https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grAgxe94bRs
During this extract of Hotel Babylon, cinematography, mise-en-scene, editing, and sound were used to represent ethnicity and race.
Cinematography was used to represent race such as low angle panning shot of the white male immigration service. This empowered and represented them as dominant in race and authority. Linking to Alvarado's race theory, the theme used to represent these people were dangerous. This means that they are feared by other races and could bring about connotations from 1950s south America. There could also be a misunderstanding with Stuart Hall's encoding and decoding theory with this representation. The producers of this extract could have encoded low angle camera shots to show authority. However this could have been decoded as "white dominance" by the audience.
Mise-en-scene was also used to represent ethnicity. For example, the workers that were speaking a foreign language in the kitchen were wearing working class clothing. This would represent their non-English ethnicity's as working class and low status within social hegemony. This brings about the theme of these people being pitied from Alvarado's race theory. In terms of Stuart Hall's theory of encoding and decoding, this could have been encoded to have sympathy from the audience. However this could have been decoded as the working class ethnicity's as poor and unhelpful since they are illegally working in the hotel and have nowhere else to go.
Editing also played a role when representing race and ethnicity. For example, the fast paced camera shot changes during the time when they workers were going into the cupboard to hide could have highlighted the panic of the workers, representing them as vulnerable people in the hotel. This again has the theme of the people being pitied from Alvarado's theory since they are in such panic from the fast camera shot changes. This in my opinion, this is both encoded and decoded as representing the panic of the workers. However to other audiences, it could have been decoded to represent the different race and ethnicity's helpless which could bring about unhappiness from them.
Sound is also used to represent race and ethnicity such as the dialogue from the office worker towards the beginning of the extract. The immigration service enter the hotel asking to search the premises. The office worker then asks her colleague if he has performed a work task. This "work task" was a secret hint that only the hotel workers knew about to hide the illegal workers. After replying that he has not done this task, he leaves the scene to warn the others about the immigration authorities. She calls the other dark skinned colleague having a "brain like a sieve" to stall the authorities. This dialogue could have been encoded by the producers to have the office worker stall the authorities. However this could have been decoded as a racial comment about black people having a "brain like a sieve" which could have brought about a miss understanding.
very good Nabil well done, quite inciteful, there is a good (strong) use of race theory and Hall's encoding/decoding model... You have explored the representation of race and ethnicity through the four micro elements. There is a need for your to find a greater frequency of events within the drama where race and identity are represented... You must do this as if you were sitting an exam... for example there are elements within the storage cupboard where the fainting woman (Eastern European) is shot from a high angle, consider how this links with Alvarado (1978) representation of race a s pitied. Within the same area a black worker takes charge and diagnoses the problem and administers treatment, in what way is this a counter stereotype...? and so on...
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