Unit 6: Critical Approaches to Creative Media Production - Crticial Analysis

We were provided with a scene from the first episode of Downton Abbey, and were asked to discuss to key and critical points in the analysis of this episode.

The narrative represented is that the servants are all individual people just as much as the lords and ladies of the house must be. Their representation is more than that of the actual upper-class people in this opening scene, and it seems to build up to their dramatic reveal with the lord walking down the stairs with his dog. Until then, all we see in excess is the servants – maids, cleaners, butlers and servants – who are all working hard to prepare the house, showing the meticulous nature of the owners and building a narrative that the servants work hard for their masters and that the lords and ladies are incredibly important that they need all of this work to make the house perfect for when they wake. All of this suggests that it is some sort of drama, and with the whole opening sequence taking place inside of the house, it suggests that the drama may be related to the family and extension of the family into the servants and workers of the house. The show is about Downton Abbey the building, and everybody within, servants included, with the scene itself suggesting that, while the lords and ladies are of course very important, the servants are just as important, if not more important, to help set up every single day of the lives of all the inhabitants.

 

Very few shots, an amazing tracking shot for a good few minutes that shows just how busy, but organised, the servants in the house are. The first reveals of characters are done in interesting ways. The girl in pink is seen scrubbing the kitchen, before being told to do the fireplaces and work around the house, where she is then seen walking and working amongst the busy people all working to set up. William is showed as being tardy, late to work, but hard working nonetheless, going as far to also show disdain to the paperboy for also being late, he is introduced through the initial tracking shot after it leaves the first girl and follows another butler, and is then shown to be working primarily for the older butler, doing what he asks, with each shot showing his duties more-so than showing himself. The older butler, however, focuses on him, he comes across as an important person to maintaining the order within the house, and his familiarity with the lord suggests as such, showing him to be cleaning glasses and being ready for breakfast, it heavily suggests that he is interested in order, and the shots on him are always still, so you can see his presence in every room. The higher-up servant woman is seen holding keys initially, showing that she has the key to many rooms, immediately making her seem like she is vital to the security and managing of the house. She reprimands the girl in pink for a lack of efficiency, and is shown from lower angles to make her seem like she is going to be a character that is of authority amongst the house, but she doesn’t come across as a particularly bad or evil character, making her come across as trustworthy and bossy as part of her job as opposed to cunning and sly, but it leaves it open enough to build up the drama as time goes on that you aren’t sure where her meticulous nature comes from and whether it is from a place of security and care or from a desire to rise. They focus on what is necessary, and a lot of the shots seem to track or pan rather than cut to different parts of the room, showing the hectic nature – this is until the family sits down to consume breakfast, where the shots remain much more still and focus on what they are doing, not what the servants are doing. Interestingly, the servants without dialogue or who don’t get any focus for a long time are usually facing away from the camera, or their faces are obscured, suggesting that they are unimportant, nameless and faceless servants, not important to the family at all. Specifically shows business, and leaves out information to come across as more dramatic.

 

Old fashioned, dramatic but upper-class music (pianos and violins), makes the house seem large, wealthy and extravagant.  It starts in a basement area, with little to no background noise, where people are presumed to be waking up (based on the dialogue), but then it cuts to the ground floor, and seems to show this air of bustling and business – specifically showing the kitchen with pots, pans, knives and forks and general busy metal clanking immediately, the barking of orders, and the submissiveness of the lower servants, before starting the music for the tracking shot, to build up the house and its business in its entirety during the morning, something that is to be considered for the difference this show may have to other representations of the upper class in general. The best representation is how long it focuses on the girl wearing the pink, who we can assume to be a major character, as she seems to be a servant who is particularly unfamiliar with the way of life amongst the servants, with her dialogue focusing on this, with how she “daredn’t” use the electricity, and how she seems to be afraid of the higher-ups amongst the servants (such as the woman in black) as well as having questions about why they would iron the papers. It also seems to heavily suggest that they are in old-fashioned times (as if the look of the house and the general use of servants didn’t suggest this enough) with the use of language, such as the a fore mentioned daredn’t, references to lordships and the general language they use, as well as the use of music using older instruments and being fairly orchestral or melodical in its form. The accents of the servants, particularly the girl in pink, are lower class, Yorkshire and Northern accents, as opposed to the posher, stereotypical British accents of the upper-class. The class divide is most cleanly represented through this contrast.

 

Expensive house. Uses the servants as a plot device to set up how expensive and important the duties of getting the house ready for the daily lives of the inhabitants. Fancy curtains, with a lot of yellow/golden, dark reds, whites and the occasional blue – windows are large, except for in the servants quarters, and wood is also only present in such areas. Seems to show the difference between the metal, marble and porcelain constructs of the upper class, and the wooden luxuries present in those who serve. The affluence of the proprietors is represented in fine art, cutlery and clothing, and while the servants are mostly on screen (and also wearing fancy clothing in comparison to the paperboy who is seen briefly) you can see that they, doing their jobs, are a stark contrast to that of the typicality of the people the scene is really about – the owners. The whole opening sequence is about development of the key servants (without prior knowledge I would assume that William, the lady in pink, and the older butler would be major characters) and building up to see who actually owns the house (as well as maintain the mystery of the titanic, dropping more and more hints to the plot device of this as it goes on). It keeps vital information like this off-screen, but builds up to this narrative using the servants as a device. You know that there is an importance to the house, but you instead only see the build up, which makes the gradual reveal feel more dramatic and compliments the genre greatly. Another example of contrast in the mise-en-scene is how, when waking people up, the servant woman knocks loudly, yelling at people to wake up, then the lord goes to wake up his wife, knocking quietly and politely asking if he may enter instead of just yelling through the door, showing that he seems to see himself as sophisticated and polite.

The time period setting is clearly represented via the business within the house that goes on and is uninterrupted. Everybody has a time and place to be at, and they are all working for it. This is also represented accurately through the use of the costume, with old maid uniforms, such as rugged dresses or aprons, and also through the use of suits. The time period is also shown through the music and accents as previously stated.

The conclusion to all of this would be that Downton Abbey wants to show a busy, upper-class house in the early 20th century. Electricity is becoming popular and we're on the verge of not only World War 1, but the modernisation of the world following the Golden Age of the British Empire, where oil barons and rich, large families had tremendous power. This is all represented accurately in this clip, and you feel like you fully understand what the show is about and what they are trying to show.