Margin Call (2011) shot-by-shot analysis (up to 4.05)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01mnxzd/margin-call
The first shot of Margin Call is a bird's eye view of a sprawling, vast cityscape at night. The night is cloudy, lending the shot a cold, blue-grey hue that does not make the city look vibrant, rather dull & unwelcoming. The shot is time-lapsed, so the minute movements of the clouds & window cleaners are noticeable as they are shown faster than they would appear in real life. The skyscrapers are tall & unmoving, possibly signifying the unchanging, seemingly faceless facade of high-powered businesses. The non-diegetic sound that accompanies this shot is of indistinct chatter & slow, minor-key, chordal music which gives a first-impression of dour times to come.
This cityscape shot cuts to black, where we see the title of the film, which cuts from black to a long shot inside an office building, where we see a cluster of dour-looking, dark-clothing-clad, clipboard-wielding business types (a human resources team), who look around their surroundings judgementally. Their costumes & performance exude a sense of foreboding for bad times to come.
Next, we have a shot-reverse-shot of Paul Bettany's character, Emerson, as he watches the human resources team. He leans back on his chair & chews gum in a relaxed manner before averting his eyes (probably so as not to attract attention) before we get the reverse-shot back to the human resources team, now lose enough to be in a mid-shot. The shot is hard-focused, as we see the members of the team going out of focus as they walk forward until the camera is focusing on the face of the dark-haired female human resources team member, implying that she is important.
This cuts to Penn Badgley's character Seth. He sits up on his chair, in contrast to relaxed Emerson, & has an inquisitive & apprehensive look on his face. He utters the first piece of diegetic dialogue in the film, "Is that them?" he asks to his superior. He stands up to be level with Zachary Quinto's character Peter (Seth's superior) & the camera tilts to follow him. Both men look around, showing that they are nervous about the human resources team. We cut again to the dark haired woman, her face holding a neutral, unreadable expression. The non-diegetic piano music creates an atmosphere of apprehension & tension.
There is then a shot-reverse-shot between Emerson & the pair of younger men, showing that there is a rift between them. Emerson is more relaxed & has been with the company longer, so he is not nervous about the inspection & looks as if he pities his younger colleagues. Even though he is seated, he is framed in an eye-level close up, so as not to look down on him. He is in a position of power compared to the other young men, but not compared to the rest of the office, so he must be seen at a neutral angle. 

X Factor task

This duo, Major, are represented as a novelty in this clip. We can tell this because it keeps cutting back to the horrified judges. This tells us that the editor wanted us to share in the judges' disgruntlement & find this duo as ridiculous as they clearly do. The judge reactions influence the TV audience's reactions. When Cowell stops the contestants, the focus is on the audience's stunned & laughing faces & the judges' disdain, which shows that the show creators want the TV audience to laugh in horror at what they think is a ridiculous performance.

In this footage, the cuts to the judges are less than the previous, & when they do happen, the judges look pleasantly surprised & happy. The focus is on the woman, instead of on the judges, which shows that she is regarded as a good performer, in contrast to Major, who were seen as ridiculous, so the focus was on the ridicule coming from the judges & the audience rather than on them. The camera pays close attention to her dancing, which shows that she is regarded as attractive.

Gender representation on a TV show

The TV show I have chosen to analyse the representation of gender is the ITV sitcom Hardware (2003-2004). This programme revolves around Mike, a young, grumpy DIY store worker (played by Martin Freeman) & his co-workers. There are very clearly defined gender roles in Hardware, as the two female characters, Anne & Julie, work in a more domestic service role as waitresses & the male characters take nearly every opportunity to prove their masculinity.
This is especially evident in the episode titled 'Women'. In order to make the DIY store more appealing to women, the guys deck it out with pink balloons & decorations & playing soft music. When the female customers are drawn in by this, the guys discover that the women (stereotypically) know nothing about DIY so they spend a lot of time explaining each tool to the female customers. This eventually becomes infuriating for them, so they bin the balloons & get rid of the music. This illustrates the stereotypical idea of women being 'from Venus' & men 'from mars', ie polar opposites who could not possibly get along & do the same thing.

Class representation in the newspaper

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973
BBC News Magazine has a 'class calculator', where one can answer questions about one's social & economic lifestyle in order to gage which tier of the UK class system one belongs in. Rather than the traditional three- or four-tier class system, the calculator has seven distinct classes. These are, as pasted from the website:

Britain's new social classes

• Elite: Most privileged group, set apart from other classes because of wealth. Highest scoring economically, socially and culturally
• Established middle class: Largest class group and second wealthiest. Also score high culturally and socially
• Technical middle class: Small distinct group that aren't so social but have money and are into emerging culture such as gaming, the internet and rock music
• New affluent workers: A young group, socially and culturally active with middling levels of income
• Traditional working class: Score low economically, socially and culturally but have reasonably high house values and oldest average age
• Emergent service workers: New young urban group who don't have much money but are very social and cultural. They "live for today"
• Precariat: Poorest, most deprived class who score low economically, socially and culturally

When I took this test, I landed in the Precariat, or precarious proletariat, class. This is due to lack of money, & social circle. 

This website, being owned by the BBC, is sympathetic to all classes, from elite to precariat, because the BBC is funded by taxpayers from all strata of society. The BBC would not want to alienate any particular class, as it belongs to all.