Downtown abby anaylsis

 

Firstly, the scene is presented around class and gender. Through camera, mise en scene, editing.

Location

The opening scene begins with a a pan shot over the house exterior and shows the wealth of the family before the characters have been introduced. It first pans to a manor and you can already tell that that the location and background is based around the upper class due to the neat gardens and manor in the background. The directors decide to use a tracking to an establishing shot during the first scene to introduce the location of the first scene to the audience and show the importance of the manor. 

Class

The importance of class is shown in this scene once the lady gets out of bed and looks down at the window, the camera angle is shown as bold and represents the different classes that they are in. The bike boy us in the working class delivering papers to her house, whilst the lady is in the upper class looking down upon the working class doing work for her. This is a strong
metaphor describing clearly how all classes are viewed and how upper class look down on the working class. 

Automatically as the new scene is commenced, the audience can tell that the working class is introduced. Firstly, costumes are introduced as "maid" "butlers" costumes which usually represent they are in the working class at this time. The plain and dark costumes conveys the fact that they do not have enough money to spend on clothes. The upper classes costumes are presented as smart and clean constantly, the man is wearing a smart suit which shows his authority in the house as-well as being the only man in the house. Which represents a traditional evangelical household of being the "man in the house" and the "male gaze theory" rather then the 21st century of a man and women being equal in the family making money.

Class is also introduced heavily through camera, the upper class is represented as a steak and steady shot to represent the calmness and relaxed emotion they are in constantly not having to worry about anything and being taken care off constantly. On the other hand, once the working class gets introduced the camera starts to become hand held and shakey representing the fact that it is always non-stop work for them to do and always busy earning money to live. 

Status

Furthermore  status is introduced through the working class. Once the paper boy delivers the paper to the butler he is rude, aggressive and rude towards him for being late even though they are the same "working" class, their status in society is different due to the butler working at a manor and paper boy having a cheap job.

In addition, as-well as having a status in the working class you work in the manor or not. The servants who work in the manor have status as-well, the older generation butlers and cooks are in control and manage the younger generation. In working class society, the status is usually if you are more experienced in the work space you would be honoured and appreciated more in society. You can tell the younger generation are scared of the older generation butlers because there is a scene where a long angle camera shot is used to show the importance of the older generation and the young generation look small and innocent.

The lord enters for the first time in this scene and an over the shoulder shot is used to follow him down the stairs. The shot duration is slow when he is walking down the stairs to show a meaningful and his lead of importance in this. The audience understand that he is a main character due to his grand entrance and as that this is his first entrance as so he must be very important to the show as-well as his class and status. The sound during this scene is non diegetic and is parallel sound to represent his importance. The soundtrack represents royalty and importance to show the audience his class and status in this scene.

Once the lord has entered the breakfast room and sat down, the daughters enter afterwards. This represents the family status in society. Editing is used perfectly here to show how obvious the directors want it to be so you can tell that the daughters walk in after the man.

Rule of third

 Once the lord finds out the news around the titanic and goes to tell his wife, he uses dialogue to ask if he can come in, and without even her response he is already half way in the room. The male gaze theory is used here to disregard a women
privacy. Walking into his wife room with no hesitation because he is the man of the house shows a sense of status in the household. During this scene, once the news has been told to the wife the use of rule of third is used to draw eyes to the viewers of  the facial expressions of the lord but yet also be shown the wife's expression. The wife is in shock and surprised where as the lord is upset and worried about having to tell his daughter.

During this scene diegetic sound is used throughout when the kitchen staff and butlers are talking. The background noise of cleaning and chatting and running around show the fast pace and how hard the working class work constantly.

In comparison the sound during the scenes of the upper class family eating and talking is peaceful and calming. The parallel sound is traditional and calming to match the emotion and status of them. The soundtrack starts to speed up as the lord is about to tell the lady the bad news, this creates suspense and as the soundtrack starts to speed up the tension starts to rise as the lord tells the lady the bad news. 

In conclusion status and role play the biggest factor in this clip. Camera, sound and editing all changed once the working class and upper class are shown in different parts of the clip. Comparing the differences between the editors and camera angles that are used plays the biggest part in analysing this clip.