Downton Abbey Representation Practice

 

The excerpt is from 1:36 to the end.

Questions:

1. Who (out of the 7 core representation areas of society) are being represented in this clip?
   
   
   Class and Status.
   
   
2. How are they represented?
   
   
   The contrast is between the servants and the masters of the house. The servants are represented as if they have been doing the same thing everyday for a long time. Their system is portrayed very strictly, for example frustration when people are late. The audience is not made to feel bad for the servants as such as they are not serving cruel people. It is simply the job of their class. The family of the house is shown as being very proper and and part of high class English society and their reactions to the news of the Titanic sinking strengthen this image. They are not portrayed as cruel to their servants and are very polite to them thus not encouraging the audience to be against them and they feel bad for them when they hear the news that their friends did not make it.
   
   
3. 4 Technical Elements Planning

Camera:

• Establishing shot for the title card
• Racking focus on servant walking to door
• Close up of servant in the bed for dialogue
• Tracking shot of older servant/chef walking across the kitchen
• Wide shot of servant walking through the house to fire places
• Lots of wide shots of different servants walking back and forth through the scene
• Switches between handheld and steady camera movements
• Over the shoulder shots of man looking at younger man ironing newspapers
• Extreme close-up of the food
• Shot reverse shot looking out of the room then into it

Editing:

• Long takes (tracking shots)
• Faster cuts when dialogue and action in the scene increases
• Long gaps between cuts when servants walk through the house
• Cuts when switching between shots of different reactions to the telegram
  
• No faded cuts or transitions

Sound:

• Both diegetic and non-diegetic
• The music in the background is mainly stringed instruments not trying to increase tension at all
• The music is a convention of period movies (in this case April 1912)
• Diegetic sound includes mainly dialogue and sounds of servants rushing around
• Daisy knocking on the door
• Bicycle bell
• Paper rustling

Mise-en-scene:

• The setting is a high class home.
• The time period is April 1912 (Genre is period)
• A lot of servants in the house - hints at difference in class and status
• Shown by servants putting in effort to keep service to a high standard.
• "His Lordship" walking down the stairs dressed up with his dog.
• "Her Ladyship" getting served her breakfast on a small table in her bed.