Class and status in Downton abbey

Watching the Downton abbey clip we get an in site to the different classes of the time and the way that society is split up. You can see that the lord of the manor holds a very high status in society so he can afford to have butlers a cooks for him, you can see by what he wears he is very high up in society where as his servants are of a lower class and don’t have the luxury’s that he does. The lord of the manor is very chilled out and does not have to worry about anything so when he is walking down the stairs we can see he is very child where as his servants are downstairs rushing to get all of his stuff ready like ironing his papers and making his breakfast.

Camera shot

At the very start it uses an establishing shot that allows us to know that it is set in a manor house that has very nice grounds surrounding it so all ready this allows the watcher to see that this is owned by a very wealthy person/family. When we get in to the manor house we see one of the lady’s that live there and she is very chilled out and we see a point of view shot as if looking through her eyes at the person delivering the papers, then she rings the bell for breakfast and we see a wide shot of all of his servants and as soon as the bell goes we see the rush begin and then a focusing shot on the speaker is used to make it clear who is speaking. There is also a shallow focusing shot that is used on the man ironing the papers when he reads the paper this helps to make his face expression stand out on the screen.

Sound

At the very start there is background music that is classical piano music this adds to the way we look at the status of the owners as the music is a high class music of the time, the music is also very relaxed and calm. We also get synchronous sound when the push bike is going past with the delivery of the news paper on the old cobbled road. When they find out about the sinking of the titanic in the paper one of his daughters gives him a telegraph and at this moment the music speeds up this adds tension and makes you feel as if the telegram will be bad news, the music then takes over at the end when they realise that james and Patrick where on the titanic and it seems that they were not picked up the music then takes over and this adds tension to the views and helps to shown the emotion in the rooms.

Editing

There is a cut shot used right at the start as it jumps from being outside the manor house watching the man delivering the paper to being in one of the lady’s rooms in the manor house this keeps the viewer interested and gives them an insight to what is going on as they use a cut shot to go through the different classes/people jumping from different places in the manors ground. Also cross cutting is used to go from the lord of the manor and the servants to show the different actions for example he is very relaxed walking down his stairs whereas the servants are inn a rush to get everything ready for him. Fast pace editing is used when the lord of the manor gets given the telegram this adds tension to the audience as it gives off a message that it is bad news.

Mise-en-scence

When watching the clip, it is very easy to pull out the people in lower class to higher class, just looking at their clothes you can tell who is in the higher class. For example, the lord of the manor is wherein a very well fitting suit that looks very smart also his servants are not of a high class but they do dress in a very smart manner as they are seen by him where as his cleaners and cooks are not seen by him their clothes are a lot more basic and don’t look very smart or good fitting. There is also a family sort of relationship shown with the servants that are working in the manor house this gives a family sort of feeling. Also all of the props used in the manor house fits in with the era of the set making it look more realistic.