Skins Analysis

 What is the representation of youth?

one of the few representations of youth from the series is portraying their unstable and unruly characters. This representation is developed from their social activity and mischievous behaviour. The colloquial language used by the youths, separates them from the older generation and conforms their identity. The way they dress, emphasise they're unique characters and provides them with a sense of individuality. I think the serious is an exaggerated perspective of one of the images given to youth in today's society.
 
How might s non British audience view this representation?

They may vie w the representation of British youth as rebellious, unruly teenagers with no sense of civilization. There is not much respect shown between families which effectively causes conflict and arguments.

Is this representation realistic?

The representing is partially realistic because it includes some accurate behaviour and activity that youth carry out but is not completely accurate as it is overly exaggerated. And the representation isn't realistic in terms that, that is not how youth are generally potrayed or the only image that they maintain.

skins analysis

1) What is the representation of British Youth? In skins representation if youth is shown through the many social stereotypes which are explored throughout the series. In this particular series cook is represented as a 'yob' shown in his unpredictable behaviour and general anti- establishment attitude. This is emphasised in the scene where cook and his younger brother steal the car and smash it up whilst consuming illegal substances eg weed.
2) How might a non British audience view this representation of British Youth. A non British person may take this representation of british youth litterally 

Skins analysis collective identity

What is the representation of youth?

In the TV drama, Skins, British youth is exaggerated and has a strong sense of hyperbole. There is a lot of focus on the stereotypical look on youth, sex drugs and rock and roll in the modern day and era. However i do not believe that this is a fair representation of youth in society today, as the program focus on a certain group singled out from society in which to build up a picture of how youth is represented.

How might a non British audience view this representation of British youth?

A non British audience would probably believe that that is an accurate representation, since it largely takes place in realistic and modern surroundings. An therefore would look on the British youth as living hedonistic lifestyles.

From your point of view, is the representation realistic?

We believe that this is not a accurate representation of British youth, however its is a sure fracture in British culture. British cultures are split up and this is a program based inside the minds of selective social groups in Britain.

skins Analysis: Represenatation of British Youth

What is the representation of youth?
 In the TV drama, Skins, British youth is exaggerated and has a strong sense of hyperbole. There is a lot of focus on the stereotypical aspects of youth of today such as drugs, sex and hard partying. However, we do not believe that this is a true representation of the actual youth of the present, it focuses on one particular social group and is not a fair representation of youth society as a whole.

How might a non-british audience view this representation of British youth?
A non-british audience may view our youth as disrespectful, destructive and unruly. Skins does not give a positive representation of british youth and culture to other cultures. Therefore, they may apply stereotype to every young british individual and Skins gives a false picture of our culture and youth.


From your point of view, is this representation realistic?
From our perspective, we feel that this representation is not realistic and that it has been magnified highly. Skins has pin pointed one social group in particular and this does not represent british youth as a whole. However, for some youths this representation may portray how and what they are but for us it is not realistic.


 

Skins Analysis.

What is the representation of youth?
The way the youth are represented in Skins is very extremest, it gives off the idea that all teenagers are involved in drugs,violence and sexual behaviour. There lives  seem very troubled and are a constant roller coaster of unfortunate events, there parents seemingly don't care about there children's actions and have given up on trying to help them, it is as though the only family they have are each other.

skins analysis

-what is the representation of youth?

from the episode that we watched there is a definate trend in how youth has been represented, from the episode that we watched you get the sense that youthful people are very troubled and have lots to do with drugs, drink and sex. this was shown throughout and all of these elements add to the story line. each character seems to have difererent story and each and every character seems to be quite troubled in one way or the other, no matter what age they are.

-how might a non british audience view the representation of british youth?

i think that a non british audience would look at this in a very different way and think that every young person would act and behave like this. they also may not understand the comedy or other factors that are quite british.

-from your point of view, is this representation realistic?

Skins Analysis: collective Identity

1) Skins portrays a youth that is dominated by self gratification and indulgence through excessive consumption of alcohol, drugs and social deviance.  The characters attire reflect a fashion conscious youth that are obsessed with personal image and show a monopoly in label dominance. Over all, the youth is shed in a negative light which shows them to be a hindrance to society.

2) A non british perspective of the projection of youth in Skins would probably consist of disappointment and disgust. An older audience would notice the lack of respect that youth show in the presence of adults and would pay close attention to the over indulgence in binge drinking and the consumption of illegal drugs. In other cultures the actions of the youth would be considered inconceivable.

3) The portrayal of youth in this Skins episode is not particularly realistic. Some aspects of this representation of youth is correct for example binge drinking and taking drugs. However, the extent of these acts are exaggerated to what is really the case. Each character is a hyperbolic symbol for that specific stereotype. For instance, Cook represents a contemporary 'lad', but even his actions would be considered as unrealistic by people of his age and that are considered his real life equivalents. Furthermore, the characters are all from one part of the UK and their behaviors are ethnocentric. We can only judge skins by its british (Bristol) influence, we cannot generalize their actions to other parts of the world, and even other parts of the UK.

To what extent would you say that online film reviews are postmodernist

Inception: Time Out Magazine.

1) the review is intertextual because the review only refers to to one other text (the film) and doesn't develop a new form of media.

2) Baudrillard theory states that a media text reflects reality in its content. Although the film review is positive, it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone would watch it as people know that films and other arts can only be experienced and judged by the individual and are a matter of a opinion.

3) The film Inception receives a positive review from the author Dave Calhoun of timeout.com. He comments about the number of special effects and stunts used by Christopher Nolan. When thinking about watching a film, I do not consider reading film reviews. If I had previously read either a positive or negative review then it would not have any bearing on whether I went to watch the film or not.

4) whether a review is reliable is in itself, a matter of opinion. The source of the review has a large influence on how we process it. If we read a review in 'The Sun' most people will take it on a different level to that of a review in 'The Guardian'. This, therefore, effects whether or not we will go and see the movie depending on our association of the review and its perceived reliability.

Representation of Contemporary British Gender - Fish Tank

How is gender represented?
In the film Fish Tank the main female character 'Mia' challenges the typical female stereotype as she dresses in male clothing and acts more like a male than a female, for example, through drinking beer and getting into fights. An example of a scene where she acts very un-lady like is when she urinates on her mum's boyfriend, Conner's, carpet.

However, in specific scenes within the film you do see an insight into her inner femininity as she expresses her love for dance, horses and Conner. This is shown in a particular scene when the horse she tried to save dies, its as if all of her dreams are dying and this is the scene in which she runs away. The death of the horse represents the death of her aspirations. Mia has stereotypical feminine aspirations yet her very male behavior does not reflect this.

A second significant, male, character who challenges a typical stereotype is Billy. He lives in a caravan so from a very judgemental audience, he may be perceived as a thug. However, Billy comes across as kind reliable and caring and a very genuine character.

The second main, male character is Conner, the mum's boyfriend. He is the opposite of Billy, as at first the audience may see him as a reasonable man yet he runs away from Mia and abuses her respect by having sex with her is one scene, when she is clearly underage.

Storyline
The basic storyline is a love triangle between Mia, her mum's boyfriend Conner and her mum, as well as Mia's previous boyfriend Billy. Mia falls for her mum's boyfriend which gets her in a lot of trouble towards the end of the film. Mia is put in many situations which cause serious issues, one of these being her having underage sex with an older man. Another issue that arises involves the family's social class which causes a lot of tension between characters, especially when the well off Conner comes into the film.

Overall, we believe that that the representation of all of the main characters in Fish Tank are shown in quite a negative light though their lifestyles, behavior and interaction with other characters.

Representation of Contemporary British Gender.

Representation of Contemporary British gender. Refer to the film Fishtank.
-How is gender represented?
-Their costume > how they dress
-What is the story line/situations the characters are involved in
-Is it a positive or a negative representation

In the film Fishtank, british gender is represented in the family clearly. The family all respond to the mums boyfriend in a positive way as the two young girls have never had a father figure. He is shown always having money and buying things for the family which gives him status in the current situation of the family as they are poor which is shown in many significant ways throughout the film, for example the house that they live in is very run down and dirty however when the mums boyfriend comes over more we see the mum tidying it and keeping it  neat. This goes back to the idea of how women should keep the house hold tidy like in the film Alfie.
Men are also shown to be in control when Mia is shown trying to steal a horse but three boys catch her in the act and take all her belongings and push and shove her around.
Women are seen to be sex objects in the film as all the girls seen in the film are either not fully clothed or are being intimate with the men in it.

The women in Fishtank dress very provocatively apart from Mia who always wears long tracksuits and baggy t-shirts. Her mum is often seen in her underwear or short skirts which again shows the idea of her being a sex object.
The three traveller boys are always wearing dirty clothes which shows that they have little money.

The storyline shows how a single mum is trying to raise her two young girls but is having difficulty because of their obscene behaviour and determination not to behave. They are living in a run down part of London which only helps to get the girls into more trouble for example underage smoking and drinking. It shows how they have an absent father figure which is replaced by the mums new boyfriend which then changes the storyline into how Mia is growing up and struggling with boys and men.

Representation of contemporary British gender

Refer to the film Fish Tank.


How is Gender represented?
In the film Fish tank Gender is represented by the men and womens behaviour and hierarchy in the film. The females in the film (mia and her family & friends) are represented negatively and are shown to be of low class with not alot of money. They live on a council estate and mia's father is absent leaving mia's mother to look after 2 children. It appears she has turned to alcohol, it could be suggested she does this because of the stress of being a single mother and therefore a weaker individual (also being female). This is a typical connotation of a single mother. Showing females to be weaker than men.
At the beginning of the film mia is walking around the estate and we are shown some young girls dancing in a car park showing off their bodies, wearing little clothes. They are dancing infront of some older boys in tracksuit bottoms and flat caps with staffordshire bull terrier's. Staffy's typically connote fighting and violence. This suggests what image the boys would like to have. This is a typical connotation of teenage boys living in a run down area. To go with this connotation it would also be suggested they may be involved in crime. The girls behaviour suggests that they are in a hurry to grow up and are trying to attract boys attention. Their language also suggests they are trying to impress because younger people try to use swear words to intimidate and impress. It is also a typical connotation of young girls living in a run down area, to be craving males attention and using their bodies, trying to be older than they are. This shows females aiming to impress males therefore males are dominating.
Mia is shown giving another boy money who comes back handing her a bag with cider in. Mia has clearly asked this older boy to buy her alcohol because she is underage. She goes to an old empty appartment in the estate and drinks her cider whilst dancing to her music. This is a prime example of underage drinking. It seems she does this for confidence this is also a typical example of younger people drinking- for confidence.






Their costume>how they dress
What is the story line/situations the characters are involved in ?
Is it a positive of negative representation?

Representation of contemporary British gender.

How is gender represented
Their costume - how they dress
What is the storyline/situations the characters are involved in
Is it a positive or negative representation
Fish tank portrays the role's of women in relation to contemporary views. The main female character is strong willed and seems to project a confident attitude. The way in which she dresses could be seen to very different to that of women in the 1960's which we see in Alfie. Mia dresses casually in a tracksuit for the majority of the film which could be seen to be similar to what society expects boys to wear. Possibly showing an underlying issue that the female character feels as though dressing as she does empowers her in a way that she feels a kind of male dominance, as she has obviously had a lack of fatherhood in her life.
The male character Connor is represented