HOTEL BABYLON

Hotel Babylon - Ethnicity


Ethnicity within Hotel Babylon plays a major role, and helps the director to present levels of hierarchy, emotion and types of stereotypes. The main stereotype that is used as an example in this extract is criminal behaviour of the african characters. 

Low angle shots are used by the director on the police, this indicates that they are on a high level of the hierarchy and maybe more significant than other characters within the clip. This could be seen as due to ethnicity and could be stereotypical that white people have more power than others. High angle shots are used on the immigrants who are mostly black. Black people have a harsh stereotype of being criminals and very aggressive, however this clip breaks the stereotype and proves that they are scared and are far from bad people. Also, the character who helps the diabetic woman indicates that the stereotype of immigrants being not very clever has been broken, and in fact this particular character is very clever and knows certain roles that a doctor can pursue. Also, when Ibrahim is first arrested, he is instantly aware of what happening to him and this is done by a certain camera movement called a focus pull, this is where they zoom in on the expression of the individual simultaneously with the change of expression. (These stereotypes were configured by Katz and Braly in 1933, who put together a questionnaire which showed that ethnic stereotypes are very widespread)
This certain technique helps the audience determine what this means to Ibrahim and how it’s going to affect him. Also, it helps compare the difference in expression between Ibrahim and the "antagonists" and how even though Ibrahim is so emotionally affected by it, the expression on their faces tells that they have no feelings towards the immigrants. 

Throughout the whole clip a non-diegetic sound is always present, this particular sound is a very tense backing track that builds up tension throughout certain points of the clip. For example, when the immigrants are informed that people are within the building to take them away, the music builds up and diegetic sounds are also present. These diegetic sounds are mainly sighs of panic and scared voices, as they are scared for the future of their lives. The fact that the characters are so scared indicates that, even though the jobs they pursue in are not the most exciting job in the world, they will do anything to stay away from their old life and work hard for their families. This shows that they are very caring, which may break certain peoples stereotype of immigrants. A sound bridge is also continuous through the whole of the clip, from scene to scene there is a constant soundtrack in the back, this is due to all the scenes having relevance to each other and eventually all combining. This helps to keep a constant hook of the audience and draw attention to certain areas of the clip by building the music up and down.

As shown in the photo on the right, the environment in which the immigrants work in is very cramped and hard to work in. Whereas all of the white, English people on the floors above are within a much more upper class area. And by being on a higher floor, this may foreshadow the hierarchy of ethnicity within the working environment and that different races are treated differently. This is a common stereotype from many years ago where black people were treated as slaves and white people lived in a much higher lifestyle, therefore this tv series might be trying to show that some people still treat them in a similar way, this is because they are so desperate to keep the workers working for them, at what i assume must be a very low wage and therefore take advantage of them. The lighting on the two different floors also has a significant difference with the top floor being bright and attractive whereas the floor where the migrants are it is very dark and dull, this indicates that the people who are white on the top floor live in much more luxury than the immigrants on the lower floors, which is unfair and could be seen as taking advantage of them. The difference in costumes also proves this point as the top floor are dressed in formal suits whereas lower floors are dressed in very cheap uniform therefore it is seen that their social class and status if of a much lower level, due to their ethnicity, which again, is very unfair and meets an old stereotype of the hierarchy of white people in comparison to black.

From the beginning of the clip the editing slowly speeds up from slow paced editing towards fast paced editing this is done to build up tension and show the difference between in reactions between the two ethnicity's. For example, the white people up stairs are much more laid back and relaxed, only worried because they are employing people who are known illegeble to work, whereas the people downstairs are panicking and are desperate to try and keep their jobs. Also, the editing is continuous, which makes this particular seen very hooking for the audience and what i assume must be a very renown scene within the tv series. It also creates a 'panic' within the individuals and emphasises certain emotions massively. These emotions prove that the stereotype of all black people being aggressive is false, as the individual within this clip actually cries and hopes for his life. The pace of the editing differs when the scene focuses on the migrants and when it focuses on the migrant officers, being fast paced when focusing on the migrants and slow paced when on the officers. This is because the officers do not care at all, and have no emotion towards the migrants even though they are about to possibly ruin their lives. Whereas the migrants are hoping for their lives and are rushing around trying not to get captured and taken back to their old lives. This shows that the migrants are actually caring and emotional whereas the officers are very stubborn and emotionless, which could make them seem like antagonists, however they are just doing their job