Typically the younger generation, especially teenagers are represented negatively in majority of TV Dramas, for example, in class we watched a short clip of Waterloo Road (see below).
Within this short clip, we very quickly see these two teenage boys during school to be suspiciously handling a video recorder - one teen uncovers it carefully and when a teacher comes along to see what they were up to, the same teen very swiftly picks the video recorder up and hides it in his coat.
For the audience, only 10 seconds into this video, we see that these teenage boys had done wrong.
This clip also reveals that these boys are careless and maybe even stupid as the teacher shows the viewers that the video recorder is obviously broken as he hangs it from its fold-out screen. Thus, showing the viewers that teenagers have still got a lot to learn their rights from wrongs - by showing stupidity, naiveness and still like children in teenage bodies!
This continues to show other teenagers in the school to be experiencing family problems at home (some sort of affair between parents) - therefore triggering the more fiery personalities and attitudes these teens are displaying.
As a teenager myself, I know that these typical teenagers represented on television are exaggerated for entertainment - or else it wouldn't make good television, hence why Waterloo Road has lasted seven series since March 2006.
Not every teenager will be experiencing all of these problems - some may be more closed up about them, or they don't even have these problems - because it all come from their upbringing.
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The older generation, especially Old Age Pensioners (OAPs) are typically represented in TV Drama as frail, forgetful (maybe suffering from Dementia - common in over 65 year olds) and almost ridiculous with their doings (the forgetfulness? useless with technology?). These elements would create comedy gold but that's just being stereotypical. Then again, these elements could be tweaked so it would tell a more upsetting story.
But however the TV drama represents the older generation - we as viewers always feel some level of sympathy for them.
I cold not find the clip that the class watched for this topic, so from what I remember, it would be categorised in the comedy genre as there was non-diegetic sounds of 'canned laughter' or if I'm wrong, the scene may had been performed in front of a live audience?
With this laughter as we see an older gentleman handling an old phone (this particular show seems like it could be from the 90s due to its grainy, low definition quality footage) he doesn't seem to quite grasp the 'skill' that us younger generation has somehow grasped - I think he may had the phone upside down and also, we as viewers could tell that he had hard of hearing as he repeats what the other person on the phone was saying. But what the older man said seems more absurd!
These exaggerations in television dramas were definitely made for entertainment - if I were an older man, if all of that happened to me and then seeing it as a TV show were it was mocked, I'd be frustrated than anything! Thinking that not all of that happens to every elderly person, but some elderly people may take the joke and laugh along!
So it really goes down to how these viewers sees these programmes!
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"How can we as both critics and producers of television, create a scene that goes against the most typical representations and stereotyping of age?"
After analysing these clips in class, our task is to produce a scene that we consider as atypical - meaning what opposes the typical representations and stereotypes that are presented to us.
Craig, Charlie and I were given a young actor, Elisha and an older actor, Tim to work with as well as a number of props to use.
[Thank you to Elisha and Tim for taking time out for acting and thank you to Mr Codling for your seemingly endless supply of props!]
From the allotted time of 30 minutes given to us to produce a scene, here is what we achieved:
The props we used are:
*foil
*flour to imitate cocaine
*card (my top up red card)
*a mobile phone
*a table
*a chair
We chosen these properties to create a very simple, straight-to-the-point scene since we are scarce on time.
Foil is seem usually with cocaine, usually it wraps the drugs. Used a red card, more noticeable, signifies danger in this case - used to 'line up' the cocaine ready to be abused. It is also a top up credit card for a mobile - another meaning to 'topping up' - another 'hit' with cocaine.
A mobile phone is in the scene - a sense of movement, convenience, emergency when phone is needed.
Table and chair, ordinary everyday furniture can be soiled with drugs.
Elisha in her school uniform: typical teen girl handling drugs, right?
Tim in his casual jumper, shirt and jeans - almost imitating Elisha: typical older gentleman, comes to tell her off, right?
Wrong.
Elisha's the innocent one who found the drugs - thought to have a chat with Tim about them - role reversal. An atypical scene.
We firstly see the foil, the 'cocaine', the mobile phone and the red top up card - the camera then tilts up and slowly reveals a teenage girl in middle shot (MS), with a blank expression - took some cocaine?
This then cuts to a long shot (LS) where it is established that we are in an enclosed room. We see Tim walk from the right of the frame to the middle - central, main focus.
The scene cuts to MS of Elisha and just part of Tim, only see his arm - lost functions of the rest of his body due to drugs? Missing identity to Elisha, not the man she thought he was? Elisha looks at Tim's action of taking the red card and cuts the 'cocaine'.
This finally cuts to a LS with Elisha's dialogue is: "You don't know me." and Tim's dialogue: "So don't judge me."
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