Eastenders - Homework

Initial thoughts

In the clip, Patrick is shown to be talking to the rest of the family. During the time he is speaking, everyone is listening intently. This shows that they have respect for him and the age is represented in the first 30 seconds by showing that older people are generally well mannered and respected. Patrick is telling the rest of his family about a past event, and have portrayed the fact that elderly people will stereotypically, be telling a lot of stories.

There denotation is of empty bottles and half empty glasses of win on the table and the connotation of this is that they have drunk them. Wine is usually thought as more of a sophisticated drink that is drunk by adults and this is how it's representing age, through the use of drink.

At one point, Denise says "Chelsea taking an interest in something? How much have you had to drink?" this shows that this clip has represented younger people to not be interested in peoples past stories and that it is a rare thing for her to be taking interest.

The representation of age is shown by having Chelsea (one of the younger girls) as being quite stubborn so they are showing that younger people are generally more stubborn that older people.

During this clip, Libby is talking and after she finishes she says "Ain't that right Patrick?" which shows the younger people are referring back to the older people to make sure they're correct which shows that the representation of age is shown by having older people more knowledgeable and having a lot more wisdom than the younger people.

Analysis

Age is how old you are, it is the number of years you have been alive and is represented in this clip by showing how the different ages act and how they act towards each other.

From the very start of the clip you see a masters shot to show the proximity of each of the characters but also to see how many characters there actually are. You can clearly see that there is three generations sitting the the dinner table, Libby and Chelsea being the children, Lucas and Denise being the parents and Patrick being the grandparent. I don't actually know if these are the actual relations to each other but from the way they are having dinner and having general discussion, they are either family, or very close friends. From this shot you see that age is represented in this clip by showing that Patrick, as an older man, is leading the conversation and is at the head of the table. This means that he is the head of he family which is obviously a respected role so we can say that the representation of age is showing that because Patrick is older, he is more respected.

As the conversation continues between the family, Chelsea asks Patrick a question to which Denise, her mother, responds "Chelsea taking an interest in something? How much have you had to drink?" which shows that age is represented by showing that the mother doesn't actually know the daughter that well because when she asks a question, Denise makes out as if she never cares about anything but in the clip you see she obviously does. This shows that the younger children are probably more secretive and less sociable with the family so the parents don't actually know them that well.

Libby asks questions throughout the conversation that they're having which shows that she is curious. At one point she says a fact about the riots which she then proceeds to say "Ain't that right Patrick?". To me this shows two things, firstly, that age is represented by showing that the children are still in education and are knowledgable on facts and events. It also shows that she was referring back to Patrick, as he is older than her, to make sure she was right which shows she trusts him to know the answer because she either thinks he must know because he is older than her or because he has lived through it. I think overall in this part, age is represented as older people being more wiser and knowledgable and children still in education.

In conclusion, I think that the overall representation of young aged people are that they are curious, smart, still in education and kept to themselves and the overall representation of old ages people are that hey are wise, knowledgable and respected.