Neha Raithatha

Hotel Babylon clip analysis

This clip of Hotel Babylon is about workers who work in a Hotel. The narrative of this clip revolves around immigration officers trying to catch he illegal immigrant workers so that they can be deported back to their home countries. There are many binary opposites used in order to show the significant difference between races and social classes.

At the start of this clip, we see a mid-shot of two policemen stopping a man in a suit from getting out of the hotel. Due to the way this man is dressed, we assume that he works at the Hotel as he is in formal clothing and ask the officers if everything is okay. The director uses non-digetic sound which is fast-paced percussion music throughout the first half of the clip. The music has been used to create tension and warn the audience that something significant is about to happen. Sound-bridging is used to carry this music throughout the different scenes at the beginning of the clip. We then see a mid shot of a white male (who we later find out is John Boyack, an immigration officer), with two stronger looking men behind him. The fact that John is walking slightly in front of these other men, rather than in line with them, tells us that he is in charge of them and has authority over them. The two men are wearing suits with ties; however John is wearing a t-shirt under a suit jacket. This portrays him as a sly and dodgy character as he is not wearing the clothes that a professional would be expected to wear; therefore he is not conforming to the rules. This makes John seem more intimidating and increases the sense of tension in the scene as the audience are unaware of what John will do. This puts the audience in the position to believe that John is the antagonist in the clip. John and his guards approach the front desk where he introduces himself to a woman in a white suit (who we assume is the concierge). The woman in the white turns to a black, male worker called Ben, who is dressed in a suit and asks him to take some forms down to Housekeeping. Here, the black, male worker and the white, female worker seem to be of the same social class and high standard, even though they are of different races. In the next scene, we learn that Ben was sent down to warn the immigrant workers that the immigration officers had arrived. At the point where Ben informs Jackie, the pace of the non-digetic, percussion music seems to get faster in order to build tension. As Jackie rushes into the kitchen to warn the staff about the officers, the director pans the camera across the cooks and kitchen staff. This helps to build the frantic notion between workers as they rush to safety. We can also hear the dialogue between Jackie and the chef, where she talks to him in his native language. This allows the audience to understand that Jackie cares about the workers as by talking to the chef in his native tone, she puts herself at the same social position as he is.

Neha Raithatha

Later we see that the director places the camera behind caging that looks through to the workers as the scramble into a room. The caging makes the workers seem animalistic and as if they have been locked away because they need to be tamed. When in the locked room, the CU of the workers faces displays a look of worry and fear, which allows the audience to feel the pressure that they are under, evoking sympathy for the workers. Features of narrative continuity editing (that is typical to most British TV dramas) are also used at this point. After hearing the digetic sound of knocking on the door, eye-line matching is used in order to show the worried looks on the workers faces and the door, at which they are staring. The person at the door is another worker, letting Jackie know that one of her cleaners (Ibrahim) has been left behind. Here the percussion music stops and instead, there is an eerie sound of harmonic, non-digetic music in order to add to the tense atmosphere. We are introduced to Ibrahim when the camera is placed on him as he vacuums the corridor while the officers retreat from the lift behind him. Ibrahim is first in deep focus, with the officers in shallow focus as they emerge, however the focus swaps between Ibrahim and the officers once they approach him. The significance of this is to suggest that Ibrahim is oblivious to the officers as they are not in focus in his mind, just like they are blurred out on the screen. This adds tension as we as an audience can see the officers closing in on an oblivious and vulnerable member of the lower class, which evokes sympathy. Once the officers catch Ibrahim and take him away, the director tilts the camera down and uses a reverse zoom on the vacuum as the officers pull Ibrahim out of the shot. The significance of the positioning in this shot portrays how Ibrahim is being dragged away from his occupation which is the thing that helps him to survive. As Ibrahim is dragged out of the hotel, the 180 degree rule is broken. The 180 degree rule is used to create continuity and ensure that characters are well separated (using special axis) however this rule is broken when the officers carry Ibrahim out in order to make the audience feel spatially uncomfortable. There is a significant change in the sound after Ibrahim is taken away and it changes to slow paced, depressing non-digetic, harmonic music which matches the sombre and mournful atmosphere. Following Ibrahims exit, Jackie takes his belongings out of his locker. This makes it seem as if Ibrahim is being torn away from the hotel staff who were the closest thing he had to a family. As the CU shows Jackie turning the key to lock the locker, we come to understand that it is a metaphorical allusion of the hotel workers locking Ibrahim out of their lives. In the last scene, panning is used when the workers are eating. The camera pans from right to left, showing a panorama of the workers at their tables, which seems to have a depressing tone due to the slow panning motion. We see that the workers are split into tables according to their ethnic group. This suggests that even though they are united as workers, they are separated as different races. Moreover, the low ceilings suggest that he

Neha Raithatha

workers are underground and must hide, whereas the high ceilings in the lobby allow the concierge and guests to be open about who they are. The low ceilings also reflect the low class of the workers and how they are treated due to their race. Throughout this clip, the workers seem to be in red uniforms that resemble what a prisoner would wear, whereas Jackie is in a black suit with a red shirt and the concierge is dressed fully in a white suit. Here, the costume is a signifier of the different social classes and hierarchy within the hotel. The woman wearing a white suit (that has connotations of being pure and angelic) is at the top of the hierarchy and is a white, blonde female who speaks formally, in a southern English accent. Next is Jackie, who is dressed in a suit to signify her position of authority over the workers. However she is wearing red, just like their uniforms. This portrays how she may be of a higher social class than the workers, but she is still part of a minority ethnic group, just like them. Even though Jackie speaks in formal English and it is easy to comprehend what she is saying, she has an Australian accent, which makes her different from the typical white, blonde, British stereotype. The red uniforms of the workers seem to be a binary opposition of the concierges white suit. The two colours suggest that the immigrants attract danger to the hotel and that the concierge acts as a mediator who brings a sense of peace to the hotel after the tense moment of Ibrahims exit. To conclude, I believe that Camera, Mise-en-scene, Sound and Editing are all equally important in the representation of race and class in this clip. In my opinion, one of the most significant scenes is when the workers are eating as it allows the audience to view their secretive, underground lives and portrays that they are only united when it comes to saving their lives, which signifies how all races are divided, even if society places them in the lower class due to the fact that they are part of a minority group.