This document analyzes shots from a video that depict a bored teenage girl in a classroom. The close-up shots emphasize stereotypes about teenagers, like the girl tapping her foot due to boredom. Mid-shots show her typical teenage hairstyle and other girls in the background to depict a school setting. The girl is looking outside the frame, suggested to be at a clock, as her boredom increases while waiting for class to end. When the clock is shown, it confirms her boredom and that just a few seconds feel much longer in class. The teacher also looks bored, conforming to stereotypes of nerdy teachers running dull geography lessons.
2. Here the camera zooms into a close up shot to emphasise the fact she
is tapping her foot against the table due to her boredom. This conveys
a typical stereotype of a teenager, particularly a student, and the type
of shoe she is wearing indicates that it is a girl, as well as the fact that
she is wearing tights. The shot includes bags in the background to show
that they are in a classroom, emphasising the teen feel to the shot. The
continuous tapping of her foot makes the audience curious to find out
which direction the video will turn and makes them curious to see what
the person tapping their foot looks like.
3. The mid shot here further emphasises the fact that she is a teenager
as her hair style is typical of a young person, which conforms to
typical stereotypes of young people. Also, the girls in the background
emphasises the scholastic and youthful feel to the shot. In addition
the fact that we can see that she is looking outside of camera view
creates a sense of enigma and the sound of her tapping her foot
against the table further emphasises this, though we can safely
assume that she is looking at a clock, as teenage students
stereotypically are in anticipation for the bell to go off, in addition to
the fact that the girls in the background are
4. The shot develops from her sitting up to leaning on her hand which
shows to the audience that her boredom develops in anticipation for
her to be able to leave the classroom. Her lack of focus on the class is
demonstrated by the fact that she has her book open and isn’t looking
at it, which many teens may identify with, which demonstrates the user
gratifications theory. The fact that she is looking up and not down or
sideways suggests she is looking at something high on the wall which
the audience will infer to be a clock.
5. The close up on the clock follows on from the previous shot to confirm
to the audience that it is a clock on the wall she is looking at. This is
significant in conveying to the audience that the lesson is dragging
which explains the look of boredom on her face in the previous shot;
The fact that the camera cuts back and forth between her face and the
clock, emphasises that just two or three seconds feels much longer
when in a classroom than outside of a classroom, again something
which many teenagers will be able to identify with.
6. The teacher’s face appears to be just as bored as the students,
further emphasising the dead atmosphere in the classroom. In
addition, the teacher is represented to be very ‘nerdy’ in
character and this conforms to typical stereotypes of teachers.
The mid-close upon the teacher anchors this stereotype by
making it much clearer to the audience. The audience can also
infer, by looking at the map in the background on the wall, that
they are in a geography lesson, which stereotypically is a boring
subject for most students.
