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.
