Ethnicity representation (spooks clip)

Ethnicity in spooks

First of all is a scene which is shown through the downwards panning of the camera angle. It shows a close up of an eastern European woman, the gun that is also included in the scene is above the woman showing how she is inferior to the gun and the person holding the gun, this shows how her specific ethnicity is also underestimated and made to look inferior to others.

A British man is holding the gun which shows how his ethnicity has more power than others, this links to how the white English speaking ethnicities generally have more power and wealth worldwide. The fact that this character is also holding the gun shows how his ethnicity is also the founders or new technological advances that they can also use to overpower other ethnicities.

The white character holding the gun is also shown to be wearing a dark tailored suit giving him the generalised thug appearance, giving the idea to the audience that he is a typical rich white man creating the idea that his race has more wealth than others.

The black man is shown to be at arm level with the dominant white male who we can see is unfocused in the background holding the gun, this links to ethnicity as again the white man is shown to have more dominance as even though he is in the background he is still shown to be higher than the black character.

There is music in the background which adds to the tension and drama of the scene, the sound conveys a sense of foreboding doom and also imitates the sound of dripping blood which links to the idea of blood being spilled between different races trying to assert their power over each other.

We can see in the background that there are accomplices of the powerful character with the gun, this gives the idea of how certain ethnic people gang up against others that are seen as racially inferior- mainly black or eastern European characters. This links to historical references also for example how ethnicities have been part of genocides and general hatred purely because of racial stereotypes and discrimination.

The general scene set up is edited to make it look dark, this dark colouring gives off an eerie, dangerous atmosphere to the audience so builds tension. Black and dark colours also have connotations of death which is used to forebode the coming events of the shooting. This idea links to ethnicity because it shows the danger that is involved when there is hatred between different races- also the many deaths of people globally because of this reason.

A bird call is heard faintly in the background as the scene starts to rise in tension. It sounds very similar to a scream of a woman which could symbolise to scream that later takes place when the first man is murdered. It could also be symbolic of a crow as this specific bird signifies death and is known by many audiences to have connotations of death and mourning. This links to ethnicity as there have been many murders because of the ongoing conflict of ethnic discrimination.

The powerful man is shown to suddenly shoot the black man whilst he is making a speech about right and wrong. This shows how the powerful man knows that he is doing wrong but essentially has to remove the honesty from the situation and get rid of anything or anyone that could show him to be guilty- therefore he shoots the black man. This links to ethnicity because the black man signifies how many murders that are carried out in TV dramas; the victim is usually of a minority race.

As the camera pans around the scene a column is shown to obstruct the view of the audience which could signify how societies view is obstructed to the cruelties that take place against targeted races and ethnic groups.

The jump cuts have been added to show the different perspectives and reactions of the people watching, these people symbolise how society usually sits back and doesn’t act upon the discrimination and prejudice that is so obviously happening around the world. The slow movements and jumps of the characters symbolise the feeling of guilt and shock. This idea is used in TV drama so that the audience empathises with the characters and makes the situation feel more real-life. This links to ethnicity as many people see the hatred that occurs between races but like these characters many sit back and don’t try to make a difference for the good.