January 2013: ER – Age

The clip ER is representing age; this suggests to the audience that the older you are, it doesn’t make you wiser. This representational issue is shown through camera, sound, editing and mise-en-scene.

The clip begins with a mid shot of two doctors outside a patient’s room where you can hear the sound of phones ringing. The audience can tell that they are doctors by the uniform they are wearing; white coat. The first scene the audience can clearly see a role reversal between the doctor and the little boy; this is because the little boy knows a lot of things for his age which indicated to the audience he is quite mature. As the doctor goes into the room, the boy immediately says ‘so it worked’ and then the doctor questions the little boy about his strong knowledge. This highlights the issue of age and that it doesn’t matter how old you are as you can still have a mind of an adult.

Many close ups are used to highlight the seriousness in the shot reverse shot. This helps the audience to identify with the characters and understand the meaning of the message. The audience can see this through the dialogue “would you like me to be there”, this is because they boy hasn’t told his mother about the disease he has been diagnosed with, this also highlights the change of roles as he is more worried about his mum than himself as normally you would see the parents worrying about their kids. The low key lighting helps the audience to sympathise with the little boy as it highlights that the boy knows exactly what’s going to happen to him.

The next scene consists of many patients sitting in the waiting room; the3 audience can see a long shot of these patients with the non diegetic sound of the phones always ringing and people speaking. There is a contrast between this boy and the little boy who is in the waiting room in scene 2. This is because the boy has been bitten and is crying about it which what you would usually see compared to the other boy who has been diagnosed with an illness and isn’t crying about it.

In the next scene the audience can see that they are in a surgery room due to the equipment being used and the low key lighting. There is a long shot of the surgery room and the representational issue is highlighted through dialogue and sound. There is a loud beeping noise from the equipment which gradually gets louder as the scene gets tenser. Also there are quick jump cuts between the lady trying to help the patient and the doctor talking to her but she doesn’t really care as she believes she knows what she is doing. This is because the doctor said something and she replied back saying ‘but I’m sure you’re going to tell me’, this suggests to the audience that just because he is older, he knows more but at shown at the beginning of the clip this isn’t true. There are also quick jump cuts and close ups to highlight the conversation.

Towards the end of the clip there is a lot of tracking of the camera in the waiting room going left to right and right to left. Also at the end as the doctor comes out of the elevator the audience hear the elevator opening. This is because there is a close up of the woman and as the doors open there is a pan towards the elevator. As the woman walks with the doctor to the room, half of her face darkens and a black shadow is on the face, this suggests to the audience her dark side and that she may have something to do with the missing bullet. This is also shown through a zoom into the female doctor’s face as she says ‘vanished’. The lighting in this scene is a lot darker compared to the rest of the clip, this may signify that she knows something about it and doesn’t want to say anything.