My essay
Age is represented in this extract of Monarch of the Glen through the use of mise-en-scene, camera angles, editing and sound. Monarch of the Glen is a British drama television series and is loosely based on Compton Mackenzie's Highland Novel; therefore, its views are quite old fashioned thus the younger generations are seen as troublemakers and immature, whereas the older generations are seen to be wise and in control. The main way in which this is shown to us is through the mise-en-scene, it's subtle enough that it doesn't really stand out but it has a big effect on how the audience perceives both ages. There are a lot of people much older than the 16 year old, the audience can clearly see that she is uneducated and quite immature as she does not know how to drive but she still lies and says that she can drive, consequently resulting in a crash. This shows her naivety and the fact she lied shows she is immature which is stereotypical of her age.
In "Monarch of the glen" there is a close up pan shot over two named teddybears, a teddy is a symbolic signifier for a Young person, younger than her ages of 16, the music emphasises a sad setting, so by looking at these teddy bears signifies how she is reminiscing, foreshadowing she is going to leave. The camera is static at the name cards also, indexically signifying how they want this to be the most important aspect, and indexically signifying that she has spent time thinking of a name for these objects, signifying she is mentally younger than her age, contrasting as she has lived a lie for so long.
The people who live there believe that way of life is the "norm". The second way in which age is represented is through sound. When the girl is shown in the clip the music becomes more exciting emphasising her youthfulness and energy but when the rest of the characters are shown, the music is country/folk reinforcing that they are manual labour workers, which is quite an old fashioned job for older men, this then emphasises the difference in age. When the young girl is packing her stuff to leave, the music is slow creating a sad atmosphere; this accentuates the fact that she is over emotional which is typical in a girl of her age because of her hormones she is then perceived as not thinking straight and foolish. Another way in which age is represented through sounds that isn't as obvious is through the characters accents. The head teacher is posh with received pronunciation, which is a reflection on his appearance and his dominance showing his age in a positive way.
First thing i noticed was that the pace of the camera switching and editing has slowed down when only the two adults were speaking in the office. It represents age and old people as being slow which conforms to the stereotype. This links in to my next point because when Amy gets back into the scene a quick edit has been used to represent her as a live, enthusiastic young person. Which conforms to the stereotype of young people being full of energy and hyper.The next thing is when the old lady near the end is running, a tracking shot is used linked in with a long-take to show the VERY short distance the old lady runs before she is wheezing and being tired Which conforms to the stereotype of old people being slow, unhealthy.
First thing is that when the main male is speaking to different people, the pitch and volume of his sound varies For example, in the Office scene the male is speaking calm and sensibly, however when Amy arrives his voice raises and gets harsher and Amy stays quiet. This shows the superiority of older people to younger which conforms younger people are inferior to older people.
