Janakan LOGANATHAN 12SJM

Hotel Babylon – Representation of Ethnicity (Re-write)

Throughout the given extract 'Hotel Babylon' representation of ethnicity is exposed through the editing, mise-en-scene, camera work and sound. Multiple assumptions have been made regarding this. One could argue that the white British people highlight their stereotypical superior status and the black people are shown to be middle class citizens. Interestingly, the Immigrants people appear to be at the bottom, in terms of hierarchy, out of the chosen ethnicities explored within the extract.

Within the beginning of the extract we are automatically introduced to one of the characters in the ‘Hotel Babylon’ extract with a close-up shot of the main police detective officer. The police detective officer is used to fully signify his stem facial expression to the audience and to portray that he is the main antagonist in this episode. He then begins to walk towards the camera to give a hint to the audience that he is coming for the immigrant workers and to engage the audience to make them feel as if he is also coming for the audience as well; adding extra tension to the scene.

Once the main characters of this scene, Jackie, realizes that the police are here to take away the workers, the camera follows her running into the kitchen to hide the immigrant workers from the immigrant officers. This makes the audience feel as though the audiences are running alongside her, and fully conveys that panic of the situation. As soon as she manages to move the immigrant workers out of the kitchen, they are run down the hallway; looking for somewhere to hide. The camera is then hidden behind some bars in the shot to connote that they’re all trapped and in need of somewhere to hide. Soon as Jackie leads the workers to a safe place to hide, the camera zooms into her unlocking the door handle by doing a close up shot of her struggling to get the key into the lock and open the door. This signifies the panic and urgency of the situation and how it is a race against time before the police and immigrant officers come for them all. Once she has managed to get the workers safely into the small store room, the camera then instantly does another close up shot of her shutting the door handle and re-locking it. By doing so, it suggests that they are locked in and trapped.

As soon as she gets everyone into the store room and locks the door, Jackie begins to count how many workers are in the room. Once she realizes that she is missing one, the camera does a deliberate zoom into Jackie’s face, ending in a close up of her shocked emotion to show that there is another panicked situation. By doing a quick zoom into her face, it portrays to the audience that there is a sudden dramatic chance, adding extra agitation.

Once Jackie identifies who is missing, the camera does a parallel editing shot from the trapped illegal workers to the missing worker hovering in one of the hallways with his music on- obvious to the commotion. The

Janakan LOGANATHAN 12SJM

camera pans up from the floor of the missing worker hovering to show that he is being revealed to the audience.

When the illegal missing worker gets taken by the police officers, the camera pans back down onto the hoover on its own in the middle of the empty hall. This portrays that he is gone for good and that the audience may not see him ever again once he is gone.

Due to the police officers having successfully taken an illegal immigrant from the hotel, there is a secret knock at the door of the storage cupboard in which all of the workers are hiding in. The camera does a rapid zoom into Jackie’s face to show her sudden change of emotion and worry of the door knocking, adding more panic to the situation, yet relief when it’s one of her colleagues.

As the police officers are removing the illegal worker and taking him to be deported back to his country, there is a shallow focus on all of the other workers on the main department of the hotel, making the main focus Jackie in the right hand corner of the screen. This connotes to the audience that she is the main concern during this scene and is the only worker that seems to fully care and understand what will happen to those that are taken.

Once the police officers have left the building and a form of equilibrium is restored, Jackie begins to clear out the taken migrant workers locker. The camera does a close up again of Jackie locking and un-locking the migrant’s locker door to show that one may be gone, but others are still trapped here.

At the end of the scene, the camera pans across all of the immigrant workers eating their lunch, showing the audience all the different ethnicities and that they’re just ordinary people trying to get by in their lives. It also gives the audience an insight on how many illegal workers are actually at this hotel, making the audience think that the police would be back at some point in time for them because they know that they are more to deport back to their countries. The scene ends with the editing format of a fade out to black showing that the episode has a negative ending and makes the audience think and reflect on what’s happened through the extract.

From the moment that the workers begin to plan how they will hide all the workers and Jackie begins to manically run around the kitchen to collect them all, non-diegetic sound is added to create a higher level of tension. All of the diegetic sounds that are included throughout this scene tends to be noises that represent stress, panic and fear. Doors closing, opening of locks, footsteps and heavy breathing are all amplified and also included to signify to the audience the stress of the moment. It makes the situation feel more realistic and as if the audience are there with them.

Janakan LOGANATHAN 12SJM

Dialogue is used throughout the scene so that the audience, can fully understand what is happening, why and how all of the characters react to it. When Jackie rushes in to the kitchen to tell all of the workers to leave the area and to hide because the immigration officers are there, she says it all in a series of foreign languages. This portrays to the audience that not only Jackie can fully communicate with them all in their mother-tongue but can also suggest that she is somewhat part of them as well.

When Jackie gets the workers into the store room to hide, one of the workers collapses due to her having diabetes and is suffering from an attack, of the African workers cures her and wakes her up, He then says to Jackie, “I wasn’t always a cleaner you know!”. By saying this, he is cleaning up the stereotypes that the audience have towards foreign people in the UK because clearly, in his country he had a well-looked upon profession, showing that immigrants can do the more well looked upon jobs that the audience do as well.

When Jackie is clearing out his locker because he has been taken, non-diegetic sound is added to add a depressing, sad and emotional atmosphere. The use of the show music shows to the audience that because someone has gone, it is an upsetting moment.

At the very beginning of the scene, the mise-en-scene of the police officers and immigrant officers are their uniforms that they wear to show who they are representing. The lighting on the main immigrant officer walking at the front of the group is rather dark, shadowing on his face, to signify that he is here for a dark purpose. Shortly, after they walk in, the camera begins to focus on the main woman of the hotel at the front of the house. Her suit for this extract is a bright white suit and she has bright blonde hair and is stood behind her large reception desk with a bright lighting all over her to make her stand out to the audience. The way in which she is shown, indicates that she is pure and more superior to everyone else.

The costume of the immigrant workers are all in a form of kitchen or housekeeping wear to show that they are all having the same stereotypical job which all associate foreign people doing. Each one of them is dressed exactly the same depending on what department they work for which this signifies that very single one of them is the same and none of them are treated differently.

For the editing aspects of this scene from the TV drama, parallel editing cuts from the trapped illegal workers, suddenly to the other worker hovering in the hall way to show to the audience the chance in panic and drama to the tranquillity of him cleaning; un-aware of the dramatic situation that is ongoing. A shallow focus is used towards the end of the extract, blurring out the other workers within the hotel (who are white) in the reception room, concentrating on the close up of Jackie in the right

Janakan LOGANATHAN 12SJM

hand corner. This is used at this point because one of the migrant workers is being taken away and she is the only member of staff at that point that is seriously moved by what’s happened, so the audience wish to focus on her reaction because she tried to prevent anyone from being taken.

The extract ends with a fade out to black to show that the episode has ended on a negative note and leaves the audience thinking what could happen next.