- Which Key Characters/Units of Drama are important
- Why chosen this clip?
- STEREOTYPES (re-enforced, challenged, positive, negative)
- Status/Power
- Difference/Opposite
- Always Rule of 3:
Point - Ethnicity & Stereotype/Power/Difference
Example - MES/SOUND/CAM/EDIT - Terminology
Explanation - Analysis of Meaning/how it 'constructs' Ethnicity
Camera/camera meaning: How do they work together, what is expected, what is important, what is unusual?
Wide shot of swimming pool
Proxemic codes- Close up of manager looking uncomfortable being so close in the customer 2 being quite close to the manager. Facing eachother
Quick yet subtle zoom of manager to show he agreed to do something he did not want to.
Editing: How do they work together, what is expected, what is important, what is unusual?
Shot reverse shot between the manager and customer 2.
Quick cut to another scene of the two cleaners.
MES: How do they work together, what is expected, what is important, what is unusual?
Character appearance (hair, face/body, makeup) AND performance(what they do, how they act, body language, facial expressions) (archetypes or stereotypes)-
Manager-
-contrast with the typical stereotype of being depicted as poor or less intelligent.
- smart looking, well shaven, takes pride in appearance especially because of job title?
- Professional
-Feels uncomfortable in the second part of dialogue with another ethnic person.
Customer(2)-
- Fits the stereotype, less intelligent, possible more illiterate (slang)
- Acts like the big man, loud, controlling,
Customer (3)-
-Old, Chinese does not really understand the wrong between the employee dancing on hours. Clumsy, clueless.
Main chef:
- Small, Italian? Powerful, although hes smaller than the English chef. Boss of kitchen. Beard for importance?
English chef:
- Large yet is less powerful.
Cleaners: work /cleaners costume with attractive underwear underneath.
Costume (what does it tell us about the character?)-
Customer(2)- no top (just got out of swimming pool but no towel. Jewellery maybe rich? Hairstyle Rastafarian? Tattoos. Shorts red with green stars bit Jamaicany.
Location/setting (Time, place, domestic/nature?)-
- First scene around the swimming pool
Colours (association with...)-
- Aqua Blue from the swimming, quite lit up bright, maybe to signify managers home background/country/land
-
Sound: How do they work together, what is expected, what is important, what is unusual?
Dialogue: between manager and customer 2 where the manager is obviously uncomfortable with that customer because of previous experience in is younger years ‘that’s right, that’s the old benchler right there man’.
- Backing track, resembles danger or something someone is comfortable with the situation.
- Sound track, from dancing track to sound where someone will be caught out.
- Racism in the kitchen between the two chefs.
The clip begins with a black man serving a white male customer by the swimming pool. The fact that the black man is waiting on the white man could represent that the white man is of a higher status and considered as ‘more important’ than the black man, however we then see him at a Close Up of the black man where we are able to see more about his appearance and costume. He is wearing a smart suit and a big shiny earring which challenges the typical stereotype of a black person, as they are often seen as living in poverty or more likely to be working in more manual jobs. The black man in this clip is appears to be in a manager’s position which gives him higher status and more value.
The use of proxemic codes of the manager (the black man) seems confident but this soon changes when he comes in to contact with another black man who jumps out of the swimming pool quickly. This second black male fits the typical stereotype of a black person because of his costume and appearance. Apart from the fact that he had just got out of a swimming pool it is still obvious of his background and characteristics through his accent and the use of black slang when he speaks. His hair is tied up in dreadlocks and he is wearing black shorts with red, yellow and green stars on them which resemble the Jamaican flag also with the fact that he talks about smoking ganja which instantly you would imply to someone from Jamaica. The shot reverse shot technique used throughout the dialogue show how the manager’s attitudes and confidence drops, this is because we can clearly see through the acting of his facial and body expressions. The second black man definitely fluctuates the way the manager feels in the sense of being comfortable in his own hotel, the Jamaican man comes across as more controlling and pushes the manager into events he does not want to do. This is also evident through the use of non-diegetic sound of the mood music which starts of happy and reasonably calming this changes and becomes less obvious when the second black man is introduced, maybe to give the feeling of danger.
In the second clip we are introduced to two female maids/cleaners who sound to have Eastern European accents. Automatically, this can be seen as a typical stereotype where most programmes is or hotels these type of characters are often foreign. Apart from the use of dialogue through the non-diegetic sound of the music we can already establish the typical feeling of something that is not right or something bad or is not legal is about to happen. Already we can see that one of the cleaners does not feel comfortable about the event that is about to take place where as the other one is. The scene changes to a room with a Japanese man who is either on business or is a tourist(especially where he seems to act slightly ‘sheepish’ and lacks ability to speak English). At first we do not know what exactly is going to happen but the audience has their feelings. Through the use of props of the hotel Babylon ‘Please service’ card which as two drawn on signs (meaning that the customer pays double) can only mean one thing that the two cleaners are going to be paid to perform a ‘strip tease’ or other sexual behaviour. We can understand this further when we are introduced the male character and the close up shot of two piles on money. When we think of a Japanese or Asian person we can assume they will be quite wealthy. Coming to the fact that the two women are going to perform a ‘strip tease’ we can only assume that the women have previously been sexualised in their home country and the fact that they do not earn enough through the job that they do. Which is the fact that England do employ foreign people to perform the boring / menial jobs that us as a nation do not prefer or want to do.
One of the women feels more confident about performing the ‘strip tease’ she obviously does this more than once and has had plenty of experience through doing this. The other women on the hand stopped because she felt uncomfortable maybe because she is from a religious background as she is seen wearing a cross around her neck which is shown through from a close up shot.
Lastly the kitchen scene where you would highly expect to see some cultural differences. This scene contains racism between an Englishmen and a foreign chef who we believe is to be master chef as he is wearing black where the other chefs are in white. The mood in the kitchen at first is rather calm when the two other manager people come into the kitchen as they are checking the foreign chef. This mood soon changes when the two managers leave the kitchen where it turns violent. The master chef picks up a large knife and holds it in a threatening manner towards the other chef during an argument we can assume that this chef is the more powerful chef maybe because he is more knowledgeable about food being from another country where food is more rich and important.
In conclusion to this clip regarding ethnicity I feel that the representations of ethnicity are hardly positive as nowhere apart from the fact that stereotypes have been challenged in the start of the clip have not much affect to the rest of the clip as the other characters resemble the stereotypes well as they can easily be related to. This is an effective tool as it shows how us as a society and nation have developed these stereotypes and they continue to be used.
