Representation of Age

Textual Analysis - Waterloo Road

Waterloo road is a British drama series that is aired on BBC 1. During the clip we have studied, age is constructed to reinforce the stereotypical binary opposite between young and old.

In the first scene of the extract, the director starts by using a following pan to follow the teachers shoes walking across the room. In addition, they use selective focus to position the audience to focus on the shoes opposed to the chairs he is moving past. Simultaneously, the director also incorporates the diegetic sound of the footsteps created by the walking of the older teacher. Using cross cutting, the director transitions the shot to a per down shot which introduces the audience to the students who are completing the suspicious act of attempting to hide the broken camera. This immediately gives the audience the impression that the teenagers are mischievous, this conforms to the common generalisation that teenagers have the ability to commit rebellious acts.

The director then uses a variety of master shots and over-the-shoulder shots which involves all the characters that are the focus of the scene. These are edited together using the shot-reverse-shot technique to capture the conversation. This allows the audience to view one character who represents a stereotypical middle aged man in relation to two of his students who are younger teenagers. It also demonstrates the dialogue exchanged between characters. The two teenagers attempt to cover up their guilty act however the teacher out smarts them with the sarcastic comment "holding his hair back". The director has included the middle aged teacher out-smarting the younger students. Again, this follows the stereotype that, in contrast with the teenagers, adults are often intelligent and smart. In addition - at first glance, the teacher is presented to be smartly dressed. However, throughout the clip the audiences attention is often drawn to the knitted cardigan worn underneath his suit. Typically this item is thought to be unfashionable and therefore presents the character as conforming with the generalisation that old people often have an outdated fashion sense.

In the second scene of the extract, the director uses a crab left shot to introduce the two new characters. Through the use of mise en scene, the audience can immediately see the difference between the representation of the older character in contrast to the younger character via their costumes. Through cut editing the crab left shot transitions to a two-shot of the student and the teacher engaging in conversation.

Next, the director uses an establishing shot to introduce a new location from a vantage point however this is quickly transitioned to a long shot of two students. This is accompanied by the diegetic sound of murmuring voices which will allow the audience to feel more engaged in the scene. Again, through mise en scene, the three characters are presented as being chavy, a common stereotype associated with teenagers. Key features such as 'bling' jewellery and loose ties are made noticeable due to the fact that they are filmed through a medium shot which reveals a large proportion of their costumes. Another big indication that the characters rebelling presented as 'chavy' is the diegetic sound. The dialogue highlights pronunciation and colloquial expressions used by the teenagers.

There is a scene of conflict between two of the students that occurs during the extract. Initially, the scene is filmed through two different over-the-shoulder shots, one pint of view to another, these are transitioned through continuity editing. The director then transactions to an establishing shot, this gives the audience an indication of the location of the conflict but it also reveals in the situation.