Ethnicity

The first micro element that portrays the representation of ethnicity is cinematography the clip starts off with a tracking shot of Zainab who is moving from one end of the room to the other end connoting she is one of the dominant characters in this clip as we are directly introduced to her and because she takes up most of the shot (a mid shot has been used ) where as the other character are at the background and you can almost see the length of their whole body.

There was a cut used once Ian had brought out the new uniform to everyone working whilst wearing it this connotes that Ian has the power to make the others do as he wants which is conforming the stereotypical view that white people are superior and are more powerful then ethnic minorities.

more over after the cut shot had been used it was followed by a tilting up shot of Christian connoting that even though Christian does not say much or is not shown to be dominant he is and is in fact in the same power as Ian as they are both from the same ethnicity. The shots we see of Masood family are mainly mid shots and long shots.

props such as the kitchen is used to represent ethnicity within this clip as well. Zainab is using the cooker and is cooking a curry dish which conform the stereotype that Asians only what curry. furthermore Ian and Christian are using the kitchen to also cook however they are cooking mash potato and some sort of pastry this conforms the stereotypical food white people eat as bangers and mash count as an English meal.

The diagetic dialogue of Ian represents his superiority. "we're going to start having some proper leadership here which means enforcing some proper food hygiene standards" this portrays Ian as being authoritative which is conforming the representation of white people because most TV dramas show white people being superior to individuals of other ethnic groups. Also what Ian says slightly suggest the stereotypical view that Asians are not hygienic .

The mise en scene represent ethnic divisions. Ian with his superiority uses tissue to split up the kitchen into two leaving the two ethnic groups, Masoods family on one side and himself and Christian on the other side. this conforms the stereotypical view that there are ethnic divisions and that society do not want them to mix because they want to show that white people hold the power and make sure that the rest stay as minorities.

Furthermore the costume that they are wearing from the point 50 seconds onwards on the clip changes to a uniform were all of them are wearing including Ian white coats and blue aprons however Ians apron is different from the rest connoting he is trying to be the leader and that they are all working for him which is not the case. Masood and Zainab are in partnership with Ian in running the place.

The diagetic dialogue we hear are dominated by Zainab and Ian. Zainab is a Muslim women and because of this and how dominant she is, she is subverting the stereotypical representation of her ethnicity because in Islam men are known to be the dominant one, the ones who are in control/ the ones with the bigger voice not women. Furthermore Zainab is conforming the stereotype of her ethnicity by her accent as the majority of the audience would expect this.

The non diagetic Punjabi music represents the Asian culture. Christian is dancing along with Masoods family connoting that Asian music is now becoming a popular music genre which all ethnicities may listen to which is conforming the conventional view of the modern world becoming diverse, which can be argues to being true or false. The Punjabi music is playing over Ians voice connoting that even though he may be superior what he talk about is insignificant and nobody actually wants to know what he is saying.

Another micro element with sound is used to represent ethnicity is silence. Throughout the whole clip tamwar doesn’t say anything till the end connoting his weakness and inferiority which conforms the stereotypical view of someone Asian.

when all the characters are inside the room the mise en scene shows the order in which they come in based on dominance. the position of the characters are as follows Zainab Ian Christian Masood and then Tamwar. this could signify that Zainab is much more powerful then Ian or that she doesn’t take his nonsense; she is superior then him (is not scared to stand up to him)

Editing is used to portray stereotypical ethnicity through longer airtime. Ian is the main character we see more through the clip however even when we don’t see him at times we can still hear him which is using asynchronous. This confirms that he is dominant and has more power and conforms the representation of his ethnicity as he evidently dominates the clip with the amount of screen time that he has.

Representation of ethnicity is as well shown through the pace of the editing even though there is not much happening within the clip. The pace of the editing is generally slow however goes slightly faster when there are shots of Zainab connoting that she has also dominant as she takes over lots of shot however also suggesting that she is not significant enough to have the same amount of airtime as Ian Beale.