Representation and ethnicity in Hotel Babylon

There was a clip of Hotel Babylon that we watched and in it the immigration officers came to the hotel for all the illegal immigrants that worked at the hotel. The main officer that came into the hotel is considered the protagonist because he is the evil person in the scene where he tries to take away all the immigrants which have done nothing wrong. All of the immigrants are treated like animals, trapped in a room where people are hunting them and want to take them away and this is a degrading aspect because they are just hunted and not treated like human beings just because their ethnicity. 

Camera

The camera work throughout the clip was fairly casual, there was an over the shoulder shot when the antagonist shows up giving a view of the hotel and the manager woman right at the start and this shows both of the people in the shot have the power and authority over the hotel. It looks like it’s a hand held camera which gives the scene a lot more realism because it’s very fast pace as you can move around quicker with a hand held camera. The camera work shows ethnicity because when the hotel worker gets found there is a focus pull which shows that he is in danger because it focuses on him struggling to get away and all of this is just because he's black. 

Editing

The editing throughout the clip had a lot of jump cuts throughout it and this is where it went from the immigrants to the officer and this shows it’s intense because it’s fast pace and you don’t know what’s going to happen next. However, this use of fast pace editing made the scene flow less because you didn’t quite know what’s happening at all times. There’s constant music playing in the background of all the scenes and this shows that it’s all related and makes it flow a lot more then you think.The editing shows ethnicity because it creates tension with the jump cuts from the officer to the workers that they want to hide and not get caught and arrested which brings back the theme of they are treated like animals because they have to hide away from their captures.  

Sound

There was a lot of background music which sounded very intense which fit because of the scenes that were happening in the clip where the immigrants had to hide away so they wouldn’t be found and arrested. There is constant conversation going throughout the clip whether it’s with the officer and the manager or the person who’s hiding the immigrants with the immigrants themselves. There’s also a lot of shouting because they want to get organised and not get caught by the officer. The intense music represents ethnicity because it shows that one of the illegal workers isn't concentrating and he gets caught so he's been hunted which is a type of racism. 

Mise-an scene

All of the costumes that were used in this scene were very co-ordinated, all of the immigrants that worked at the hotel were all wearing their uniform which made it a lot more professional. However, the whole scene is very messy because its rushed around the kitchen which also makes the scene a lot more intense as they have to be fast to escape the officers. Towards the start of the clip there is a black male worker at the hotel and he is well dressed in a full suit and this compares to the rest of the immigrant workers where they are wearing really scruffy outfits and this represents ethnicity because they are illegally working so they will pay less for them and therefore it doesn't matter what they look like because people shouldn't be seeing them.