Thursday 8 December 2016

Representation of Age - Waterloo Road


At the start of this clip a tracking shot is used as the audience witnesses the teachers feet walking towards the students who are trying to hide an item they recently broke. The camera follows the movement as the teacher, Mr Budgen, approaches the boys making the audience feel the tense atmosphere and suspense as they predict the trouble the students will be in. The director has purposely used this shot to represent the teacher as being more powerful when compared with the pupils showing he contains full control of this situation representing his high level of experience with school kids - this is also portrays his old age. Close ups are also used at the start of this clip when the two students, Finn and Josh, realise they have been caught after the teachers find out about their incident when involving the broken video camera. This shot has been used in order for the audience to witness their expressions and see the amount of regret and sorrow over breaking a school property object. Viewers can also see the amount of mischief on their faces representing the characters as being jokers and hating school - this shows a common stereotype for teenagers and heightens the audience's belief of this type of label.

Diegetic sound has been used throughout this clip through the high usage of dialogue. This is shown when characters are talking to one another and gives the audience ideas about their personalities due to the volume, pitch and tone of their voice. For example, when the three students are walking along the corridor discussing their concern over their friend the viewers understand the amount of anger their friend, Amy, has after she starts shouting towards her peer group. The audience can see the different age groups due to the variety of words used by different characters e.g. teenagers use slang and informal registers to portray their youth whereas teachers are seen to use more standard English and formal words to represent their higher control and power on school grounds. Sound bridge has also been used when music carries on from one scene to another. This has been used when the student runs into the classroom and tells the teacher of the upcoming fight about to happen, fast music starts to play and follows into the next scene heightening the already tense atmosphere and builds an action element. By doing this the director is portraying the students as being stereotypically violent and aggressive, this makes the audience think that all teenagers are seemed to be this way where this is not the case. For young people stereotypes are seen to be negative.

In this clip shot reverse shot has been the main editing technique used, this can be seen when the young boy is offering his help to the caretaker about fixing the broken window. The camera moves from one character to the other and keeps happening until something occurs that the audiences attention needs to be on. For this scene this technique has been used to show the two characters having a conversation and focuses the viewers on what they are saying so they can understand the storyline and can easily pay attention. Due to the student asking for permission it shows the viewers that the characters with an older age have more power and control when compared with the students who are much younger. Continuity editing has also been used in this clip. This is too make the scenes blend together and make it more believable for the viewers, this is important for this TV Drama due to the drastic situations involving the characters. This has been used during the 'fight' scene with some of the characters which is shown through the fast paced cuts. By doing this it builds the tense atmosphere and adds excitement due to the audience knowing that teenagers are fighting against each other.

Clothing shows the audiences the different ages of the characters. For example, teenagers wear the school uniforms whereas the teachers wear formal clothing to show their high position within their school. The uniforms represent the students age and portrays to the audience their expected behaviour so when something bad happens involving the pupils e.g. breaking school property it is too be expected and predicted by viewers. By the characters having separate clothing it shows their different positions and either a lack of power or a gain of power by having a more formal style of clothes. Bright lighting has also been used throughout this clip too show the setting is based in daytime. The teenaged girls have short skirts to show the sexualisation of females and to portray that young girls have a lack of respect for decency, their clothing also doesn't contain any blazers or smart clothing to show their low image when compared with other schools. The setting is portrayed by the characters walking through corridors and the walls containing posters for clubs and notices, this is something that is usually featured in schools.