Cranford Essay- Representation of Class + Status

Within this extract of the TV Drama ‘Cranford’ class is presented, we see the difference between each character is the mise-en-scene, and the way the characters are dressed. The first character we see is Harry, who appears to be of the lower class, as he is wearing scruffy clothes, no shoes, along with his family who also appear to be in the same type of clothing. Another pointer is that (as it is Harry’s birthday) Harry receives a gift of an old pair of boots. In the next scene we see a low angle shot looking up at Mr Carter (which slowly pans up his body), a wealthy man who lives in the Manor. We are first introduced to this character by looking at his boots, which are much cleaner and expensive than Harry’s pair. We instantly can see the differences in the two-shot that Mr Carter is rich and higher authority out of the two characters, and is wearing expensive clothes which show he is of a higher class; he is wearing expensive boots and a cane which portrays that he has more money to spend on necessities such as canes. However, the Lady of the manor is of a higher class than the two, because of her poise and extravagant, expensive dress. This is also shown by using a low angle shot, of her standing on the steps, whilst making Harry look weak and vulnerable.  
With the low key lighting focusing on Harry in the beginning shot, it shows his emotions more clearly, with him being slightly unhappy, and miserable. However the low key lighting also reflects on the era in which the TV drama was set in showing that the family have no electricity in the run down shack, but only lit by a single candle. In addition to this the contrast between the shack and the manor house, is that the shack itself is not really focused on, whereas Mr Carter’s office is, showing a type of establishing shot of the whole room in order to emphasise the wealth of the man.

The sound used is mainly diegetic sound, such as; the birds and rustling of branches as Harry is trying to run home with the sack of potatoes to feed his family, mainly to create the ambience of the scene. Accents and dialects are usually associated with the type of class and status that you have, in this case Harry’s father says, ‘’Appy birthday, ‘Arry’, this suggests that the family have not been well educated and ‘learning isn’t for everyone’, this also portrays that he has a negative outlook on life and doesn’t appreciate the cleverness that Harry has shown. This juxtaposes with the Lady of the manor, as she has perfect diction, which shows she has been to elocution lessons. Non-diegetic sound is also used, such as heavy, depressing music to reflect mood and emotion. In this case sudden music was used when the father stood up in the shack; this indicates power and shows who is in charge. When Harry enters the greenhouse the music becomes dreamy and almost a fantasy, it is almost tropical, happy music to indicate the happy emotion of Harry, showing the other class, which is almost trying to portray that it is the better class to be in.

The type of camera angles used in this shot are cleverly used to show the higher class. Some examples of this are; the shaky footage of the Manor house covered the shot by leaves, which suggests that Harry is intruding and is not meant to be there. Various types of mid shots and long shots are used in order to show the cramped room in the shack, with frequent slow zooms on Harry’s face to show his gratefulness of the boots. When Harry and Mr Carter are in the office of the Manor house, the office is shown in a wide-angle shot; therefore all of the office is in view. Which is the opposite to the shack, as it is mainly focused on the family/characters. I also noticed that when Mr Carter was getting some bread for Harry a selective focus was used, it focuses on Harry’s face, then onto the bread behind him, then focuses back to Harry’s face. This shows the audience all of the events that are going on in the scene.

There are not many factors on editing as it is shown over a short period of time, but some of the things I did notice was the use of continuity editing, to create a sense of realism. The biggest section of editing is the jump cut from Harry sleeping in the greenhouse to the next morning when he is interrupted by Mr Carter. This shows that time has moved on in only a short period of time, this saves time and viewing time.