Eastenders is a long running British soap which depicts the lives of the residents in the fictional borough of Walford, London. Each episode focuses on a number of characters and their situations, which continue on from the previous episode.
Eastenders - 18-11-10 (mark: 26.30-29.00)
Camera Shots
There are various good examples of ethnicity's being represented in this clip. Firstly, there is a mid shot of a boy and his parents speaking in the hallway. The mother and father are dressed in traditional Asian clothing, which connotes that their ethnicity is Asian. Behind them, only seen for a few seconds, is a frame with Arabic calligraphy on it, suggesting that they are a Muslim family. There is also an over-the-shoulder shot of the parents, the boy, and an Asian girl appearing out of a door in the background. The mother is grabbing her son's face in her hands, signifying that she is typically a mother than worries for her children. The son is looking surprised, because of his mother's action, but there is also a hint of worry on his face, as if he has soemthing to hide, which could be exposed. The girl appearing from the door could be what he is hiding. This one shot conveys the Asian ethnicity as not too dissimilar from any other ethnicity, becuase of the mother's strict behaviour towards her son. It also connotes a level of secrecy or rebellion within the community, as if having the girl over at his house would get the boy in some sort of trouble, and so her presence is unwelcome.
Sounds
The Asian woman at the beginning of this clip speaks with a mild accent, highlighting her ethnicity to the audience, but her husband and son speak with a London accent, which show the intertwining of the two cultures. Diegetic sound is also featured in this clip, and one example of this when a man walks out of his daughter's room, slamming the door behind him. The sound of the door slamming suggests there is tension within this ethnicity or culture, similar to the connotations of the shot of the Asian family.
Another example of diegetic sound being used is when a teenage girl is using her laptop, we can hear the keyboard tapping and the mouse clicking. This represents white people as culturally accepting of cyber technology; the laptop is in her room, which suggests that it is used regularly and for various things.
Mise en Scene
The mise en scene in this clip represents the two ethnicity's explicitly. Firstly, the Asian mother's clothing is very traditional, and the decorations and colour are very distinct, especially as they clash with the colour of the walls; this emphasises her ethnicity to the audience. In the over-the-shoulder shot featuring the Asian parents, their son, and the girl, there is an obvious difference in their clothing. The parents' clothing is traditional dress, and the boy and girl are wearing more Western clothes, connoting a divide between the two generations; the older generation is traditional and conservative, and the young people are more inclined to blend in with their westernised culture. It also signifies that the two cultures, although they are part of the same ethnicity, get along well - apart from the tension caused by the boy's actions.
The shot of the man talking on the phone tells us that the older generation of his ethnicity are also users of digital technology, and the fact that he is wearing a clean, pressed suit suggests that he is wealthy and hard working - although the background depicts a more working class area that he might live in.
Editing
The shot of the Asian family and the white family transcend through jump cuts, which show us the similarity of the situations of the two ethnicity's: parents scolding their children, and having significant power and authority over them. The jump cuts also show the difference between the two ethnicity's, as it highlights the difference in dress and houses. They give the sense that there is tension within both ethnicity's - tension of a similar kind, and also break continuity of the actions of one family to the next, building pace and exaggerating the unease that has been established.
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