5. CLASS & STATUS
UPPER CLASS
The upper class is the social class composed of those who are
wealthy, well-born, or both. They usually wield the greatest political
power. In some countries, wealth alone is sufficient to allow entry
into the upper class. In others, only people born into certain
aristocratic bloodlines are considered members of the upper class.
The upper class is generally contained within the wealthiest 1-3
percent of the population. Members of the upper class are often
born into it, and are distinguished by immense wealth which is
passed from generation to generation in the form of estates.
Sometimes members of the upper class are called "the one
percent".
6. MIDDLE CLASS
The middle class are the most contested of the three categorizations,
the broad group of people in contemporary society who fall socio-
economically between the lower class and upper class. One
example of the contestation of this term is that in the United States
"middle class" is applied very broadly and includes people who
would elsewhere be considered lower class. Perspectives
concerning globalization, such as dependency theory, suggest this
is due to the shift of low-level labour to developing nations and the
Third World.
7. LOWER CLASS
Lower class (occasionally described as working class) are those employed
in low-paying wage jobs with very little economic security. The working
class is sometimes separated into those who are employed but lacking
financial security, and an underclass—those who are long-term
unemployed and/or homeless, especially those receiving welfare from the
state. Stereotypically, working class people often live in decaying, crime-
ridden urban areas with low-quality civil services.
8. A person’s class can affect their education (how
they can attend exclusive, private schools),
health and nutrition (lower quality health care,
poorer people tend to work in more hazardous
conditions and have less (if any) health
insurance), employment (whereby upper/middle
class people have more freedom in their
occupation with more authority and finally
police and the courts (where people with lower
status are more likely to be detained by police
and less likely to have a fair trial).
9.
10. CAMERA WORK
Medium shot used to show mum eating –
poor quality food shows that this is a
working class family.
Lots of high angles shots to represent that
they are poor and not important to
society.
Medium shot used to show family in their
small home.
11. CAMERA WORK
Long shot also used to show painter
(working class person) outside
small houses
First shot in opening is an
establishing shot of Road, which
shows a working class
environment.
Point of view shot used at the being of
young girl to show the
environment and background she
comes from.
12. EDITING
Montage of dad working building site- occupation shows working class.
Montage was fast paste to show the audience quick other view of the mans
jobs so that the audience could establish his social class
13. EDITING
Scene the beginning uses zooming effect from outside of the house into
the house. This shows the typical indoor and outdoor environment of a
working class area
14.
15. SOCIAL CLASS/STATUS DEFINITION
Social class (or simply "class") is a
set of concepts in the social
sciences and political theory
centered around models of social
stratification in which people are
grouped into a set of hierarchical
social categories.
16. HOW MISE EN SCENE REPRESENTS SOCIAL
CLASS/STATUS
The mise en scene in these shots
show people dressed in casual
clothing that looks like it has been
worn a lot this connotes low class
people, also the series of shots
suggest that low class people who
work mediocre jobs like building
never have happy marriages and
this leads to cheating.
17. This shot shows a man dressed The mise en scene
in a suit and standing next to an in this shot shows a
expensive car which suggests pretty low quality
that he is wealthy and well off, in house with an
a higher class that people. outside clothes line
and a woman and
her children in from
which suggests that
they live in bad
conditions
A man dressed in a
vest top watching
football suggest that This picture suggest
people who are low that low class people
class do nothing live in terraced and
and are lazy that all council housing which
they do is sit around links in with where the
watch tv and drink factory workers who
were poor used to live
18. This shot shows that the daughter
has been put on report this
suggests that lower class people’s
children are badly behaved and bad
mannered causing them to get into
trouble. It also suggests that they
do not take education seriously and
are also badly educated meaning
they are stupid.
19. HOW SOUND REPRESENTS SOCIAL CLASS
In this particular clip most of the sound that is heard is Diegetic sound as most of it
can be heard. The only pieces of Non-Diegetic sound are the song in the intro. The
piano music when they are having the affair and the sound when the girl gets run
over as that would be a sound effect. The sound in intro and when the affair is
happening has a quite simple piano part but some beautiful violin sounds, this ties
in with the two social classes as the violin part could represent the higher class
and the simple piano part could represent the lower class.
Diegetic Sound Non-Deigetic Sound
- Shouting/Talking - Introduction Music
- Background TV noise - Sound effect of girl getting run
over
- Background Train Noises - Music when the affair is taking
place
- Builders Work Noise
- Airplane Noise
- Car Noise when it brakes
- Accents
20. SOUND IN TERMS OF ACCENT AND VOCABULARY
The accents that are used in the clip are mainly London accents, but
more like an east London accent which is the poorer side of
London. This show that the people living there are lower class.
Higher class Lononders in the Westend of London would have a
posh accent reflecting their wealth and status. The vocabulary
used also gives away the social status’s because of how they
would be educated, higher class people would more likely be
educated better and use a wider variety of words unlike lower
class people who would use a smaller variety of words and more
slang words and also are prone to swearing a lot more for
example in the clip the words ‘Stupid cow’ and ‘bleeding’ are
used.
