The representation issue in this clip of ER was age, this can be seen the most pronounced in the young boy in the first scene.

The shot starts with two doctors one that seems to be reading out tests and another who seems to be older, she praises the younger male doctor on the tests and suggests another test, this age is the typical stereotype where with age you gain knowledge and authority. This is then confronted once the younger doctor opens the door to the young boys room, the second the door opens the boy says “Did it work?” the fact that he started the conversation with a question shows that he isn’t your typical young boy, once the doctor takes about 2 steps into the room the sound from the lobby instantly stops, however it seems to perfect to be from the door closing as a ringing telephone stops at the end of the ring rather than midway, this suggests to me that this sound is non diegetic and it was dubbed onto the shot.  When the doctor is closer and asks how did he know this the boy closed a book, as a member of the audience i would have suspected it to be a comic book or possibly a drawing book however it was a Sudoku book, this dilemma really helps to shock the viewers into a state of distress this can also be seen with the doctor later in the dialogue. The boy seems to be of very high intellect as he seems to know all the correct vocabulary and even says he persuaded a grad student to do a muscle biopsy, as said previously the doctor doesn’t feel comfortable with his knowledge so he tried to re apply the typical doctor patient roles which could also be seen as parent and child, another example of a conflict between age. The lack of sound in this room also is conflicts the stereotypical child as children never like to be left on their own or in silence, you would expect him to be listening to a ipod or watching a film. During the convocation there is plenty of shot reverse shot, however the boy seems to be interrupted by the editing, whereas the shot are edited in a way where the doctor is never cut the boy is, he starts a sentence then another shot is used this is most likely used to show the doctors distress over the young boys knowledge.

Going from this sick boy back to the emergency room we see another young boy, this boy is approximately the same age however he is with his mother and the doctors appear the get down to their knees to be less intimidating, this never happened with the ill boy, the doctor which was much older than the ill boy remained standing the whole time. The audience is then taken from the extremes of age, from a young boy around 12 to a lady in her 70’s, she is much calmer and appears to be smiling, this is against the idea that with age you gain knowledge, she says she is in the hospital to breath the air, this could possibly be a comical way in commenting on how old people are always at the hospital, the younger female doctor that speaks to her seems to be nice but rude when she says “Knock yourself out”. The next scene in which we see a conflict with age is in a side room where they are trying to save a man’s life, the older bald male doctor seems to be belittling the female doctor who thought the man was a drunk; this is another sign of the gain of authority with age. In this room there is the most common sound associated with a hospital, the heart monitor beep, once the man is stable the heart monitor quietens to show relief in the female doctor.  the next scene is cut to by matching the female doctor on the right an a nurse leaving frame on the left, these line up with the two young doctors in the next scene, the dialogue used suggests immaturity of a level thought to be below their age.  With these younger doctors there seems to be no markers of importance except the tracking shot, this can be seen when there is multiple people that walk between the camera and its target, the two doctors.  The doctor that came out of theatre also seems to be immature as he risks jail when a bullet was “lost” this is not very professional, and is another sign that with age you don’t get more professional/mature.

With all these representations of age i think that it is clear that the message of this clip is that age doesn’t matter, it isn’t a solid sign of maturity nor knowledge, the characters used to portray this have been highly exaggerated however this works to their benefit,