Hotel Babylon Essay – Bethany Gilbert

The first scene is a mid-shot of a male in a suit, he looks as if he is in a basement of some sort, maybe of a hotel, and as he is dressed in a suit we could assume he has authority at this place, he is also wearing a name tag which would give the idea that he works in a hotel or something similar. The shot is then followed by the camera panning out to reveal two police officers standing in uniform, police officers are signifiers, they are meant to produce the feeling of safety within the audience however, and in this scene they are doing the binary opposite and provoking fear. The first sounds within the clip is the non-diegetic voice of the police officer, he states "It’s okay, were not coming in. Were just here to stop anyone from getting out." You can also hear some sort of heavy machinery in the background which reinforces the idea of them being in some sort of basement. This is then cut to a mid-shot of the employee who has a slight concerned and confused expression.

The second scene then cuts to a hotel lobby, the camera then shows two women standing behind a desk, the camera zooms into the female who looks older and is dressed more professional as she is wearing a white suit. The fact that the camera zooms into that specific woman underlines how she is a character with significant character within the clip. Another character is then introduced, to the scene. This character is male, he casually walks into the hotel and behind him are uniformed officers. Whereas he and the two others behind him however are not, they are just dressed smartly. The choice of costume signify the hierarchy of importance between the characters and makes this clearer to the audience. In the background you can hear diegetic, the backing track raises uncertainty and angst, which is then reflected onto the audience. The next shot which I think is relatively important in this scene is shot from behind the officer’s head, looking down on the lady in white. This makes the officer look like a powerful protagonist, and attempting to intimidate the secretary. He then reveals the reason why he is here about immigration. Another key thing that happens within this scene, is the secretary cuts of from talking to the officer and says this to her co-worker Ben: "did you take those purple acquisition forms down to housekeeping?" seconds later, it is made clear that this is the hotels secret message to hide all of their immigrant workers. When the woman in white is saying this to ‘Ben’ the camera flicks back to the officer quickly which is a close up shot of his face smirking, the officer knows that she is informing ‘Ben’ to hide the immigrants working in the hotel.

The camera is then made to follow 'Ben' down the stairs into the dim corridors which are much different to the hotels reception. The corridors are dark and blank, there isn’t much light and they are quite small, which assumes that the guests do not use the corridors and these are only used by the staff. When ‘Ben’ is running down the corridor you can hear different languages being spoken by different characters. Ben continues to run down the corridors into a dim light room/office where he meets ‘Jacky’ and the worker that we saw from the basement, at a long shot. Jacky then scurries out grabbing her keys, shouting and warning others in different languages, which then reinforces the idea of having many different cultured people working at the hotel. The camera follows this character along with her fellow workers through different

rooms tone of voice progressively becomes more panicked and distressed. You see Jacky and her fellow employees running down a dark corridor, they are dressed in many different uniforms which would give the idea that they work throughout the hotel, as some are wearing chef’s uniforms as well as cleaner’s uniforms. This emphasises to the audience that this is a scary ordeal for everyone involved. A significant part of this scene is then shot from behind what looks like elevator gates, which look like iron bared gates, this reinforces the idea that the future for the immigrant workers may not be good if they get caught, as they bars have connotations of prison. You then see Jacky rustling her keys to try and find the right one to open the door, the large group of keys are also a connotation of prison. During this the shot keeps flicking back and forth from behind the bars to a close up of Jacky’s face.

The next section of the clip shows Jacky locking them all into the room and then counting all of the immigrant workers, the camera flicks between all the characters who are in the dim light crowded room at a close up shot. It then becomes apparent that 'Abraham' who is another worker that has not noticed that the immigration officers are here and is missing. When Jacky realises this, there is a really dramatic zoom into a close up on her face showing her panic. Which reinforces to the audience how serious this situation is. The camera then quickly cuts, and pans up where you can hear and see a vacuum, as the camera pans up more you then see a black man who we can assume is ‘Abraham’. It becomes apparent that the reason why he hasn’t realised the officers are here is because he has headphones in and hasn’t heard the chaos. Abraham is wearing a jumpsuit/boiler suit which is also has connotations of prisoners. It then cuts back to the small room full of the workers, where we then see one of the women collapse and they it appears that she is having diabetic hypoglycaemic. As this scenarios is unfurling the diegetic track of a fast beat begins, this causes anticipation for the audience. One of the immigrant workers then uses jam to help the woman with diabetes, he then says "I wasn't always a cleaner." The shot really makes the audience focus on this particular character, it reveals that just because he is a cleaner now, doesn't mean that is all that he is capable of.

Whilst all of this is happening it is flicking from scene to scene, it flicks back to Abraham who is still hovering in the corridor at a longshot, the whole scene has a lot of red colouring, and this signifies that danger is here or maybe approaching. The shot then shows Abraham's blurred face at a side angled extreme close up, with the police man strolling out of the elevator doors, Abraham notices them, the camera shot zooms into his face underling his fear as he gasps dramatically. Abraham then tries to run away and the two uniformed police officers who were standing behind the ‘main officer’ run after him, Abraham trips over his hoover, and is then captured and put into an arrest.

The camera then flicks back to the other scene, where you see Jacky and the rest of the immigrants, Jacky is thanking the cleaner for saving the diabetic worker, when suddenly there is a knock at the door, the camera has been made to zoom in on 'Jacky’s' face to create tension and emphasise her fear, her facial expression looks scared and shocked. She opens the door and it a worker who informs them that someone has been arrested, they then realise that it’s Abraham that has been arrested. The scene that follows, shows the officers taking Abraham out of the hotel, then camera then cuts back to Jacky and the head police officer. During their

argument a mid-shot is shown, his dialogue states "He wasn't quick enough, we got him, rules of the game." Which shows the police as merciless as they don’t care what they do as long as they get the job done, they don’t care if they are ruining somebody’s life.

The camera pans left introducing another scene, Jacky is opening what we can assume was Abraham’s locker, we see other employees standing behind Jacky in distress and upset. The background music has now switched to slower louder music which creates a more suiting atmosphere to the situations. You can see that Jacky is upset as she is taking all of his things out of his locker including pictures of what we can assume is his family, she probably feels guilty for not being quick enough to save him.

The final scene shows all of the workers eating in the canteen, the camera being tracked along a row, they are wearing either cleaning or cooking uniforms. They are all loudly speaking in a range of different languages however none seem effected by the recent situation. The camera then stops tracking at one table in which two workers are sitting at, praying. It is the same employee that had helped to woman who was having the diabetic attack.