
and being treated like a horde of cattle.
A good use of cross cutting is used by the
director because while Jackie is asking the immigrants Where is Ibrahim? It
instantly cuts to him innocently doing his job not realising the consequences
of being out there. This happens three times before he is eventually caught by
the policemen.
One of the immigrants starts to have a
diabetic fit and the African cleaner is able to identify the problem and solve
it in a complex way, this shows the audience that the stereotype isn’t always
right as he had come from a medical background. This has been done by the director
to portray the immigrants as being more complex than what they seem.
This then swiftly switches to a more action
orientated scene, Ibrahim is innocently cleaning when the police spot him when
he realises who they are, the director does a extreme forward zoom onto his
face showing all his facial expression which is predominantly shock, while this
is happening the sound effects were added to add more tension to the scene. When
he gets caught he gets dragged through the hotel lobby this shows juxtaposition
because the grubby cleaner in his overalls is being dragged through the posh,
expensive and clean lobby.
The ethnicity divide upstairs is just as
racist as the police, this because the manager starts to order stereotypical
ethnic people around. For example she starts clicking her fingers at Gino who is
quite clearly Italian and orders him around.
Furthermore the non-diegetic sound instantly falls
in tempo which signifies no action. This is being played over the top of Jackie
clearing out Ibrahim’s locker which is showing the audience the sad, emotional,
tragedy consequence of being caught. Also Jackie is opening his locker which
symbolises freedom from the imprisonment by the hotel.
The next scene is all the immigrants sitting
in their different ethnic groups while eating their dinner, the camera movement
is a slow track across the whole room which shows all the ethnic groups being separate,
this is compared to the unity which was being shown earlier in the clip when
they were under siege by the police.
Lastly the father and daughter and praying
which shows they are very disciplined in their religion and haven’t forgot
their ethnic background. They are also being shown to the audience as being
patriotical to their religion because no one can eat until after they all
finish praying.
Overall the main representational issue is ethnicity
this is challenged in many different ways. Connotation, denotation, iconography,
the camera angles, the camera movement, the diegetic being used and the editing
all goes towards the ethnicity divide. I feel ethnicity is being represented as
a bad thing because of the way the different ethnic people are being treated.
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