Drama analysing

Hotel Babylon

The sequence opens with a quite upbeat and panicky beginning setting the tone for what is to come next. The man on screen rushes out from behind a wall which is an unconventional opening as the camera stays still and the actor is the one that rushes into the shot. Thus showing he is in a rush or has just discovered something that he needs to sort out. The camera then starts to then follow the man as he walks as he comes to a more widely set part of the building starting to walk straight the camera then starts to backtrack out to a less zoomed in focus showing what had made the man originally rushed on screen from behind the wall as whilst zooming out the trade mark uniforms of two police officers come onto screen. This connotes negativity as the police are associated with enforcing the law which this man clearly has done something wrong he needs to hide. He greats them with a rather unconventional colloquial address simply saying ‘alright?’ the camera then flicks quickly between the policeman that speaks with a mid range shot showing his upper torso then back to a close up shot of the original man. Although you can tell the man has done something wrong he starts off very casually and laid backly towards the law enforcers.

The setting changes to a colorful hotel lobby where the camera comes from the original establishing shot of the receptionist and her working area on the front desk to a close up of her face reading a textual document she holds in her hand. The camera angles continue to flick about almost irrationally as the shot then changes to a feisty looking man followed by a uniformed officer and another man behind showing that the front man is powerful and not a man you would want to get on the wrong side of. The camera continuing to flick about goes back and forth from the man entering the building to the receptionist setting up almost a confrontation before either party has spoken. The first over the shoulder shot is used as the receptionist says ‘not a problem would you like someone to show you around?’. The gentleman who entered the hotel has a number of close ups on his face revealing his facial expressions to the camera.

The camera again changes angle following two employees madly sprinting down a corridor knocking past anyone in their way as they are in a mad rush to as it appears try and hide something possibly from the immigration men.  The camera is not at all still throughout the filming and this is done very purposefully as it gives the audience a feeling that they personally are watching the events unfold in the hotel as with a fixed camera with no jolts or movement would stop the panic and the rushing having its fullest effect. The camera angles although jilting and moving does produce a very interesting and different shot of the corridor through an olden style lift barrier.

The music used throughout the extract starts off with quite high tempo music happy and almost troublesome music it shows something is about to happen which shouldn’t do. The music changes dramatically after immigration take the illegal worker Ibrahim gets taken by immigration the music changes to being much more somber and melancholy as all the workers mourn over their lost comrade.