Waterloo Road (Age)

Waterloo Road
Series 5 - Episode 5 - Clip Analysed (2mins 30 - 8 mins)

Unfortunately the clip is nolonger avaliable to watch but have a good read through and see how i've interpreted the representation of youth.

Mrs Shipp's notes

Scene 1 - A car pulls up outside the school gates signified by the visual code of the yellow lines and school road markings.

• A Mother is dropping off her son and daughter. She is on a mobile phone. The auditory code of the dialogue denotes that she is telling someone to "act up"as she has some "stock taking to do". The conversation is inter cut with close-up reaction shots of the children in the back seat looking disapproving through the mise-en-scene of their character movement, (facial expressions) mothers conversation signifying that she is not telling the truth. Representing the mother as a liar and connoting that she is possibly trying to "bunk off" work. This juxtaposes the stereotypical representation of school children trying to avoid lessons as she is supposed to be the responsible adult.
• It becomes clear that it is the girls birthday however through the dialogue and character movement it is obvious that she's not happy. This representation fulfils the dominant image of "stroppy" teenagers while at the same time encouraging the audience to ask questions why she's not happy on her birthday. The edited shot-reverse-shot between the mother and daughter is broken by the use of a cutaway which portrays the arrival of a white van driven my a man. The audience questions who he is as initially he is represented as someone watching the action uninvited, creating a sinister representation of the character.
• As the conversation turns to the girls father and broken family "You made dad leave!" and "I don't want to spend my birthday with your boyfriend" we, the audience are able to construct the narrative that the man is her father. At the same time the mother is trying to convince the girl of the boyfriends intentions and tries to justify that she should be allowed to be happy. This falls another teenage stereotype of being selfish, which is re-enforced when the mother offers to pick her up only to be greeted with "Don't Bother".
• As a irregular viewer the audience is left slightly confused as neither the mother or girl have an ideological representation and therefore the programme isn't reflecting a bias towards either of them in this opening sequence, however this might change as the programme / episode progresses.

Scene 2 - Teacher drops of boy prior to the gate.

• This short scene represents the idea that a boy, who might be very good at football finds it difficult to fit in with the boys playing football as through his character movement and facial expressions he looks pensive, emphasised by the shot size of a MCU. This representation is exaggerated by the long shot depicting the distance between the characters.

Scene 3 - Introduction of Fin "Sharky"

• A boy is leaning up against a tree wearins school uniform.

...to be continued