Hotel Babylon

Find more videos like this on Beauchamp College Media

During the clip on Hotel Babylon you can see many different ethnic stereotypes. Starting with looking at the ethnicity of Afro-Caribbean people. The setting is the hotel's swimming pool; it begins with a pan of the pool, and then moves into a close up. The lights are dim and the music is calm, this creates a relaxed feel to the scene. Soon two characters are introduced and straight away we are able to see that they are in fact complete opposites. Both are men and one is presented as a casual laid back character, we can gather this because of his use of slang and colloquial language. This character has just emerged from the pool in trunks; this shows us that he cares more about his recreational time then work. He also refers to parties, girls, drugs and alcohol. The other character is smart and is acting anxious and nervous. The more casual character seems happy to meet up again while the other character looks unsure of himself and is worrying with the conversation topic. This looks at the two different sides that blacks are tend to be stereotyped as.

Next is a scene containing two French maids who are about to clean a Japanese man room. The camera closes up onto the room service card which reveals two stars which is a code for him 'paying double for double'. The maids have heavy French accents and seem to only be able to use French-Latinate vocabulary.  The maids enter the room we begin to understand of what the term 'he pays double for double means' the maids begin to dance for extra money. This is very stereotypical as it seems a foreign worker will do anything to make any extra cash. The music at this point is a very cheesy pop song that also appears to have French lyrics which are in relation to the maids themselves. Whilst they are dancing the camera enters a mid shot and switches from this to a close up of the Japanese characters eyes which are watching them.

The Japanese character is portrayed as a very typical ethnic stereotype. First is a mid shot of the Japanese man sitting on his bed in a dressing gown. This automatically assumes he may be slightly 'pervy'. The camera then moves into a close up on to the two piles of money for each maid on the table. The stereotype that the Japanese are extremely wealthy met quickly and made very clear by this shot. He is paying workers extra cash for them to strip and dance, which follows a clear stereotype of him being dirty and perverted his room also, appears to be extremely tidy and clean, either the maids do a very good job or he lives up to. The Japanese are renowned for keeping their belongings very tidy and clean so we are shown another stereotypical view of this particular ethnicity. The camera focuses on the characters eyes which are in turn focused on the maids body’s whilst they undress, this uses a close up. This represents perfectly that he is a character fascinated and thoroughly enjoying something that he should not be looking at.

In the next part of the scene the setting is the hotel kitchen, which focuses on two main characters which appear to be the head chefs, they are surrounded by many other chefs, and they are of no importance to the scene though. The ethnic of one head chef is Italian. The stereotype of this ethnicity is a strong accent, overly friendly and well dressed. Next we get a mid shot with the two chefs standing next to each other being friendly which an act is clearly. The British chef is overweight, tall, has much paler skin and dressed in white in comparison to this the Italian chef is skinny,  small, has a dark complexion, and dressed in black. The two characters dressed in black and white may be signifying good and bad between the two ethnics. Later on, after we have been introduced to the characters an argument breaks out, during this the background music gets faster which builds even more tension between the two characters. The English chef seems rather pathetic and hopeless at this point in time which represents what a typical overweight British would be stereotyped as. On the other hand the Italian has picked up a knife, and at this point we see a close up from the camera which puts emphasis on the fact that the character is dangerous. This is following the stereotype which plays on men from foreign countries being very sneaky and unreliable.

Overall, ethnicity is clearly represented in the clip by using stereotypes which are usually associated with a certain type of ethnic. The clip does not explore any contrasts which may go against a typical stereotype and instead sticks to making each characters role very predictable due to their ethnic.

Select one character from a British TV drama and explain how they are a 'stereotypical' representation of your area of study (Age in The Inbetweeners).

Age is a portrayed hugely in a stereotypical way in British TV. Children are shown to annoying and will get upset if they don’t get their own way. Teenagers are shown to be mischievous and troublesome. Middle aged members of society are shown to be very boring, monotonous people who don’t really get up to much. While the elderly are portrayed as being old, crazy, weak and cranky. They Television programme I chose to analysis was The Inbetweeners, this programme is based on a teen from private schooling has got moved to a public school. The Inbetweeners is a story of his mission getting new friends and the four of them have adventures, trips and spend all their time going after girls which always ends badly.

Children in this programme are defiantly shown as being annoying, one of the main characters Simon has a little brother. His little brother sucks up to his parents, informs them when Simon has done something wrong. When he is out of view of his parents he uses vulgar language and tries to get Simon into trouble. The reason for the media portraying children in this way is that the programme is aimed at teenagers, who most of them can relate to having an annoying little sibling.

Teenagers are never shown to be ‘normal teenagers’, the media tend to exaggerate teens problems for the sake of comedy. Viewing teenagers will such bad fortune will make the viewer feel good about their life and because their teenager will laugh at the others misfortune. In The Inbetweeners the main characters who are teenagers are represented as basically being losers, who are desperate to have sexual intercourse with girls. They go to school, go round each other’s houses and get drunk and go to the rare party. There would normally be not a lot of good viewing in their lives but being very very unfortunate really makes the viewing so much better. Anything that can go wrong will, this is quite different to normal teenagers as not every day is a train wreck of misfortune. If they aired a programme that consisted of four teens sitting around drinking it would be quite boring. Throw in hilarious language, a lot of vomit, urinating on each other, cars in lakes and erection problems then the programme is bound to be hilarious. Not a lot of people can relate to the lives lived in The Inbetweeners that’s what makes it so popular. It shows how unlucky your life could be so you have to laugh at a continuing luckless streak.

Adults who are middle aged are represented in the Television programme as being the opposite of the stereotypical adult. Instead of being boring and workaholics, they are a main source of embarrassment for their children. For instance Simon’s dad tells many a tale about sexual experiences with Simon’s mum, these tales are usually told in front of Simon and his friends. The main character Will has a mum that is known among his friends as being very good looking. But she also reveals many of Wills secrets in front of his friends e.g. crying on rollercoaster’s in the past and having to take suppositories for illnesses. The reason why middle aged adults are represented this way is because of the viewing audience again. Most teenagers is embarrassed about their parents or parent, they can relate to the characters and know that it is quite normal to have embarrassing parents.

Elderly people are portrayed in The Inbetweeners as being weak, boring and ill. In one of the episodes they volunteer at a retirement home for the elderly. All of the old people are just sitting around sleeping or watching rubbish mid-day T.V. The home is smelly and the elderly even need help going to the toilet. This episode is funny because the audience can laugh at how the teenagers have to create their own entertainment. Later on another character Jay brings out the non-stereotypical side of the elderly. He gets caught masturbating by a group of people; little did he know there was an old woman in the room. This old woman blurts of “He did that over me!” we can infer from this that not all elderly people are boring and sapped of all humour. The reason why the elderly are represented in this way is that we don’t really know what old people are like when you’re not around. This goes strongly against the stereotypical view and brings to our attention that we don’t really know the elderly. For all we know they could all be party animals who always get drunk and cause trouble when we’re not around.

How does Calvin Klein represent females in the advert? Are they objectified or sexually empowered?

How does Calvin Klein represent females in the below advert?

The advert above represent s the females as being objectified and sexually empowered, but on the other hand she is a role model for women and makes them look and feel better. The pose appeals to both males and females who look at it. There are many reasons why it will appeal to men; one is that they would like their wives/ girlfriends to look like the woman above. They think that if they buy the underwear for their female friends then they will look like Eva Mendes. This advert appeals to men because they like to look at the model and think their wife will look like this. She has been oiled up, but looks as if she has just came out the shower and is ready to go on a night out. Suspenders also appeal to the male audience as the item of clothing itself is an enjoyable sight for the male gaze. There is no ring on her fingers, this shows that she is single and available. Many women will think that Mendes has been objectified and ‘put down’. The reason for this is that they will see men ‘gauping’ at the picture and feel as if all men want all women to look like this. They have a right to think this but Mendes is proving that she is in control and she wants the attention of both men and women. Her head is tilted back so it makes her look venerable and innocent; she is portraying herself in many different ways. The way she is positioned is showing off her undergarments, her hands are pointing towards her ‘knickers’ this appeals to the men, and women get a good picture of what the item of clothing looks like.

The first impressions of this photo are that it makes women out to be sex objects, but if you look deeper you can find reasons for it appealing to women. She has a very powerful and manly stance about her, she has been positioned like this so that women don’t just feel hard done to and that every woman doesn’t look like Eva Mendes. The advert had the same effect on women as it does men, women think ‘I could look like this as well’, they might aspire to look like Mendes. Seeing men look at this advert and ‘drooling’ over Eva Mendes might be make the women feel that they have to look like the to gain a mans full attention.

Overall Calvin Klein has marketed this is briefs very well here; by positioning the woman in such a way that it appals to both sexes is very clever. Personally I think that the picture mainly appeals to men, but it puts forward the idea that a woman can be shown just in her underwear without people complaining and saying that she is ‘easy’. It gives out the impression that women are just as independent as men and can dress how they like and shouldn’t care about what kind of attention they will draw.

The Male Gaze - Trevor Millum

Seductive -

• Similar to cool/ level
• Eyes less wide open
• Expression is less reserved but still self-confident
• Milder

Carefree -

• Nymph like
• Active
• Healthy
• Vibrant
• Outdoor girl
• Often smiling/ grinning

Practical -

• Concentrating
• Mouth closed and the eyes are directed at an object
• Hair tied back or short cut

Comic -

• Laughing
• Big cheesy smile
• Fun
• Head sideways

Catalogue -

• Neutral
• Articficial
• Wax like 
• Wide eyes
• Smiling
• No personality

The Male Gaze - Majorie Ferguson

The Chocolate Box -

• Half/Full Smile
• Lips Together/ Slightly Parted
• Teeth Barely Visible
• Full/ Three- Quarters of Face to the Camera

Invitational -

• Emphasis on the Eyes
• Mouth Shut with Hint of Smile
• Head to one Side or Looking Back to the Camera

Super Smiler-

• Full Face
• Wide Open, Toothy Smile
• Head Thrusts, Forward or Chin Thrown Back
• Hair often wind blown

Sexual -

• Includes male/ female 'two-somes'
• Dreamy
• Heavy lidded
• Overtly sensual/ sexual

Roland Barthes Lesson

Being a semiologist Roland Barthes was being paid to look at texts.

Texts may be:
Open-unravelled, in many threads E.g soaps
Closed-only one obvious thread to pull on E.g Children programmes
Barthes decided that these "threads" are called narrative codes,there are five codes:
Action codes:
Any action that implies a further narrative action E.g a gun fight
Enigma codes:
Refers to any element in a story that is not explained and therefore exists as an enigma for the audience, raising questions that demand explication.
The semantic code:
Any element in a text that suggests a particular, often additional meaning by way of connotation.
The culture code:
Any element in a narrative that refers "to a science or a body of knowledge." In other words, the cultural codes tend to point our shared knowledge of how the world works.

Film Habits Questionaire

Film Habits Questionnaire