How is ethnicity represented through camera, sound, mise en scene and editing in the clip from Hotel Babylon?
Throughout the opening of the piece I identified a number of techniques which the director used to portray the use of representation of ethnicity. I focused on the mise en scene, camera, editing and sound of the film. The word in the title "Babylon", means multiple languages being spoken, this suggests that the film will consist of a number of different ethnic people.
At the beginning of the film, we see a black man in a suit serving a white man in a dressing gown. This is stereotypical of a black person serving a white person as it shows that the white person is in charge. It is a countertype that the black man is dressed smartly in a suit, as not many black people dress this way.
The next scene is of another black man getting out of a swimming pool and bumping into the black man in the suit. In contrast to the man in the suit, the other guy is wearing shorts and does not look as swarve. The man in the suit appears to care about what he looks like and dresses in a more formal manner. They then use diegetic sound to communicate with one another, this connotes that the two men know each other. The man in the suit talks differently to the other black man as he talks more formally and uses proper English language. However, the guy in the shorts uses slang and abbreviations when talking. There is a contradiction with the way this man talks as he talks ghetto but appears to be in this posh hotel. This is a countertype as guys like him usually do not usually have money for places like this. The guy in the suit looks very shocked when the other guy states "there's the old ...". This shows that the formal man has changed and is no longer like the other guy. The audience can tell he is shocked as there is a quick frozen close up of his face, his eyes appear to be wide open with his eyebrows raised.
The next scene is of two maids going into someones bedroom to do their work; cleaning. They hardly speak but when a word is said from one of them it appears that they are French women. This is stereotypical as most maids are French or foreign. Their costume indicates their status which is quite low. When they get into the room there are a number of shots between the two maids and an oriental man sitting on the bed. He is wearing glasses which implies he is intelligent. The man pays the women for sexual favours, this is stereotypical of oriental men with money. He plays a song in the bedroom called Moulin Rouge, this is a frenc, erotic song. One of the women starts to take off her work clothes, underneath she is wearing sexy underwear. This is stereotypical as French women are usually seen as sexy.
Two white business looking people then walk towards the camera, one is a man and the other is a woman. They are both dressed smartly, the man in a suit and the woman in a formal dress. They both talk using formal language and they both come across as quite posh. The two of them speak about their employees, this demonstrates that they are in charge. This is stereotypical as they are both white people in charge of a business.
The scene then changes to a kitchen where the audience see two chefs. They do not seem to be getting on however, when the white woman enters the kitchen they pretend to get along. This shows that they have a fake relationship. One of the men are Italien and the other is White British. The Italien man greets the lady by kissing her hand, this is stereotypical as they are normally full on with the ladies. At the end of this scene, the audience realise why the two chefs do not get on. It appears that the Italien chef took the white mans wife and now they have to work in the same environment as one another. This implies that the Italien man is a wife stealer and the white man is now feared about the two of them.
The final scene is where we see an oriental woman knocking on the oriental mans door. She is dressed in smart looking suit and has a British accent. Her costume suggests that she is some sort of manager in the hotel. She hides around the corner, this implies that she is sneaky. The fact she is going to this particular room where the maids are implies that she is in charge of the maids and is their boss.
In conclusion, a number of techniques were used to represent the different ethnicity's in the film. There were a number of stereotypes used to show a certain ethnic group as well as a number of countertypes used in the film.
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