Class and Status of the TV drama 'The Street' (650 words)

I am representing and researching techniques that have occurred and presented in the TV drama, ‘The Street’, produced by Granada Television for the BBC, and created by Jimmy McGovern.
In this essay I will discuss certain elements of mis-en-scene, camera angles, sound and editing, taking into consideration the ‘Class’ and ‘Status’ of the main characters of the husband, wife and the lover.

Mis-en-scene is represented to create visual effects, such as the costumes that the characters are wearing, the location, in order to set the ‘Class’ and ‘Status’, and so the audience can create a stereotypical view of the family in this TV drama.
The costumes are very simple, as for example the characters are dressed very casual and look like the clothes have been worn quite a lot. For example the mother/wife is wearing scruffy jeans and a ‘mumsy’ top, creating an image of practicality, the same with the father/husband; he is wearing a white, stained vest top, which portrays laziness as he is watching football, with his feet up, suggesting that he doesn’t do much with his life. To contrast with this slightly, the mothers ‘lover’ wears a suit and tie, which represents a certain wealth, and has a well paid job.

The types of camera angles are varied; we start off with the program showing an establishing shot of the road, so the audience knows the setting of the drama, and the size of the houses, so they can immediately class the characters as middle class. When the argument takes place in the house, there are close up shots of the expressions on the mother and fathers faces, the aggressiveness reveals the emotions that the characters are feeling.  There are close up shots of the mother indulging into a chocolate dessert, which shows her way of dealing with the argument, the camera shots, suggest that she is alone, and the dessert is a comfort food, which deals with the emotions. The working class is almost being represented as indulgers, and can spend time off of work, whilst in this case the husband works.  The close up of the chocolate is repeated, with a numerous amount of medium shots with her eating the chocolate dessert. In the background of the medium shot, we see the house, and how small it is, portraying the fact that the family can’t afford anything bigger.
In the workplace a long shot is shown, so we see the workplace. I have noticed that the father is out working whilst the mother is indulging with the chocolate dessert, and the lover. The father is a typical builder, and portrays that he is an aggressive person and is banging and hammering things, which could explain his aggressive sides and this is the way he expresses his feelings and how he relives his anger. Finally there is a point of view shot from the young girl, who is overlooking the argument, with her facial expressions of sadness, vulnerability and scared.

The sounds in this episode are varied; between non-diegetic and diegetic sounds.
Diegetic sounds are;
-Shouting/talking
-Background noise of the television
-The hammering and banging at the builders workplace
-Car noises

Non-Diegetic sounds are;
-Introduction music
-Girl being run over
-Music when the affair is taken place

We also hear the accents of the characters, in this case the accents is from East London, as the father says ‘stupid cow’, and ‘bleeding’, this accent is usually associated with the lower class, and have no authority or importance.  

The editing is extremely fast paced throughout, in order to keep the audience’s attention, which has a flow of continuity and the transitions of the edits are smooth and fast paced. To conclude the class and status of the characters in The Street are middle class and are represented in this episode as aggressive, we know this by the characters expressions and the tensions between each of the characters.