The mise en scene of the protagonist’s bedroom challenges and conforms to stereotypical views about youth culture. The establishing shot suggests that the series targets a teenage audience and it will follow the life and experiences of a teenager. The duvet cover shown is of a double bed with a naked man and woman, suggesting that this age group is sexually charged. The protagonist is positioned in the middle of the two bodies suggesting that he is sexually inexperienced. It could also be suggesting that he is alone and confused about his sexuality, which conforms to teenage stereotypes. In this shot natural lighting is used to give a sense of realism so the teenage audience identifies with the life of the protagonist.
The mise en scene of the protagonist’s bedroom also challenges the stereotypical view of a teenager in this section. When the protagonists goes to his draw is it very neat and tidy also nothing in his room seems out of place, most people would think that teenagers rooms are a mess. We see this mainly when he opens his draws and everything is colour co-ordinated and folded perfectly. This shows how the brother to the girl is very different in comparison to her, she goes out all scruffy as he stays home and covers for her being out on a school night. In this shot natural lighting is used to give a sense of realism so the teenage audience identifies with the life of the protagonist.
The idea that teenagers are curious about sex is reinforced through the over the shoulder shot used when he is looking at the older woman getting dressed through the window over the road. The shot is hand held so that the audience can have the same experience as the teenage main character. The following close up shot shows a lack of expression suggesting that this is routine and he has become disaffected by the image. This conforms to the stereotype that teenagers' lives are surrounded by sex and it plays a big part of their life.
The idea that teenagers go out a lot and get wasted is reinforced through the track shot that comes out of the driveway onto the protagonist walking home after a night out. The track shot is used so that the audience can see the whole of her and can start to imagine the things she’s gotten up to due to the state of her. The close up shot then shows her facial expressions this shows her expression as she tries to get her brothers attention who is still staring at the naked women over the road, he here has the power in the situation and she is now venerable as she needs the help to sneak in. You also see her make up all smeared over her face and her hair very messy. This conforms to the stereotype that most teenagers feel the need to go out and this plays an important part of teenage life and growing up.
Skins Sound
The dialogue between the father and the son shows a reversal in audience expectations. We see the father shouting and swearing at the teenager, which is normally something we would expect to hear from the teenager. The father's aggressive reaction to the diegetic rock music plays to the stereotype that teenagers play loud music and are inconsiderate to older people. His reaction also plays to the stereotype that teenagers frustrate their parents.
The dialogue between the father and the son shows a reversal in audience expectations. We see the father shouting and swearing at the teenager, which is normally something we would expect to hear from the teenager. The father's aggressive reaction to the diegetic rock music plays to the stereotype that teenagers play loud music and are inconsiderate to older people. His reaction also plays to the stereotype that teenagers frustrate their parents.
Skins Sound 2The sound form the protagonists watch is diegetic sound. The watch goes off to remind the protagonist of a certain task/time, this challenges the stereotype of all teenagers being lazy, not taking control and not having routines, he has a routine because its a daily thing. The protagonist uses the personal alarm to remind him of a certain time when his neighbour gets up and gets changed in front of his window, this conforms with the stereotype that all teenagers/teenage boys have a sex drive because of the way he reacts to the naked women you also see this through the close ups shown of his face.
Skins Editing
Parallel editing is used to show that the boy and girl are related and have a strong relationship. We can see through the parallel editing that they lead very different teenage lives, showing binary opposite characters. She is coming home; rebelling against house rules and he has been in his own bed. This conforms to Levi Strauss' idea that all narratives have opposites. The two narrative threads come together as she reaches the window and the cut a ways show that she relies on him to cover up.
Short takes are used to show the protagonist doing weights, all these short takes of the actions he does speed up the pace, this then creates a montage which shows that teenagers have a hectic lifestyle and everything is sped up in a typical teenage world, this also shows how a lot of teenagers are body conscious as he does a lot of different things in his workout to make himself feel better about his body. This shows again how he keeps to a specific routine which challenges teenage stereotypes. The workout is shown in compressed time; you don't see the whole of the workout because he takes too long on it because of how body conscious he is.
