Mock Essay - Hotel Babylon - Ethnicity

In the extract, ethnicity is viewed in many aspects including mise-en-scene. The location is in a small cloak room, with all the immigrants huddled together. This shows the immigrants to be in it together, as a group as they all look to protect eachother. The immigrants had different jobs including working in the kitchen and cleaning. The cleaner who is hoovering shows that the immigrants are handed the less glamourous jobs, away from the customers as if they are not considered as normal and that they are not to be seen. It represents their low role in the hotel and that they are treated differently. The difference of equality between the immigrants and the white workers in the hotel are visible as the blonde lady in reception is dressed in a slick white suit compared to the immigrants in overalls.The overalls represent the immigrants as dangerous because as they are in the same overalls, people will instantly know who they are, as if to keep away from them.

Another way in the extract in which ethnicity is represented is through sound. The diagetic sound of the  immigrants talking to eachother emphasises on their accent, which allows the audience to recognise their ethnic background. This reinforces the ethnicity stereotype as foreign people are often associated with low jobs such as cleaners or cooks, away from everyone else, emphasising in their lack of power. However there is a shot where the foreign lady who is in the suit is talking to one of the cleaners. The lady in the suit talks confidently and clear, as if she has been through this trouble and pressure many times whereas the cleaner is uneasy and uncomfortable and disrupts the scene. The soundtrack in the extract is fast paced which highlights the danger and conflict. This is shown through the sharp edits between each immigrant in the cloak room, highlighting the fear in their face of losing their job, as if they would not be accepted anywhere else.

The camera is edited in a way to feel sympathy for the immigrants. The audience pity the immigrants because of the close up shots which show their lack of independence and their worry of never being able to get a job again if they are found. This represents societies view on immigrants that the only job they are worthy of earning is away from everyone else so they can not be seen.

Overall in the extract, it reinforces the stereotype of ethnicity as they are portrayed to have low jobs, locked away from the rest of society as if they are worth nothing. The same use of uniform and small space to work in represents there distance from the rest of the world as it shows them as if they are prisoners and are under close control.