Representation of Ethnicity - Luther

In the opening scene a white man is running from the black man, Luther. When the camera is looking at the white man he is small in the shot and doesn’t make the viewer feel he is an intimidating character. When the camera is on Luther he fills the shot and the camera is looking up to him. This shows how he is a powerful, intimidating character which is a stereo type of thuggish black men. At first the viewer is lead to think that Luther is the bad person in this scene. The viewer thinks this because he is a big black man and it looks like he is wearing a hoody which conforms to the stereotype making the viewer just suppose he is the bad guy chasing an innocent white guy.

When The chase is happening we hear a strange quick noise. It sounds like a noise from the jungle. This gives the impression that the white man is being hunted down by the black man who could be made to look like a predatory character.

The setting for the first scene is in an abandoned factory, this sort of run down urban area is the sort that we would typically associate to gangs and thugs. This stereotype helps the user to think that Luther is the bad person in this scene because black people are perceived to be bad.

When he catches the white man on the catwalk we hear him speak for the first time, he speaks with a street accent which once again makes him conform to the stereotype.

When Luther is talking the camera shot is a close up of his face. The camera is angled up to show that he is an overpowering character and you can see the anger in his face. The way he overpowers the smaller white man is stereo typical of a black man because they are perceived to be aggressive people.

There is a use of parallel editing in the scene where he is questioning the white man. Whilst the white team of police are shown to be going by the rules and being very formal and showing full respect to each other calling their boss “mom” etc. Whereas Luther is shown to be doing the gritty dirty work. This is stereotypical of a black man to not follow the rules and be doing the dirty work rather than the white person.

However after this he goes against the stereotype when he lets the white man fall you can see the hurt and regret in his eyes. This is not what you would expect to see from a black character because you expect them to be heartless because of the hard stereotype we have been taught to think of.

Media Institution Research

20^th Century Fox have currently produced 1501 films. The most current production being worked on being I Robot 2. Other successful films that 20^th Century has produced are the recent Rise of the Planet of the Apes. One of their biggest successes would have been Avatar which was produced in 2010 and Die Hard 4.0 that was released in 2007 was another big success. They specialise in action films.

20^th Century is a subsidiary arm of News Corp ran by Rupert Murdoch. News Corps other subsidiary arms include Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, all of the Fox Network channels and the National Geographic channels. 20^th Century hold 11.1% of the production market making them the smallest of the big 6 institutes.

20^th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the home video distribution arm of the 20^th century film studio.

Working Title is an independent British institution. It has currently produced 167 films. These include titles such as Hot Fuzz, Mr Beans Holiday and Shaun of the Dead. Films that they have been most successful with have been comedy films. Working Title is owned by Universal Studios which one of the Big 6 American production companies. Working Title has been contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $35 million from Universal Studios. Working Title Films signed a deal with Universal Studios in 1999 for a reported $600 million, which them the power to commission projects with a budget of up to $35 million without having to consult Universal. Before Working title became a part of the Universal group it was part of the PolyGram group who were a major label recording company which then bought 20^th Century records and the Fox network. Polygram then in 1999 merged into Universal Music. Before Working Title was a part of Polygram it was an independent film producer.

Representation of Gender - Primevil

In the opening scene of the clip we are introduced to a male and a female character walking together. The male character is shown to be a lot bigger than the female and looks over powering making the female character look small. This is a sterotype of men and women ebacuse it is making the female character look weaker thant the male.

 When the body has been dug up from the trench only the men stand around and discuss the options of what to do next. The clip cuts to whoever is speaking at the time and this shows once again that the male is the more dominant gender in this clip as they are the ones making all of the discisions.

 When the smartly dresses lady starts threatening the dog breeder about the police the male character gets very angry about being told what to do/ being pushed around. The music changes from being quite peaceful to dark music and lots of noise when he flips and becomes mad. He gets mad because he is being told what to do by the female character and needs to prove he is the more dominant character. The femle backs down to him very quickly

 When the 3 people enter the room where the dog breeder is the front person of the 3 is the male and he is close to the camera making him look bigger than the woman and the other male. This once again shows that the male is the leader and the more dominant gender.

Representation of Etnicity - Hotel Babylon

As the group of smartly dressed men come into scene near the start of the clip there is a black man sat reading a newspaper. When they come in he looks up from his newspaper looking very concerned and scared about the group of men who have just arrived. This shows how the group of white men are the more powerful ethnic in this scene. When the lady at the desk needs a job doing she looks to the same black man to do it. This once again shows that the people of white ethnicity in this scene are the more powerful as she is giving the orders. When he is asked to do this he is confused and she says “Brain like a sieve”. This shows a lack of respect for the black man.

 Once the staff are aware that immigration have arrived there is a big rush for them to hide. There is one black man Ibrahim the cleaner who is going about his work with his headphones on so is unaware of the situation. This once again portrays that the people of black ethnicity in this clip are more clueless than those who are white. When the group of white men bump into Ibrahim he is scared and tries to run but he falls and is instantly caught by the group of white men showing that they are the stronger more powerful ethnicity.

Another way that there is a contrast shown between the ethnicity groups is that the group of white men are shown to be very heartless. They are there to do their job and they don’t care whose life’s they are ruining because they believe that they are a higher more important people than the immigrants. This is a contrast to the immigrants who all treat each other as one family. Although they all come from different ethnicity groups they stick together to give them all the best chance at life and treat all people equally. This is shown throughout the clip as the white people show no respect for any of the staff at the hotel whereas the hotel staff all look out for each other to make sure that they are safe and show equal respect to everyone in the scene.

 The white lady on the reception has the same attitude as the group of immigration officers. Once Ibrahim has been taken out of the hotel she doesn’t show any remorse for any of the immigrant workers, she is just concerned about the business and customers to the hotel. The way she talks about the workers shows very little respect for them showing that she believes as she is white she is in the more powerful ethnicity group.

Representation of Class - Monarch of the Glen

Sound – The young girl that has been taken in by the rich family has a strong Welsh accent whereas the man who has taken her in has a very received pronunciation. This shows that he is much more of an upper class to her and portrays him as more of a leading character.

Camera shots/ Angles - After the young girl has crashed the car we are introduced to the headmaster. When he is speaking he fills the camera shot and is the only person visible in the shot at this moment. This gives the effect that he is a big character and makes the viewer feel as if you are looking up at them. This makes him seem like a much more powerful character. This contrasts with the camera angle when it cuts to the young girl. She only just fills half of the shot, this being the bottom half meaning that as a viewer you look down on her. This shows you that she is the weaker character compared to the head master. Another way that this shot makes her look small is by crowding her with people taller than her. This just enhances the idea of her being the smaller, weaker character in this shot.

Camera shots/ Angles - Again at 2:33 in the clip there is an over the shoulder shot from behind the young girl looking up at her ‘father figure’. This shot shows how much of a bigger more powerful the man is compared to her. When she begins speaking the shot changes from to have to camera looking down on her with a mid-shot. The way that the camera angle alternates depending on who is speaking helps to show the contrast in class and power in this clip. When the man is speaking the camera is looking up to him. But when the girl is speaking the camera is angles to look down on her as she is the lower class and the less powerful character in this shot.

Mise en scene – In the first scene of the clip we are introduced to the young girl and a young boy character. The building behind them looks like it is a mess and there are kitchen towels hanging across the courtyard drying. They are doing manual labour, sweeping up. This shows that these two characters are both from a working class.

Sound - In the last scene in the extract we see the leading man at a farm setting. When the farmer comes to argue what is going on he has a very thick Welsh accent. When the leading man speaks he speaks with a received pronunciation and speaks to the farmer with a clear lack of respect. You can tell from the way that he speaks down to the farmer that he is from a higher class of people.

Representation of Age in TV Drama

Representation of Age on Prezi