ER Essay

In this essay i will talk about the representational issues about age in the show ER, through mis en scene, sound, editing and camera.

The white lab coats connotate purity, innocence and peace illustrating that the doctors are miracle workers and have only good intentions; to heal and save people’s lives. The white lab coat also informs the audience that the doctors have a high and important profession; this leads to the audience taking the doctors in white lab coats seriously as they watch on.

The first child the audience sees in the clip is playing Sudoku; this highlights the intelligence and maturity of this young child as he’s playing an intellectual game. The game allows the audience to see into how the child is like; grown up for his age and smarter than his looks/ age bring forth; he’s mature for his age as children are stereotyped to be slightly dumb and just like to play with toys that aren’t intellectual.

The first child has stage make-up on to show how ill/weak he is, lighter make-up is used to make the effect of a white face which connotates the child is unwell. Dark bags underneath his eyes illustrate that the child is sleep deprived most likely because of his illness. His cracked, dry white lips convey that the child might have not eaten in a while or had the energy to do so, this also illustrates that he’s dying as he’s losing colour from his face; not getting sufficient nutrition and his body is giving up on him. All in all this creates sympathy for the boy as the audience feel obligated to sympathise for him.

The male doctor with the child has a sympathetic look on his face, which furthers the sympathy the audience has for the child as they realise that if even the doctor is sympathising for the child there might be little hope that he might get better. 

The props used all display the location of scene and profession, such as: the medical costumes, medical lighting, medical furniture, and not forgetting the equipment that’s used to hear heart beats that’s wrapped around the doctor’s necks. This reminds the audience about where the scene is set and the accents of the actors tells them that it’s set in America.

There are any people walking in different directions with props e.g. Medical equipment, connotating that it’s a busy day in the hospital and there are many patients who need looking after; there’s a lot of people in need of attention. A busy atmosphere displays a realistic image of the hospital setting and signifies that the staff are hard working,

Doctor’s are positioned standing over their patients to signify their inferior position over them, as the doctors are the people the civilians are trusting with their medical care. The doctor’s facial expressions express their frustrations of having a number of irresponsible patients; this goes against stereotypes, as parents are supposed to be grown up enough to be responsible for their children but in matter of fact they’re being ignorant like children and letting their kids come in harms way. Tired facial expression again demonstrates that they are hard working \ serious expressions demonstrate their determination to save patient’s lives.

The woman Doctor wearing a white doctor’s coat contrast from her male partner who wears a nurse’s uniform signifying that she’s the more inferior person in their relationship.

Maturity of the young boy’s dialogue contrasts with the young boy in the reception who got bitten by a gerbil. The boy in the reception goes with the stereotype of children being clueless and reckless where as the sick boy in the hospital bed is more independent and did research on his illness showing maturity which is unusual for a boy his age. During the clip the ill boy response “he’s okay I will tell her tonight” Shows his maturity and independence.

Old womsn in waiting room states in the dialogue of the conversation between herself and the doctor “I am here for her” Highlights she’s seen as waist of space. This goes with the idea that older people in the way of things as they always have to be looked after and taken care of; like children and babies. Older Doctor uses medical terminology – Woman says she does not understand what he meant, goes with the stereotype that older people are wiser and more knowledgeable. As the drunk is on the operating table, consistent beeping is heard connoting age can be a burden to society.

Woman doctor’s voice is more sympathetic with children and sterner with older people, this is because older people are meant to be capable of looking after themselves where as children more or less have to be baby coddled. A baby can be heard crying in the distance; the mother is possibly not looking after her child and needs to pay more attention to the baby, shows again that older people need to look after children but it’s difficult to do so when the parents are as incapable to look after themselves as they are to look after their offspring.

“Would you like me to be there?”  Older male is seen as a kind of parental figure.

Fade at start of clip. Continuity editing treats the child and the doctor equally at the start of the scene. Cross cutting to child being childish contrasts to child genius. Short reverse short  of the conversation between an intelligent boy and the boy doctor; they have a close relationship or a close relationship is about to form. Cut from waiting room to surgery room a difference between older people being more capable to succeed and older people that act younger than their age and are incapable of taking care of themselves. Short reverse shot between doctor and child illustrates that they are equals. Cut to young people and emphasises on younger arguments suggesting arguments are less important in comparison to other story lines. Long take arrow creates impression of busy place (hospital).