Skins Exam practice.

This clip is taken from the opening of Skins, a TV drama based around a group of teenagers attending sixth from. This clip is taken from Series One, Episode One and introduces us to the main character Tony.

This extract goes some way to reveal that Tony is like many teenage boys. The close up shot of his eye’s, which zoom out to reveal that he’s bedcover is of a naked man and woman and the fact Tony has set his alarm so that he can get up in time to watch the woman across the street get changed suggest that like many teenage boy’s Tony is interested in sex and women. His typical teenage behaviour is also shown by the fact he is conscious of his weight and body appearance, highlighted by the fact the first thing he does when he gets up in the morning is exercise. The mise-en-scene of Tony’s room is in contrast to what we would expect to see stereotypically of a young boy’s room as it is tidy, indicated by the draw he opens which shows the neatly folded shirts. We would expect it to be much like the room that we see at the end of the extract, when he rings his friend, where an establishing shot shows that his room is a mess and a close up shot shows that his friend has left his phone on a dirty plate next to his bed and is not yet up for school yet, unlike Tony. The posters on his wall reveal that Tony is into old movies, which is contrast to the more modern rock music that he plays as he is distracting his dad from his sister. Also when Tony is sitting on the toilet he is reading a hard book suggesting that he is an intelligent boy.

Whilst Tony is getting ready, we cut to a fixed shot of his sister walking along the street on her way home from a party. This shot does not only reveal that his sister is like a stereotypical teenage girl because she likes to go out to a party, wearing lots of make up and short skirts but it also reveals that the siblings live in a fairly wealthy area as all of the houses are reasonably sized and the people who live in the houses take pride in them. The girl tries to get the attention of her brother from the street below but her brother is too distracted by the woman changing in the house opposite that he cannot see her, which is reflected by the non-diegetic music playing which has a trance vibe to it. Once she has gained his attention a number of shots of the close up’s of the pair looking at each other suggest that this is a regular occurrence as they do no need to exchange dialogue but understand what each other is saying by communicating non-verbally.

To distract his parent’s whilst his sister enters the house Tony turns up the music on his stereo really loud, meaning the non-diegetic music stops and diegetic music begins. This triggers his father to start shouting at his son from another room, to which a close up shot of Tony making a gesture to his sister telling her it is ok to enter the house, although he doesn’t know where his father is but her knows that he will enter his room to moan at him, therefore leaving way for his sister to enter the house without her parents knowing she had even left.

The divide between parent and children is clear by the fact his children seem to be of the opinion that their father is a fool, not only because they are able to distract him from realising that his daughter has been out all night but also by the close up to reveal their dad’s bum as he bends down to pick up something from under the kitchen sink later on in the extract, which shows that both the children think there dad is a joke.

When he’s dad does eventually come into his room Tony tells him that he cannot turn the music off, which causes his father to grow even more annoyed at his son and the close up’s of his face reveal the fathers anger. Throughout the scene Tony continues to annoy his father, especially when a camera shot reveals Tony sitting on the toilet reading a book whilst his father is waiting to get into the bathroom. Tony leaves the bathroom through the window and then climbs down the drain on the outside of the house and enters the house through the front door, whilst his father is still screaming at him to get out of the toilet. The father and son’s attitudes are in complete dissimilarity to one another as the son is calm and composed whilst his father is anxious and angry.

His sister, Effy, enters the house whilst Tony is still being shouted at by his father to turn his music down. This suggests that the children see there father as a fool as they know that they can trick him into believing that Effy was at home all last night. The mise-en-scene of Effy’s bedroom shows that her parents perceive her to be an innocent girl, indicated by the pink bed sheets and patterns on the wall, whilst in fact she is far from innocent. The perception that her parents have of Effy is very different from the reality that her brother knows more about, showed by the mid shot, revealing he is grinning, as he sits down for breakfast at the table with his sister who is now dressed in her conservative school uniform, with no make up and her hair tied in a plait, a contrast to the character that we had early seen who was wearing lots of make up, more risqué clothing and her hair wild and unbrushed. This transformation also takes place when Tony is being shouted at by his father to turn the music down. There is a series of close up shots of both the dad’s face and Effy getting changed, showing that not only is she well practiced at getting changed fast because she has been in this situation many times before but because she is rushing to get changed before her father finds out that she has been out all night.

The tracking shot that follows Tony leaving his house and walking to college show him interacting with his friends for the first time instead of his family. The different people that he is ringing on his mobile reveal the sort o crowd that Tony hangs around with.