Teenage Representation

Editing and Representation

Waterloo Road uses editing to focus on at least 4 or 5 interlinking

stories in one episode creating drama. The surrounding shots

are taken from the same episode. This shows that unlike

some dramas, the producers are encouraging us to follow

everyones story. This shows that everyone's story.

This also creates enigma as the audience are

waiting for each story to continue as it moves onto the next

story.

Camera and Sound –Negative Representation

There is both negative and positive representation of teenagers in this Drama. The media projects a negative stereotype of teenagers in Waterloo Road through conforming to the idea that they all sleep around, get into fights and have emotional problems. These are all negative stereotypes that are played and exaggerated on in their series.

There are a lot of long establishment shots, showing the setting, usually the school corridors. Conversely there are a lot of close ups and uses of shot reverse shot during conversations, in order to show the audience what the characters are really thinking, and their current emotions.

In the case of sound, there is more diagetic and pleonastic sounds, perhaps to exaggerate the surroundings: for example, chairs scraping, the school bells and loud chatter.

Two person ahot

Two person close up shot Close up shot Two person close up shot

The majority of these shots are close ups

and shot reverse shots that include just 2 people.

This enhances the audiences ability to read emotion.

Shot reverse shot Two person close up high angle shot

Positive Representation

Although there is a lot of negativity portrayed in Waterloo Road, there is some positive. The teachers are portrayed as a community, working together. A good example of this would be between the Head and The Deputy, Karen and Kris. The arguments and family problems usually end in a positive way too which may be because some of the audience would use this as escapism from their own lives, which would mean that they would enjoy watching happy and satisfactory endings.

By Hannieh Mills