Isabel Duce Media Studies. Tv Drama. 1st + 5th December. Page
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Essay: Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations of ethnicity
Essay: Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations of ethnicity
This clip shows many
different representations of ethnicity such as Jamaican in the first scene of
the two black men, The second scene shows Japanese and eastern European.
The first scene
consists of a reaction shot which happens when a black hotel waiter reacts to
seeing an ex friend of his nicknamed ‘tel’ in the hotel he is working at. It is
clear that he is shocked and embarrassed to see this old friend as he looks
embarrassed and scratches his head and even looks around him to see if anyone
is looking. He is very eager to ‘get back to the desk’
The angles from the
over the shoulder shots are key when the black men first meeting in the first
scene. The angle is looking up to the hotel worker whereas the angle (from over
the hotel workers shoulder) to the resident of the hotel is looking down the
effect of this is to show the representation of the different classes the men
both have even though we know that they both are from the same ethnicity however
they are now in different classes as the scene uses mise en scene as we have
the brightly coloured swimming shorts of the hotel guest to represent the
Jamaican colours and all the ‘bling’ worn on the men. However the black hotel
workers suit uniform is a signifier because the signified message is his
costume of being smartly dressed and is working at the hotel, working hard to
earn his money as the other one (the guest) has hardly any clothes on and
speaks about the ‘ganga’ , ‘top top ladies’ and partying. The black hotel
worker is coming away from the ‘typical’ stereotype of young black men.
This scene uses mise
en scene as we have the brightly coloured swimming shorts to represent the
Jamaican colours and all the ‘bling’ worn on the men. However the hotel workers
uniform is a signifier because the uniform is signified message is that
We have a zoomed shot
of the hotel worker when the customer says
‘that’s the old benjamin’
In the very first
scene we see a guest of the hotel, Dressed in white who is placed in the corner
in the light who is being served by the black man dressed in a black suit who is in the
dark this could represent whose higher
up in status.
We know the maids are
foreign due to their accents, maybe eatern european. The more confident maid stands there waiting
for the music to be played with her hand on her hip whereas the less confident
maid stands there with her arms together very nervously. The representation of
the maids is contrasting because the more confident maid who has obviously done
this before as she knows the man ‘pays
double for double’ is wearing black underwear compared the other maid who
clearly has never done this before is wearing white and a cross. White signifies
purity and cleanleness. This is again the different representations of people in the same ethnicity.
The representation of
the japanese man also known as a ‘regular’ is shown as a very rich. He is
paying for the maids to dance for him.
There are many digetic
and non digetic noises throughout the extract. The first noise we hear is the
digetic (natural) sound of the splashing of the pool which is then interrupted
by the man coming out of the pool and calling upon the hotel worker. In the
maid part we have a ‘mission-themed’ tune played throughout the maids speaking
about whats going to happen.
