In the clip that I have just watched I will be discussing the issue of age as it is shown throughout the clip. I will talk about how the director has decided to input the different micro features such as; editing, camera angles, sound and mise-en-scene.
The first thing we notice would be the camera angles starting at a low angle of the two school boys shoes, which are trainer. The camera then does a tracking shot towards the teachers shoes which are smart dress shoes. This instantly shows us a clear divide in characters and who they are. The fact that the young boys are in trainers shows that they are of a younger and more immature age and that the person whom we find out is the teacher is in smart shoes. This shows that not only is the teacher older but he also has more authority than the students therefore showing a representation in age. The scene then moves onto the teacher telling of the students which again links back to the teacher being of a higher superior and having more authority. As the camera tracks forward we are able to see that the two young boys are frightened of what the teacher may say and due to the stern look on his face shows that he is not happy with what they have done. The camera follows him as he walks over to them with the broken camera in his hands. We then see an over the shoulder shot that helps us to feel apart of the scene. The camera then cuts to a mid shot of a woman teacher, who walks towards the boys and teacher with a concerned look on her face. The boys share a look much different to how they looked at the male teacher as they both looked concerned. It is clear that from there reactions off the two teachers, they have more respect for her and care more about her opinion than his. This may be because she treats them as if they are adults whereas, the male teacher treats them like the children they are. Even she looks at the male teacher as if he has more authority than her due to him being much older than her, which proves that age has such big role to play in the scene.
The camera then cuts to a close up of a door that is the office to one of the teachers. The camera then travels over to a young boy leaning on the wall next to the door. We then see a teacher approach the boy as the camera focuses on him. They begin taking and we see a mid shot of the two characters talking face to face. The young boy is seen to be slouched over and looks lazy whereas, the teacher is standing straight and look like he has more authority than the boy. This is a good representation of age as the student looks less confident than the teacher. Another thing we notice when looking at the representation of age is the authority and superiority that the teacher has over the student as they discuss a broken window and the student offers to help the teacher fix it. The teacher agrees to this but only on one condition that the boy finishes his school work first. The student slouches over and walks away, which is away of agreeing with the teacher. The camera follows the student down the corridor before following back to the teacher who turns his head back to the student and looks over his shoulder with a concerned look on his face.
The scene then cuts to three students walking down the corridor whilst in conversation. The corridor is crowded wit other students and we hear the non-diegetic sound of other students talking, which gives us a better feel of being involved in the scene. One of the girls starts arguing over what the other two students were talking about until she sees a boy walking down the corridor which grabs her attention. She begins to run down the corridor where she grabs the boys arm and drags him into a classroom. From looking at this section and connecting it to the representation of age it is clear that she is more intimidating to the boy than h is to her as he allows her to do this, much like the teacher in the opening scene being intimidating to the two boys. The camera then cuts to a teacher in his classroom trying to calm the students in his class down. When he has done so, he then tells them to get ready for a test and to sit in silence. This shows that he is more superior than the rest of the class as he is able to tell them what to do. The class is set to show more towards the authority figure as he is the only one standing up and everyone else is sitting down and shown to be lower down than him. A young boy enters into the scene as he is late for class. However because he ha good news the teacher dismisses that he is late and lets him off, saying "congratulations". Him and two other students begin to whisper about past events and we can see by the look of the two other characters and their facial expressions that they are holding back a secret from the boy. The camera then cuts to a student who abruptly runs into the classroom and they tell the teacher about the girl before dragging the boy into the room. The teacher quickly rushes out whilst still giving orders to his class, showing us that he doesn't need to be in the room in order to have authority over the class.
The first thing we see in the next sequence is the reflection of the two characters arguing in an empty classroom. When looking at their body language its clear that although they are the same age, she is seen to be much more intimidating and older as she stands straight and has her hands on her hips, whereas he is seen to be hunched over and holding his hands out in front of him. The scene is very quick as she continues to shout and his panic grows stronger and stronger. She stops him from leaving the classroom and his panic changes to pain as he clenches his chest. She laughs at him as she finds the whole scenario funny until the teacher comes rushing in, as he is concerned for the boys health. The camera switches to amid shot of each character as they are in a rush to find the boys inhaler. The teacher once again give a student an order showing us that the teachers still have authority over students. When the teacher tries to calm the boy down the scene cuts to a younger woman leaning on a wall. This is a good representation of age as she is older than the students but is obviously younger than most teachers as she has the same body language as the students. The camera then pans up the stairs towards a male teacher who is attempting to dress much younger than his age.
The teacher is tying to come across as a much younger person through the way he is dressed. He wearing baggy trousers and a top that isn't what that generation of people would wear. Two young girls (presumably in year 11) see the teacher and laugh at him saying he looks like he raided a years 10's wardrobe. This is an interesting representation of age as it shows us that although they are much younger than the teachers and see themselves to be much older than the year 10's. The teachers see the students all to be the same age whereas, the year 11's seem to feel a lot older than the years 10's.
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