The clip portrays a
certain image of different ages through the use of mise en scene, camera,
editing and sound. In this clip of the hit show in the USA, ER, there are many
scenes that give the audience a different view of the stereotypical ages.
Firstly, the clip
starts with a male doctor talking to a woman who is older than him and seems to
be higher up than him in the hospital; this automatically signifies to the
audience that the older the person in the hospital the more superior they are.
Then the man walks in to a room with a very young looking boy in the bed who
seems to have a life threatening illness from suggestions from the dialogue.
The producer has used mice en scene very well as they have made everything very
low key and dull in the room to match the characters emotion. Prior to the boy
speaking the over the shoulder shots, helped by the use of continuity editing indicates
that the older man has more knowledge and maturity than the young boy. However
as the scene goes on the audience realise that the young boy his very clever
and thoughtful for his age, this is indicated through the dialogue and through
the mise en scene. In one part of the scene he mentions how he doesn’t want to
worry his mother and the financial side of the treatment he will need; this
clearly illustrates to the audience that he is very mature for his age. Lastly,
in this scene the audience witness that the boy is playing a very complicated
puzzle book which again indicates to the audience that the boy is intelligent
and isn’t the stereotypical 12/13 year old boy.
The quick cut to the
next scene is to the accident emergency room where there are many patients in
the room, which emphasises the mayhem in the room. The opening part of the
scene consists of another young boy who got bitten; the young boy is crying and
is with his mum, this is a contrast with the previous scene of the young boy
who was very mature. This emphasises the fact that the boy with the serious life
threatening illness is very mature and not showing emotion unlike the other boy
who was crying over a very minor injury. The camera and mise en scene in this
scene highlights the mayhem in the room, as the camera looks self-held and very
jerky like a documentary, this helps emphasis the panic in the room.
In the next scene the
bald headed man who is talking to the woman seems to be older than all the
woman in the scene, this again highlights the fact that in the hospital the
older the person the higher up the person is. The man at the end of the bed is
also telling the woman thing that she doesn’t know which makes him seem very
patronizing towards her, again signifying that the older the person the more
intelligent they are.
In the next scene when
the two doctors are speaking, it highlights to the audience that the man is
quite immature for his age, saying how he can’t live without this woman for a
few months or so. Again this creates an opinion in the viewers mind that not
every older person is more mature than younger people as seen in scene one.
The producer then
backs up this point by having a rather old man in the background with a younger
man facing the camera, and the younger man seems more capable and higher up
than the older man. This again illustrates to the audience that maturity and
power doesn’t depend on age.
Throughout the clip
there was very sharp, quick editing which emphasises the mayhem in the hospital
and how hospitals are normally like. Also the sound of shouting and sirens in
the AE room is very loud assign to the panic in the scene.
Finally in the last
scene the doctor ‘loses the bullet’ of a patient which isn’t an adult thing to
do which again allows the audience to question whether maturity depends on the
age of people.
Overall I believe that
the clip portrays to the viewer that it doesn’t matter what age you are, you
can be mature or immature; they do this well through the use of all four
factors, mise en scene, camera, sound and editing.
