Essay- Hotel Babylon

In the following clip of the hit TV drama 'Hotel Babylon', ethnicity is presented throughout that those who are a different ethnic origin are stereotypically cleaners or kitchen workers. This conveys that we see all illegal immigrants as doing the jobs that white British people are not as keen to do. The police officers that come to the hotel to raid the building in search for the illegal immigrants are seen as superior to all foreigners. This shows that it is conveyed that in this episode, white people have a much greater status and power over those who are of a different ethnic race (e.g black, polish, asian ect)

At the beginning of the scene, a close-up shot of the main police detective officer is used to fully convey his stern facial expression to the audience and to portray that he is the main 'villain' in this episode.
He then begins to walk towards the camera to symbolize to the audience that he is coming for them (the immigrant workers) and to engage the audience to make them feel as if he is also coming for them as well; adding extra tension to the scene.

Once the main character of this scene, Jackie, realizes that the police are here to take away the workers, the camera follows her running into he kitchen to hide them all. This makes the audience feel as though we are running along side her , and fully conveys that panic of the situation.
As soon as she manages to move them all out of the kitchen, they are run down the hallway; looking for somewhere to hide. The camera is then hidden behind some bars in the shot to connote that they're all trapped and in need of somewhere to hide.

Soon as Jackie leads the workers to a safe place to hide, the camera zooms into her un locking the door handle by doing a close up shot of her struggling to get the key into the lock and open the door. This conveys the panic and urgency of the situation and how it is a race against time before the police and detective come for them all.
Once she has managed to get the workers safely into the small store room, the camera then instantly does another close up shot of her shutting the door handle and re-locking it. By doing so, it suggests that they are locked in and trapped.

As soon as she gets everyone into the store room and locks the door, Jackie begins to count how many workers are in the room. Once she realizes that she sis missing one, the camera does a deliberate zoom into Jackie's face, ending in a close up of her shocked emotion to show that there is another panicked situation. By doing a quick zoom into her face, it portrays to the audience that there is a sudden dramatic change, adding extra agitation.

Once Jackie identifies who is missing, the camera does a parallel editing shot from the trapped illegal workers to the missing worker hovering in one of the hallways with his music on- oblivious to the commotion. The camera pans up from the floor of the missing worker hovering to show that he is being revealed to the audience.

When the illegal missing worker gets taken by the police officers, the camera pans back down onto the hoover on its own in the middle of the empty hall. This portrays that he's gone for good.

Due to the police officers having successfully taken an illegal immigrant from the hotel, there is a secret knock at the door of the storage cupboard in which all of the workers are hiding in. The camera does a rapid zoom into Jackie's face to show her sudden change of emotion and worry of the door knocking, adding more panic to the situation, yet relief when its one of her colleagues. 

As the police officers are removing the illegal worker and taking him to be deported, there is a shallow focus on all of the other workers on the main department of the hotel, making the main focus Jackie in the tight hand corner of the screen. This connotes to the audience that she is the main concern during this scene and is the only worker that seems to fully care and understand what will happen to those that are taken.

Once the police officers have left the building and a form of equilibrium is restored, Jackie begins to clear out the taken migrant workers locker. The camera does a close up again of Jackie locking and un locking his locker door to show that one my be gone, but the others are still trapped there.

At the end of the scene, the camera pans across all of the migrant workers eating their lunch, showing the audience all the different ethnicities and that they're just ordinary people trying to get by in their lives. It also gives the audience an incite on how many illegal workers are actually at this hotel, making us think that the police would be back at some point for them because they know that they're there.
The scene ends with the editing format of a fade out to black showing that the episode has a negative ending and makes the audience think and reflect on what's happened.

From the moment that the workers begin to plan how they will hide all of the workers and Jackie begins to manically run around the kitchen to collect them all, non diegetic sound is added to create a higher level of tension.

All of the diegetic sounds that are included throughout this scene tend to be noises that represent stress, panic and fear. Doors closing, opening of locks, footsteps and heavy breathing are all included to convey to the audience the stress of the moment. It makes the situation feel more realistic and as if we are there with them.

Dialogue is used throughout the scene so that we, as the audience, can fully understand what is happening why and how all of the characters react to it. When Jackie rushes in to the kitchen to tell all of the workers to leave the area and to hide because the immigration officers are there, she says it all in a series of foreign languages. This portrays to the audience that not only Jackie can fully communicate with them all in their mother-tongue but can also suggest that she is somewhat part of them as well.

When Jackie gets the workers into the store room to hide, one of the workers collapses due to her having diabetes and is suffering from an attack, one of the African workers (Adam) cures her and wakes her up. He then says to Jackie 'I wasn't always a cleaner you know!'. By saying this, he is clearing up the stereotype that we all have towards foreign people in our country because clearly, in his country he had a more well-looked upon profession- possibly a doctor- showing that migrants can do the more well looked upon jobs that we do as well.

Throughout the whole panic section of the scene when the police officers are searching for the hidden illegal immigrant workers, there is a tense music in the background to build up the atmosphere. Yet, when the police officers catch the stray worker who was oblivious to the commotion the music stops when he is being dragged out of the hotel lobby. By there being a stunned silence rather than music, it fully conveys a more realistic atmosphere by being able to hear the witnesses reactions. Sometimes no music, like in this section, can add a better atmosphere than those with non-diegetic sound.

When Jackie is clearing out his locker because he has been taken, non-diegetic sound is added to add a depressing, sad and emotional atmosphere. The use of the slow music shows to the audience that because someone has gone, it is an upsetting moment.




At the very beginning of the scene, the mise-en-scene of the police officers and detectives are their uniforms (costumes) that they wear to show that they are the real deal. The lighting on the main detective walking at the front of the group is rather dark, shadowing on his face, to convey that he is here for a dark purpose.
 Shortly after they walk in, the camera begins to focus on the main woman of the hotel at the front of house. Her costume for this scene is a bright white suit and she has bright blonde hair and is stood behind her large reception desk with bright lighting all over her. The way in which she is shown her indicates that she is pure and more superior than everyone else.

Jackie is informed of the whole raiding situation with the police whilst she is working in her office. Because Jackie is of a different ethnic race to the other white workers, her office is completely different to theirs and is downstairs, underneath the main part of the building (hidden away)- especially the main blonde woman at the front of house. Jackie's office is in what appears to be like a small stock room and is surrounded by boxes and clutter. This could portray that because she's foreign, she's just being added to the clutter within the hotel. In her office, the lighting on Jackie is much darker than the woman's at the front of house because it shows that she is separated from everyone else and is not in the lime-light because she could be classed as different. Also, because her office is downstairs away from the main reception area of the front of the house, this shows that because she is of an ethnic origin, the manager did not want the public to be greeted by someone foreign.

The costumes of the immigrant workers are all in a form of kitchen or house keeping wear to show that they all have the same, stereotypical job which we all associate foreign people doing. Each one of them is dressed exactly the same depending on what department they work for which conveys that every single one of them is the same and none of them are treated any differently.

Throughout the scene, the character whose facial expression is shown in the most detail is Jackie. This is because she is the woman in charge of keeping all the immigrant workers safe, so by the audience being able to see how she reacts emotionally too each of the dramatic situations, makes you feel more for the character and as if we're with them as well.
We also see the migrant workers expressions throughout, especially when they are all in the locked storage room by the camera doing close ups/mid-shots to show how they are all reacting in this situation and their expressions that they convey.

For the editing aspects of this scene from the TV drama, parallel editing cuts from the trapped illegal workers, suddenly to the other worker hovering in the hall way to show to the audience the change in panic and drama to the tranquility of him cleaning; un aware of the dramatic situation that is on going. A shallow focus is used towards the end of the scene, blurring out the other workers within the hotel (who are white) in the reception room, concentrating on the close up of Jackie in the right hand corner. This is used at this point because one of the migrant workers is being taken away and she is the only member of staff at that point that is seriously moved by what's happened, so the audience wish to focus on her reaction because she tried to prevent anyone from being taken.

The scene ends with a fade out to black to show that the episode has ended on a negative note, and leaves the audience thinking about what could happen next.