5 Minute clip - Hotel Babylon
The 5 minute clip starts of with a man in the basement of a hotel. We hear the non diegetic sound of an elevator in the background. This could represent the fact that the hotel is a compact space and there is no where to go; it is like a prison. We get this idea of prison when the camera angle is changed and we see two policemen standing by an entrance. This implies that no can leave the premises, in other words everyone in the hotel is trapped. This point links to race and ethnicity, because wherever immigrants go they always have the feeling of being trapped or they will eventually get trapped. Furthermore, after hearing the elevator, non-diegetic music starts to play. This has a fast paced beat which increases the tension. After seeing the policemen you know straight away that they have high authority because they are in uniform. We then have a shot reverse shot, where the camera has been changed to a two shot of the policemen, then back to a medium close up of the man.
The next scene starts of with camera man zooming into a women at the front desk in the hotel. It went from a long shot to a medium close up. Due to what she is wearing (smart clothes all in white), she has some importance compared to other people in the clip. The shot then cuts to the front entrance, where we see a detective and more policemen walk into the building. From seeing this we know nothing good will come out of it. When they are walking in a steadicam is used to help create the walking shot. We then get another shot reverse shot, between the lady at the front desk and the detective. The reverse shot starts of by looking at the detectives face, then the 180 degree rule is used, which changes into an over the shoulder shot to face the lady at the desk. The use of having continuous back and fourth shots between these two characters shows that this is an important part to the storyline. Just from watching the first minute, we can already tell that the detective is the antagonist. Once their conversation was finished the director cut the scene to go on to the next one. We see a man rush down the stairs to tell someone some important news. Like before, they used the 180 degree rule again when he was running down the stairs, (the camera faced him at first then turned to face his back). The scene is cut to Jackie working at her desk and the camera is slightly looking down on her which implies that her status on the hierarchy is not that high as others. The camera is moved so it can pan to the door which is where we see two men rush in to tell Jackie about the immigration.
The scene then cuts to the kitchen, which is where the majority of the immigrants are working. The camera is moved so it pans across the room. When this happens we see Jackie talking to the immigrants in different languages. We can tell by the way she is talking that everyone needs to speed up and hide. Seeing this shows us that no immigrant is safe in that hotel because it is like a cat and mouse game between the detective and the immigrants. Everyone rushes down the hall to go hide, and when they come to a room someone has zoomed into the lock, when Jackie is trying to open it. She frantically tries to put the key in the door which increases the tension as it is showing us that they have very limited time to go hide. From seeing these past clips you can tell that their life is on the line. Everyone desperately runs into the room and the door is slammed shut. Once inside the camera shows a close up of Jackie taking the key our of the locked door and then she is see counting the amount of people in the room. A cutaway is then used to show the tension on the immigrants faces. At the same time we hear the diegetic sound of heaving breathing from multiple people in the room. The camera has then been zoomed into Jackie's face when she realises one of the immigrants is not in the room. Just like before the tension increases because we know nothing good will come out of these immigrants getting caught. The scene then cross cuts to a few second clip of a man vacuuming. From what we were just told this must be the missing immigrant, Abraham. The director panned the camera up from the bottom of Abraham to the top. We saw that he was wearing an old red jumpsuit and had headphones on his head, which explains why he did not know he had to go hide. The fact the he is wearing an old red jumpsuit shows that he has not been given much respect. Following that short cross cut we are brought back to the room with all the immigrants. The shock of it all sends one of them falling to the floor and fainting. A reverse zoom is used on Jackie's face when she finds out that the lady who fainted is diabetic. A male black immigrant implies that before this he was a doctor, so he helps the lady. Knowing this implies these immigrants may have had perfectly normal lives before they moved country. This tells us that we degrading the immigrants just because they are from another country. Another cutaway is used which shows a few second clip of Abraham vacuuming. Seeing this implies that he has not got a care in the world and he does not realise what is going n around him; some people may call him stupid for doing this. The clip changes back to the immigrants in the room. We notice that the black immigrant asked for some jam to use in the lady's mouth. (After seeing that we really know he is a doctor.
From seeing the following scenes we can tell that the immigrants are the protagonist because we feel sympathy for them and we want them to be free from the detective. As well as this, the hotel is split into two levels. The top level is the ground floor of the hotel where the detective is first seen, and the other level is the basement which is where all the immigrants are. This could relate to the two levels on the hierarchy; the top level being the middle and higher classed people i.e. the detective, policemen, hotel guests, and the bottom level being the lower class people i.e. the immigrants.
The scene cuts to the detective and policemen walking out of an elevator, (this may have been the same elevator that we heard at the start). In the corner, we see a blurred image of a close up of Abrahams face. The immigrant tries to run but he falls over the vacuum cleaner ad at the same time the policemen went after him. When they did, the detective was just walking behind. Seeing this implies that he is so high up on the hierarchy that he does not need to go chase after people because of his authority. The scene cuts back to the room of immigrants ad as soon as we hear a knock on the door the cameraman zoomed into the group of people, with Jackie being in the middle. Jackie opens the door and they find out Abraham has been caught.
Jackie finally goes and talks to the detective and when she does he does not reason with her. A shot reverse shot is used during their conversation. Using that it shows that the conversation is just between them. Once their conversation was over the scene cuts, and the cameraman pans the camera to Jackie taking out Abrahams belongings from his locker. When the scene began non-diegetic music started to play, and this was very different to the first set of music which was played from the start till now. This type of music is slower and might possible be played by violins. Mainly we associate violins with sad music, which is the type of music that is being played for the scene. Once Jackie finished taking his belongings out of the locker the camera cut to a closer image of Jackie locking the locker. Showing this might imply how the immigrant is going to be locked away because of what he done. The last scene shows a pan of the different ethnicity's sitting down eating their dinner. The last table shows a black male and female praying before they ate their food. Compared to the other ethnicity's they are the only ones who are not being loud and are thankful for their food. This tells us how different ethnicity's react if different ways.
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