A2 - 'About a Girl' Representation of Class and Age - Olivia Farren

• In the first scene we see the girl alone in a field - this could portray her innocence to us as we see her singing/dancing, something that most young girls stereotypically love. Although in this scene we could tell her as being young due to her being alone and singing (having nothing to worry about), we could also say she's being portrayed as unimportant - due to her being in the shadows and not shown fully, which could be telling us that she's unimportant due to her social background/class, although at this point we are yet to find that out.
• Throughout the short film, we see the girl talking to the camera whilst walking along the canal - here, age could be presented to us through the use of eye line match with the camera, which could be because are being made to sympathise with her whilst she's talking (almost patriotic), therefore we see her as being young.
• Along with the camera angle in these shots along the canal, there is also a very dull/dingy lighting - which we could connote with unhappiness and uncleanliness (both of which we could also relate to poverty), therefore this lighting tells us of the low class she is a part of/ living amongst.
• Not only is this dull/ cloudy lighting used in the scenes walking along the canal but also in the other scenes that we cut to; for example; when she's sitting in a café with her dad; - telling us that she's always been in this unhappy situation (possibly due to her class).
• When she's talking to the camera, we can clearly notice that she has a strong accent - we could collectively recognise this accent and dialect that she uses as being North West - which is an area that is, sometimes stereotypically, known to be an area with a lot of poverty and a lot of families living below the breadline, and so therefore we relate this accent that she is using to a low class.
• When the short film cuts to a scene of the girl with her dad, we see a father and daughter together - we often think that this relationship is mostly about a dad caring for a daughter, and therefore we think of the daughter being young, therefore this presents her age to us.
• Another scene in which she is presented to us as being fairly young, is that when she is sitting outside the pub whilst her dad is inside - the fact that she is outside, and not inside shows us that she is too young to contribute to this social practise. 
• The parallel cutting between the shots of the girl walking along the canal and the narrative shots of the girl in a small scene, could reflect how she's constantly in the same position - due to always being brought back to the same shot of her walking by the canal, possibly meaning that she has limited opportunities and therefore is seen in the same place again and again to show to the audience that her wealth is little to none and therefore so are her opportunities - representing her class to us.
• When we see the young girl walking along the canal, we notice that the surrounding area is run down, full of rubbish and dull-looking - these houses along the canal look a lot like stereotypical council houses, and so the audience can recognise that and then make a link between these houses and lower class that she is a part of. This aspect of mise en scene is important as it's clear to the audience to make connections between the run-down area and the characters class.
• As well as aspects of mise en scene, editing and camera angles; the dialogue also gives us a clear representation of her age, as she says; "like I'm 5...but hello, I'm 13"; here this states her age, but also clearly shows us that she is 13 by the sarcastic tone she says this in and the way that she almost wants to be recognised as an adult (what many teenagers want). She also says "my mum says..." a number of times; the fact that she listens and repeats what her mum says shows us that she still lives under her mums rules, and therefore again reflects her age as being fairly young.
• When the film cuts to the scene of the girl and her friends singing on the bus, this gives us an easily recognisable representation of young girls - giggling and having fun together, as well as this, the fact that they are travelling on a bus shows that they have little money and are too young to drive themselves.
• In many shots, she is wearing the same silver puffa coat - the fact that she is persisitantly wearing the same coat shows us that she has little money to have more than one coat - therefore reflecting her class to us again.