Ethnicity essay

This clip is a part of an episode of Hotel Babylon, in this episode, the Hotel is raided by immigration so that they can take a majority of their staff and send them back to their own countries. The immigrants then have to hide within a small cupboard so that they are not found, but one is and is sent back home, even when begged not to.

Within this clip, ethnicity is shown in many ways. In the beginning of the clip, the front of the hotel is shown, this women is a white British woman, dressed in all white, this can be symbolised as her being pure. This is shown in controversy to the Asian woman that is shown in the next scene, this woman is wearing a black suit with a red shirt on it. This can be interpreted that the English white woman is 'purer' than the Asian women. 

This is also shown within the surroundings of their jobs. The white woman works on the front desk, where she is able to be seen and interact with other people, whereas the Asian probably has the same authority as the white woman, but she is located in a cupboard/office downstairs where she cannot be seen. The asian women's office, is shown as not meant to be an office as there is a lot of supplies for the cleaners in her "office", so even though she has a high authority office, so that she gets an office, because of her ethnicity, she is not given the office she deserves. This could be interpreted that Jackie doesn't need a bigger office as she should be proud of her office as the other immigrants do not have one, even though it is not an acceptable place for Jackie to spend her time in.  

The whole of this clip is very interesting within ethnicity as the plot of the clip is to do with hiding immigrants from different countries within a hotel, this makes the immigrants, who are mixed race e.g. African, black, Asian etc. look like they're not wanted within this hotel as they have to hide within a small cupboard to hide from immigration. The jobs of the immigrants are important as well as they are not "front of house" jobs, they are hidden behond the scenes as many of the immigrants are cleaners or chefs. Even the asian Women, known as Jackie, who has a higher role within the Hotel is hidden away in her office. This is also important as when all of the immigrant are hidden away in the cupboard and one of them faints because she is diabetic, one of the cleaners, Adam, knows exactly how to help her and is asked why he knows what to do, he replies with "I wasn't always a cleaner", this can be seen as Adam was a doctor before he moved to the UK and was given a demeaning job. This showns ethnicity in the worst light as he has the right skills to do a highly skilled, well paid job but becuase of where he is from, he has to work as a cleaner.

The use of sound through the entire clip changes quite frequently. There are two types of sound, diegetic and non-diegetic, both are used within this clip. The diegetic sounds is the dialogue, and actual sounds within the clip. This is shown when Jackie runs through the kitchen as there are sound effects e.g. knives dropping, pans boiling etc. The use of non-diegetic sounds are more important though as they create tension within the clip. There is quite a lot of background music played within this clip, ranging from up-tempo music during the chase, to slow music when the immigrants are hiding to create tension within the room.
The use of camera angles with this scene is interesting, the camera angles that are used are extreme close up, close up, over the shoulder and mid shots. These are important as they may make different things stand out in each camera shot, that you may not have noticed if they used a different camera angle. This is proved when the immigrants are locked in the cupboard and there is a knock on the door, the camera zooms into Jackies face to show her worried expression, the audience may have not been worried for the immigrants before the camera zoomed into her face. The camera angles are also important as, going back to Jackie in her cupboard office, when the two men burst into Jackies office, the camera then uses a high angle shot to show Jackie from above. This can be interpreted that because the two men are not in trouble as they are not immigrants, so they are shown as "higher" than Jackie.
Editing is essential to this clip as the editors have used parralel editing whilst the immigrants are in the cupbaord, to show what is happening outside of the cupboard, this is important as they do not know what is happening outside of the cupboard and the viewer does. This is called dramatic irony.