EXAM QUESTION 2

  

In this episode of Cuffs we see many different events which can change our perspectives on how we see things. In the opening scene we see a camera panning across Brighton and its landmarks. Whilst the camera is panning we hear a voice over talking about the roles of a police officer and how you have to respect them and what they do. This voice over gives us a general perspective on what to expect of the police force and how they should be acting in this programme. We see Ryan, the main character,  walking across a naturist beach as he has heard there is trouble, as this is happening they use cross cuttings to go back to the chief constables speech about the roles of a police officer. This makes us see Ryan as a professional and they we should expect him to shut down any sign of trouble in an instance. Ryan approaches the beach where there is an affray of stag revellers taking the mick out of a naturist. The chief constable can still be heard in the background whilst Ryan is trying to sort out the situation this gives us a sense of irony towards the scene as Ryan is not being respected but the chief constable is saying all police officer should be respected at that they are "the centre of the community". This scene is very comedic and ironic and gives us a perspective that the police force are not respected or looked upon and that they are a bit pointless. 

In a future scene we see Jake, an inexperienced police officer, with Ryan. They have both been called to a situation where a drug addict is elf harming himself. Jake is seen looking very nervous as he tries to talk to this drug addict his tone is much more aggressive and his voice is raised a lot. When Ryan takes over we see the drastic change in personality as his voice is much calmer and much more reassuring then Jake's. The difference in their tone of voices tells us how experienced Ryan is and that Jake needs to start learning. Further into this scene Jake is bandaging the man and again he is being quite aggressive and forceful but suddenly non diegetic music is added and it expresses to the audience that Jake has finally learned something and he says to the drug addict, "I am here. I am not going to leave you". We feel a lot of sympathy for the police force in Brighton having to deal with big crimes like knife crimes. 

In the last scene that i am going to analyse today we have witnessed a racist act of assault towards a Indian boy. He has been stabbed in the back with a screw driver by a gang of white boys just because he has different coloured skin. This gives us a background of Brighton and how there is a lot of group divisions in it. After the attack a different police officer, a woman this time, has been brought onto the case (Jo Moffat). She needs to get information off a little boy who witnessed the attack. We see her talking to the young boy in a very calm but stern voice she's not trying to be too sympathetic but not too harsh either because she still needs information out of him. This shows us that Jo Moffat is a very sympathetic and sensitive person and shows us that she is a professional and is handling the situation in the right way.