Study the following the scene and analyse it in terms of the following:
• Camera angles, movement & position
• Editing
• Sound
• Mise en Scene
Also remember to discuss Representation in regards to ETHNICITY (Scene 1)
Context: Eddie (Timothy spall) is a cab driver who has been called to pick someone up
Camera angles, movement & position
• A long shot in terms of framing and in movement and positioning a slow horizontal pan left which fixes onto the front of the cab as it approaches the camera which then goes static.
• Cut to a medium shot of a white, middle aged man wearing a suit and overcoat talking to Eddie, another white middle aged male. Throughout his discussion we see a shot reverse shot between Eddie and the landlord. Then we get some close up of both men who are shot separately throughout the one sided chat.
• Cut to a close up, slight pan left of Ojo coming out of the house. Ojo is a black male who looks bemused and confused in a medium long shot. Then a long shot re-established the space and shows Ojo entering the back of the taxi. Medium shots follow of Eddie getting piece of paper and then cut back out to a long shot of the taxi leaving the street
Editing
• The editing is infrequent at the beginning as the taxi pulls into the street, but soon builds up in pace and movement
• The seamless editing builds up when we see the landlord having a rant at Eddie through various shot reverse shots, intercutting between the two. This exchange signifies and highlights the landlords’ anger and resentment towards ethnic minorities and blames them for the demise of the area. Eddie’s representation is somewhat passive and doesn’t contribute to this xenophobic tirade of abuse towards immigrants. The cutaways of Eddie clearly demonstrate that he is not receptive to the landlord’s diatribe.
• The pace of cuts builds up when Ojo appears and enters the tax, then slows down when the taxi leaves the street
Sound
• The taxi engine can be heard diegetically as it enters the street and then pulls up to a house
• Workmen can be heard in the background knocking walls etc. which builds up the ambient, diegetic sound. The workmen are predominantly white, signifying this is a area populated by white communities.
• The landlord starts talking and over the engine/workmen ambient sound we can still hear him speak
• Through his dialogue, in terms of representation he comes across as being partially nostalgic but ultimately racist in blaming immigrants for the decline of the area
• Eddie doesn’t speak at all and just vaguely listens
• Through sound we can hear the representation of the landlord as loud, abrupt and highly aggressive towards Ojo – both physically and verbally
• Ojo doesn’t speak, his silence suggests the inability to understand English, this could be deemed a stereotypical representation of refuges/migrants etc
Mise en Scene
• The location is a red brick terraced street with most of the houses boarded up with metal shutters
• The red bricks and terraced nature represent Victorian homes from the early 1900’s in the north of the country; Liverpool, Manchester et al
• The street is depleted as no community is present this represents deprived area of a northern city where nobody wants to live
• The taxi is a brownish in colour and is a ‘hackney carriage’ this implies a career taxi driver who works full time
• In terms of representation the landlord is positioned quite negatively as he wears a black overcoat which implies autumn/winter as does the skyline and the fact he has his hands in his pockets. He also wears a black suit which could give us the connation of his sinister-ness and harsh personality, not a very nice man as black can connote evil
• He is white and middle aged with a moustache, old school northerner. He has a regional accent which also gives us the connotation that he is from the north, Manchester, Liverpool etc
• Through his posture, demeanour and dialogue he is represented as a craggy, aggressive and upset and fed up with his current situation of standing in the street waiting for Ojo to leave his house. He psychically forces ojo into the taxi and thrusts a piece of paper in front of Eddie and tells him to put it on the bill which implies that Eddie’s taxi company does quite a bit of work for the landlord or immigration services
• Eddie is represented as a slightly portly white middle aged man, with a poor dress sense due to his type of job, he seems working class
• Another part of his representation is that Eddie doesn’t respond to the landlords gripes about immigration which suggests he may not hold the same prejudiced views and thus isn’t racist
• Ojo is represented as being confused as he exits the house and doesn’t respond verbally to anyone, due to the fact the landlord called him an immigrant this could build to suggest that ojo doesn’t understand English as he doesn’t react negatively to the landlords prejudiced jibes as well
UNFORTUNATELY THE ACTOR THAT PLAYED 'OJO' JAMIU ADEBIYI PASSED AWAY SOME MONTHS AGO. THE MANY STUDENTS I'VE TAUGHT OVER THE YEARS THOROUGHLY ENJOYED JAMIU'S PERFORMANCE IN THE STREET AND HIS UNTIMELY DEATH IS A GREAT LOSS TO US ALL. RIP JAMIU ADEBIYI (1972 - 2011)
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