Representation of Ethnicity in Hotel Babylon

By Rudi and Ryan

Camera Angles• Camera angle of all the immigrants running towards the ‘staff only’ door, shot

from behind a low quality elevator with bars. Bars appear similar to jail bars and could perhaps provide a deeper meaning for the immigrants’ situation, they are trapped. Ethnic groups can feel trapped in the countries that they live in

• Many people rushing fast and intense close up camera angles to the face show the expressions of struggle among the immigrants. Is there a struggle with ethnic minorities that links to this?

• Camera pans backwards to meet behind the shoulders of two police officers, with a character placed in the middle, this scene at the beginning shows us that something may well happen.

• When Jackie rounds up all the immigrants in the hotel the quick camera movements from a handheld camera following her show the struggle and reveals more intensity as the camera shakes quite a bit. This shows the seriousness of the situation, that immigrants must be hidden. Migrants are all shown in the underbelly of the hotel.

• When they all arrive in to the room, the camera switches to an almost POV shot from Jackie, whereby the camera zooms in on each of the different immigrants of different ethnicities that work in the hotel.

• Camera pans past all different ethnic groups at lunch eating, a quick incite to their culture

Sound• music in the beginning has a building tempo of a drum beat, strings and guitars, gradually creating a

more intense atmosphere, as the immigration officers get closer.

• Intense music continues with a drum beat and echoing guitar riffs, when lady is rounding up all immigrants in the building, this represents the struggle and the serious intenseness of the immigrant situation

• When a lady faints in the staff room, intense music begins to build again, there is unease as she is diabetic and needs help, all the immigrants are quick to help her. The use of scientific language from the cleaner shines a positive light on immigrants.

• When the door knocks the intense music begins to build again, this shows the fear the immigrants feel of what is behind the door, when they realize the coast is clear the music calms and the intensity is released

• Calm after the storm: the music begins to play a more calming tranquil composition showing the trouble has ended, this shows the immigrants are back to normal and happy again

• As the man runs downstairs and on through to alarm the immigrants, foreign language is then heard to show the immigrants are present in this scene

• When Jackie finds out about immigration, she calls in a language that is clearly not english when alerting other immigrants

Mise En Scene• The costume of the two immigrants that the ‘warner’ runs past has them quite

stereotypically wearing dungarees and a mustache and large dark eyebrows

• In terms of location/setting, the immigrants work in the underground of the hotel; where they are out of the public / customer eye.

• All the immigrants are clearly working in quite dense conditions

• The way that the immigrants move is not exactly normal. It is almost desperate for them as prey to run away from immigration as predator

• The set design for downstairs is in stark contrast to the set upstairs. Whilst set upstairs is bright and welcoming, downstairs appears almost like a place one would see slaves working

• The characters shown in the cafeteria are saying grace before they eat their food. This is yet another incite in to their culture

Editing• Whilst camera shots from upstairs are long and perhaps ‘laid-back’, camera

shots below are quick and tense. The pacing of the shots in the lobby are slower, almost a sense of lingering

• Zooming on each character inside the ‘staff only’ room gives the audience a sense of the variety in immigrants working in the hotel

• Pan across the locker acts as a wipe which then changes the mood of the scene after one of the immigrants have been lost

• Quick editing to show quick paced shots implies the rush of the immigrants’ movements and actions

• Close up shots on characters like Jackie show their facial expressions and emotions

• Parallel editing is used to show what is going on, and how these events coincide with each other. This creates multiple points of view and tension