within TV drama age is often stereotyped heavily; with teenagers often being portrayed as disruptive and disrespectful, in contrast with the elderly who are seen as wise, elderly, dressed old fashioned and unable to keep up with modern technology. i believe that this clip has been fitted to represent these stereotypes using mise en scene, camera, editing and sound.
The first indication in this clip is using mise en scene, and the surroundings, they make it clear that the clip is in a school with bright yellow displays, busy walls, connoting a youthful environment as oppose to a boring black and white office block for the adults. The children are also dressed in school unform which confirms the expectation, however they are all dressed in short skirts and short ties which is obviously not part of the school uniform, this is an early representation of the youths being rebellious and disruptive in contrast to the teachers who are all dressed smart and uniform, which could be seen as boring. A key example of this is Grantly who sports a tweed suit which is a portrayal of his old age. in contrast one of the younger teachers wears smart black trousers with a bright pink top, to imply she is professional and modern as she has professional wear but depicts her younger age with the brighter more fashionable clothing. Adding to this in a later scene with larger teacher attempts to look 'cool' where he tries on a T shirt, Jeans and high top trainers, and you can instantly see he is out of place as he says 'they are meant to be like that aren't they' when asking about the position of his jeans. this represents him as old and out of touch with the modern generation.
The establishing shot of this clip is a close up of some brown shoes walking past chair legs, the zoomed in approach magnifies the importance of the shoes and allows the audience to recognize that the following sequence will heavily involve this person. the cut to a two shot of two teenage boys making their actions seem suspicious or shifty. this implies that teenagers are suspicious and mischievous. the close up of the young boy where you can see his youthful appearance and his uniform, compared to the closeup of the teacher where you can see the contrast in his old age expressions and wrinkles, showing the start contrast in the two age groups. after this there is a middle shot of the three characters which allows them to see their body language, where they avoid eye contact and have their head down, this represents the idea that they are ashamed of something that they have done, but also that the older male is authoritative towards them and strict.
The use of sound in this clip contributes to the representation of age in this clip with dialogue. Within the first scene we are able to recognize the relationship between the students and teacher with the use of the term 'sir'. this indicates that the character is authoritative and above the youths, this also juxtaposed with the fact that their is a clear hierarchy in the show. with the adults being allowed to give direct orders like 'Give it!' and the students are forced to obey him. Hierarchy is also represented with a lack of disrespect towards the teenagers, with the adult saying 'oh did he hold your hair' and attempting to mock them as he realizes he is in a position of power.
Editing plays a big role in the contribution to the representation of age in this clip. In the first scene the fast cutting between the close up of the walking and the two boys attempting to hide the broken camera tell us that the boys are up to no good and misbehaving.The use of the reverse shot between Grantly and the other teacher links their point of views and allows the audience to witness her reaction to the fact she forgot to take out insurance, from this we establish similar roles between the adults as Grantly is seen as wise as he is giving guidance to a younger member of staff. We also see reliance on an elder when there is an argument between two teenagers and one of the girls runs to a teacher to sort out the up heaving as the teenagers cannot mediate their own behavior. This represents that the older generation is wise and the younger generation loom up to the elders for guidance.
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