Thursday 13 March 2014

Hotel Babylon - Ethnicity Essay

Ethnicity is stereotyped as exotic, dangerous, pitied, humorous, sexualised and unified. These stereotypes are shown throughout the "Hustle" clip, these stereotypes are created about what other people opinions and views are on other peoples ethnicity whether they are African or Asian.

The clip begins with a medium shot with foley in the background which portrays to the audience as machinery, the camera focuses on the man in a suit using a medium long shot to show the audience that he is powerful and this also shows his confusion when confronted with the police officers. More foley is involved in the footsteps of the workers but camera is mainly dominated by the man in the suit as he creates the motivated cut. The shot is composed of all three people in the shot which symbolises power equality. Non diegetic music then starts to build and the camera pans into the woman at the desk, the music is docile at this stage and then starts to increase as multiple officers enter the door. This amount of people also shows power and dominance over the hotel workers. A medium long shot is then used to show the police officers in their uniform which shows dominance and power over the woman.

The scene then shows the woman at the desk call over to a man with a client, at this time the lighting is very dim and provides a sense of suspense to the audience. The music increases as the scene follows along and the police get more of a understanding of what is being hidden. The man on the sofa knows what is going on and grins which reinforces the stereotype of him being dangerous. This is then followed by two men running down a corridor and into a room telling someone "immigration" the fast movement portrays the seriousness of the situation for the audience. The woman shouts in a foreign which shows her as exotic. The clothing of the workers also shows them as all the same and labelled, which takes their identity away. The camera uses a point of view perspective to add a sense of relate-ability and realness to the situation, the distortion of the foreign workers also helps the audience that they are illegal immigrants. Once in the room the music drops and becomes eerie, this emphasises the panic in all of the foreign workers adding tension. The camera pans into the Chinese woman's face as soon as she realises someone is missing to help show her panic facial expression. This is then followed by the missing worker vacuum cleaning unaware of the danger he is in, which challenged the stereotype of dangerous. This is followed by a woman fainting, one of the cleaners has an understanding of her condition as he was a doctor, this shows that not all immigrants are unified as this cleaner is actually a qualified doctor which challenges the typical stereotype of an African immigrant worker.


This follows a knock on the door, the camera pans into the Chinese woman's face again to reinforce her panic that is shown through her facial expression, this is then followed by rustling around of the immigrant worker being escorted out of the building. The customers in the building look shocked at what is going on. The man who seems to be in charge talks about him as if he was an item or belonging being reposed to the Chinese worker which reinforces the listed stereotype of an ethical person. The woman who works at the main desk seems to not care and carries on as "normal" which gives the idea that this happens a lot, reinforcing the stereotype of unified and uncared for. 

The workers also work under the hotel, this symbolises that they are under the workers and people staying at the hotel. There is no light and is very dark which reflects their lives, this reinforces the stereotype of being unified. It also symbolises that they are lower than everyone else who is on ground level.


Overall I think that this clip both challenged and reinforced the stereotypes. It also shows that immigrants do fear and are not all dangerous to the public. This also creates a sense of guilt and sympathy to the audience.

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