Waterloo Road Age Textual Analysis

In the clip from Waterloo Road age is represented in contrasting ways to show a difference in power from each character of a different age. They are shown in contrasting ways by the way that the Director portrays them. The teachers are very patronising, uncool and are very unpopular by the teenagers. The teachers are there as an authority figure. The Director positions the audience to relate to their relevant age group, offering a variety of Narrative plots and characterisation.


In the opening scene, the first character that is introduced is made very clear to the audience through the pace of the footsteps and the close up shot of the feet between the chair legs. Shallow Focus was also used in this shot to portray the importance of these footsteps and warn the boys to be cautious of what is about to happen. The slow movement of the feet would tell the audience that this is a teacher approaching as the slow pace builds up tension which any pupil would feel as they hear these footsteps. It also helps the audience to understand that the boys have done something wrong. Cuts are also used to move forward and back from each shot of the feet and the boys and this would create more suspense.

Cuts were the first technique to be used and this was done between each shot. It was done mostly when the teacher has to rush out of the room to deal with the girl that is starting a fight with another school boy. Cuts were used by the Director to show how rapid events can start in schools and quickly they have to be dealt with to prevent them from happening again. An Ellipsis was used a lot when the girl was fighting the school boy. This was done by not including the scene when she pushes him into the room that she then goes into intimidate him in. As an audience, we would know that she has done this through the way that she pushes him out of the corridor. This was done to speed the action up and to create an ambiguous effect. Continuity Editing begins the scene as it is clear that there was a storyline behind the camera incident and why the teacher and pupil don't get on. This was done purely to carry on the storyline from the series and to enhance the relationships between characters. Shot-reverse-shot was also used a lot between characters as they were talking to different people. It was used the most In the first conversation with the teacher and pupils. It switches between the characters a lot which shows confusion as the pupils are acting as though they don't know what is going on. This fits the stereotype of teenagers hating school and being resilient to certain events. This was done to add a realistic approach to a pupils school life but to exaggerate how teachers and pupils can get on by showing 2 sides of the spectrum. Fast Paced Editing was used during the intimidation scene as all the shots were placed together very quickly to show how fast her anger was building up. The Director would have done it to add to the rush and intensity from both characters. As one character got angrier, one character got more nervous.
Non-Diegetic Sound was done through the music that was played in the background. This worked well with the intimidation scene as the music sounded like a heartbeat which could represent the school boy's heart beating faster and faster as his asthma attack begins to start. Diegetic Sound is also used when the dialogue starts, this relates onto Synchronous Sound as there were many sounds such as: constant chatter in the corridors of the school, slow foot pace from teachers and patronising tones from teachers. The main time in the clip that this happens would be with the distress in the young school boys voice as the girl begins shouting at him and intimidating him. The distress in his voice highlights exactly how scared he is and how uncomfortable he is around this girl. This would have been the directors intention as he wants the girl to look stronger and have power over him. 
All of these points were done by the Director, yet again to show realism, but also to add extra impact and drama to the scene. It was done to enhance the schools environment and show that, although this shot is based on one character, there are still people having their own conversations and school problems behind the scenes. Patronising voices were done by the middle aged teacher as he feels as though he has authority and is better than the children. He is portraying his dominance over them. He also does this by clicking at the boys to pass over the camera to him. This is a very important gesture to make to show authority and dominance. The language that the pupils use is also influenced by the people around them. The girl says "about my mum being a big hoe bag" This would be suggested that she has caught this on through her peers and this matches reality as teenagers are seen as being influenced greatly by their peers and following what they do. The language throughout this clip evidently shows this.
The younger teacher also seems very patronising and judgemental about the kids by the way that she speaks about them as she says "What do kids know about fashion." This also fits the stereotype.
An establishing shot was used when the pupils were walking down the corridor to establish the scene and to show that it was a school environment. It would have been done to set the scene and show how normal this school is and how standard its appliances and resources are. Medium Shots were also used quite a lot as people had conversations with each other. It was used mostly when the girls were talking in the corridor.
This would have been done to establish a character after the scene has been set. It could have been done in this instant, to introduce us, as an audience, to her uniform and could make us gain an opinion on her as a character by the way she holds herself and the way that she dresses. This also then relates onto the use of Canted Angles. This was used when the girl, as previously mentioned, drags the boy into the other room and begins intimidating him. It is used when she is towering over him to suggest that she has authority over him and he is weak and scared of her.Before the fights begins, a hand-held camera is used as the teacher rushes out of the classroom and eventually enters the room where the fight is taking place. This was done to show the rush that he was in and how urgently he was needed at the scene to help the boy. This was effective to helping the audience understand that school children place themselves on a ranked list and some teenagers are feared by others. This is the case in this situation and the Director would have done it to show that some teenagers are timid and some can be aggressive. A low angle is also used here to make her seem supremely powerful over him. An Insert Shot was used right at the beginning when the camera is slotted into the boys pocket to hide it from the teacher. This would have been done to show that they boys have done something bad and therefore need to cover up their mistake. Its a sneaky move via the boys so therefore required a discrete shot which would have been selectively chosen by the Director to portray this thought of the boys.
At then end of the clip, the teachers outfit is very uncool and he seems to be trying extra hard to gain popularity and attention from his pupils. This fits the stereotype of adults being unaware of popular culture. He is wearing his jeans really low which is where teenagers fell it is cool to wear them and he is wearing baggy clothes which is most associated with teenagers.  The teenagers also have their own sense of style as the girls have their shirts very low with their ties matching so that they are showing off their cleavage and one of the boys wears a scruffy jacket and comes across as a lazy character. He also has his tie really far down. This portrays the girls as wanting to flaunt themselves and caring for other peoples opinions a lot and the boys don't seem to care and just want to be themselves. The maintenance man also has a pen behind his ear and is wearing scruffy clothes which is typical of someone form this area of job. This was done so that he would stand out as the Maintenance man and wouldn't be mistaken as a teacher. Finally, there were a lot of educational posters placed around the school, not just in the classrooms, but in the corridors as well. This would be exactly like a school in real life as almost all schools are covered with educational posters and information around their schools. This would be done to yet again show realism and the scene becomes more believable when there are educational resources placed around the set.