Mock Exam Re - write

1) Representation of class and status in Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey is a British TV Drama set in the 1920’s. It focuses mainly on the differences between the “poor” and the “rich” and the different classes surrounding them.

The extract begins with a paperboy riding in on his bike to the mansion. The tracking shot of the boy on the bike to the mansion, clearly represents the difference between the classes. His clothes suggests he is from the working class, as he is wearing rags, and this is indicated with the panning shot transition into an establishing shot, showing the large mansion. This advocates to the audience that the boy does not fit into the scene and the people who live in the mansion must be from a higher status and must be quite rich. From the boy on the bike, there is a straight switch to the bedroom of a young woman getting out of bed in the morning and hearing the boy outside. The rich colours in the room suggests that she is of a higher class as she looks out of the window to the boy wearing the dark rags. As she looks down to the paperboy, it gives the audience a clear indication of the stereotype in those times, how the upper class generally looked down upon the working and lower class.

As the scene commences into the house, it is clear of the difference between the working class and lower class situated downstairs and the upper class and the lord being situated upstairs. This is an analogy of the Titanic, as the upper class were always on the top decks and the “poor souls” below decks. This analogy was also used as it was of the same time period as the programme was set in. The scene progresses to show the servants gathered round a table in the kitchen. The audience can distinctly see the difference between the upper and working class already, just by looking at the dark, dirty clothes that the servants and the paperboy was wearing compared to the long soft white dress the girl in the room was wearing. The servants are also eating out of wooden bowls and plates whereas the upper class are eating out of shiny silver platters. The atmosphere of downstairs, is quite rushed with a constant buzz of people talking and the scene seems to be more crowded, with everyone moving quickly with the bells going off and the plates being banged around, whereas upstairs is very clam and has a soft piano in the background. Downstairs produces a non digetic sound and upstairs is very digetic. The digetic sound of the bells was immediately followed up by the dialogue of one of the servants slyly pronouncing the words, “and they’re off”, this tells the audience another day of waiting on the upper class has begun. The lower staff members seem to be more helpful, an example of this is when one of the maids asks for help, however the older maid says she can’t help, and even though the lady who offers to help is busy she still helps her out.

From the franticness downstairs and the calmness upstairs, the scene switches to the working class man in the suit ironing the newspaper that just came in. At first the camera, focused in the iron and the newspaper. After a few seconds, the camera scoped up towards the worker who was ironing the newspaper and an upper class servant who walked in. The angle of the camera was low which meant he was of a higher status and superior; when the camera was focused on the worker, the angle was low which showed the audience even before they knew he was of the working class; he was of a lower status and inferior. The lighting was also working the camera angles, where, on the low angle shots, there was a lot of light, looking up to the upper class and with the higher angle, the lighting dimmed presenting the worker as having less significance than the man of the higher status.

When the bells and the food service was being managed at the start and during the scene, a woman asked a guy to stop talking and take the food up to the upper class eating their breakfast. A midshot angle was focused on a man with middle class features and clothes, however this contradicts, the stereotype of the working class as he wore posh clothes but was being made to work and run around after the upper class and the lord of the manor. In the same scene, there was another man standing at the side, he had a similar dress sense, however was not made to do the same job. He looked like he thought he was the “boss” of the middle class which also contradicts the stereotypical class as he looks as himself as part of the upper class.

Towards the end of the extract, it mainly focuses on the upper class as a telegram comes through relating to the tragic news about the boat sinking (The Titanic). The angle of the camera is low as the man walking down the stairs with the dog. However this does not mean that he was looked down upon but rather that he was very rich and was part of the upper class, especially because he had the dog following him; the dog may represent the working and lower class looking up to the lord and respecting him and running around after him, but not in a disrespectful way. There was a soft digetic sound of a piano playing in the background. The man then walks into a huge dining room, with big paintings and the walls nicely decorated, the music is very mellow and soothing until one of the lord’s daughters arrives with a telegram, as the camera focuses on the daughter coming in, the rest of the characters are blurred out. The camera angle is a long – shot and again represents something not so good happening with her slowly approaching.

The mise – en – scene presented throughout the clip represents a lot when looking at class and status as there is such a wide range of opportunities to explore with the differences. The upper class men all dressed in tail coats and suits, which represented them as being superior. The woman of that status wore long skirts and shirts, to show they could afford it, however only on the pay of the men. The working and lower class on the other hand wore rags and aprons showing not just that they were poor but the fact that they couldn’t afford much through all aspects of life, not just money. The dialect between the upper class was very formal and each word was pronounced correctly, this also meant there speech was very slow. The dialect for the working, lower and middle classes compared to the upper class was informal with the conversation being thrown around everywhere. The dialect in both situations also lets us as the audience know how the surroundings are going to be. For example, the working class throwing their conversation about also symbolises them throwing themselves about downstairs (editing is rushed).

This is how class and status were shown in the 1920’s and how the differences between them really do impact the show and show major differences between the classes.

2) The film industry is becoming increasingly competitive, this means as the industry grows, so does the availability of media products. Media products were difficult to work with back in the years which meant trying to produce and distribute films, not much could be done. However as times changed, so has the industry, allowing everyone access to these media products.

For my case studies, I will be talking about the two chosen studios, one being an American film studio and part of the 'BIG SIX' and the other being a small independent British studio. I will also be talking about the two films I have chosen with the studios and how they have used media products to be able to produce and distribute themselves, the films and the studios.

The first one of film studios is, Paramount Pictures. Paramount Pictures is known to be a part of one of the 'BIG SIX' Hollywood film studios and is known for producing and distributing some of the biggest movies of all time, such as, The Godfather, G.I. Joe and Mission: Impossible. As being a big American film company, it often tends to help other small companies like Film 4, which is my second studio. These are known as conglomerates. The film I have chosen to talk about for this studio is a classic blockbuster which often gets more attention than other films due to their synergy and convergence and other marketing methods of distributing themselves using media products. Synergy is the releasing of two or more products at once that will promote each other. Some conglomerates like Sony are able to use synergy as they own many different companies. Cross media convergence is when the music industry comes together with the film industry. It can usually happen in production, distribution or exhibition.

The film chosen was G. I. Joe. The way this film was presented to the audience was through, production, distribution and synergy and convergence. When G. I. Joe, the film had a lot of advertising to make more people want to watch the film and buy the product to increase the profit. For example, the type of advertising used, is billboards, the sides of buses and TV or radio adverts. The company could have also marketed dolls, CD’S, posters etc. This meant that it was automatically easier for the company to use media products to draw in the audience. Another way the audience can be drawn in is by using star power. By using star power, both the film and the star is being sold to the public, for example, George Clooney, being on the front of every one of his movie posters. As this movie was made by a big company, it meant that they were not on a tight limited budget and they managed to do a lot to score big. Paramount Pictures also had the help of Metro – Goldwyn to produce and distribute this film. It meant that they were working with a double budget so they were able to much more than Paramount could have done alone.

My second film studio is Film 4. This is a small independent British film company. You would think that them being a small and independent company, they wouldn’t have produced or distributed many films however, you are wrong, they are responsible for many. For example, Slumdog Millionaire, which was a huge hit in the film industry. Unlike Paramount, Film 4 has a tight limited budget and so has clearly found it difficult to advertise and sell their films out to the public. Being a small independent British company, it has needed the help of conglomerates such as Tribeca Films and Number 9 films.