representation of age essay

Comment on the representation of age in the following Eastenders extract;
The extract begins with a medium shot of two characters. The viewer can see that they are teenagers by their clothing attire, being school uniform. Shot reverse shot is used as the two characters interact with one another. The viewer is then introduced to a new character, he appears to be peers with the girl and boy, but is not wearing uniform. It’s clear to see that they are all the same age as they use the same sort of language which is informal and not difficult to understand. The scene shows that teens are represented as relatively rebellious as instead of being on their way to school they are leaning against a wall chatting, acting as though they don’t care about education, as the ‘new boy’ tells the other male that he “doesn’t need a buddy.” Adding another dimension to the scene, the only female present acts flirtatious and makes ‘cheeky statements’. It represents teenagers in a way that they think of themselves as independent and older than their years; it also shows people that are the same age all have different personalities.
The scene then cuts to a medium close-up of ‘Ben’ a child aged around 12, the viewer can estimate this as he is wearing school uniform but looks younger than the characters that were introduced earlier on in the scene. Ben has glasses and a hearing aid connoting vulnerability and innocence. Immediately the viewer makes a judgement of the young boy that he could potentially be intelligent and unpopular with his peers. A character called Billy is then introduced into the scene. He is an adult that appears to be generally scruffy this contrasting greatly with the background behind him which is a well decorated room that seems to be in a nice house. He looks out of place and this could make the viewer question why he was there. The two males have a conversation using shot reverse shot, Billy talks quite advanced and the small boy responds well, the assumption that he is intelligent is only heightened and can be confirmed by this. A smooth transition is made as the conversation disperses and Ben walks out as the camera tracks him, but stops when it reaches four new characters clearly having an argument. This shot tells the viewer that the adult scenes and lives of older people are much more central to the show and overshadow the storylines for the younger generation. The group of people seem to be disagreeing on something. By using a medium long shot, the way the camera is used has enabled the viewer to see all characters at once, including their body language and emotions. It is clear to see who the dominant character is in the situation, as the older lady is standing up and her hand movements are quick and assertive. This once again shows the power that the older generation have over others, even if the younger characters are adults themselves. The older characters are represented as being more authoritative and respected throughout the programme.



The scenes in Eastenders are all connective and the storylines are multi-stranded. The representation of age is seen as older characters being more important, included in the more pressing storylines. The younger generations such as teens are given typical stories and are stereotyped quite significantly. Overall, the older generations lives seem to overshadow that of the younger ones, representing age as the older the characters are the serious and interesting their storyline will be. Eastenders tries to appeal to most audiences, but it is apparent that the older generation are more interested in TV dramas, specifically soaps.