Skins Analysis

Skins Analysis: Series 1, Episode 1

The first scene, we see it introducing us to one of the main characters of the series. The first thing that is noticeable is the title sequence which includes the theme tune. For me, the title sequence gives an impression that this is about teenagers and, for them life goes fast and the little montage of scenes that is the title sequence, i feel that it represents the life of teenagers, hence the music. It’s not easy listening or very fluent, however it is fast paced and catchy, and this is used because teenagers like that sort of music because there’s a lot going on within the music and it’s not a popular chart song, it’s something individual which is what some teenagers like, an identity. Teenagers will see this theme music as ‘timeless’ music that represents them because it’s associated with Skins and its unique music that isn’t branded to any time period. And after the theme music has stopped and the bird’s eye has zoomed out of Tony, another soundtrack start’s, it is the same genre and same pace because it represents teenagers lives, fast paced. Both pieces of music work similarly to a voiceover, its non-diegetic so the characters can’t hear it.

Now into representation; the first character we are confronted with is Tony. We perceive him to be a typical stereotypical teenager because after he wakes up, he starts working out and admiring himself in the mirror and he does this because he wants to look good. This also shows us he is a person of routine; we also see this when his 2^nd alarm goes off to either indicate the woman across street or Effie, his sister. Either way, he is clearly organised in one way or another and this isn’t typically a trait of stereotypical teenagers. What also isn’t stereotypical is as the camera pans around to show different mid shot of him, we see his walls and sheets are dull and boring in colour. We can also see some, I think, French film posters, again, giving evidence that he isn’t like the typical teenager because he doesn’t have naked women, cars or anything like that. That may be why his walls are neutral in colour, but another theory behind that is to do with his sexuality. As the camera zoomed out at the start of the scene, we noticed a white duvet cover with a male and female body either side, and he is lying right in the middle of them, in bed. The neutral colour could show he is confused and being in the middle of the man and woman could also suggest this. In that shot as well, we see that Tony is lying in the middle of the bed and the duvet is immaculate. It’s even neat when he is still in bed! And this is like the whole room. All his shirts are folded and neatly in a draw and everything is on hangers. By now, the audience would have conjured up an idea that Tony isn’t the typical teenage boy, he is almost the binary opposite of a normal teenager because Tony is tidy while typical teenagers are messy, he has French film posters on his wall, whereas other teenagers may not have that. We also see this binary opposite when his dad walks in the room, Tony is thin while his dad has a belly on him.

The relationship between Tony and his dad is rough, because most of the time we see Tony messing around with his dad by locking the bathroom door and then climbing out the window. In that scene, we see Tony taking a dump while reading ‘Nausea’ which is all about philosophy, it very hard to get into, so we can see that Tony is no average teenager. But back to him and his dad, Tony always seems very composed and in control, whereas his dad isn’t in control and is not very composed at all.

As Tony comes in through the front door, his mum asks whether ‘he wants eggs’ and this leads onto a shot of Effie at the table, giving a look to Tony. Now at the start of the scene, we see Effie coming in from a night out. She has been clubbing or something like that because she has messy hair, one of her socks are lower than the other and her makeups smudged. Tony uses diegetic music to distract his dad so she can come in and this is where we see the other side of Effie. As she sneaks into her room, she changes from her miniskirt into her school uniform, gets rid of her makeup and neatens her hair and this suggests Effie has 2 lives, one being the binary opposite of the other. She is also pretty quiet, she hasn’t got a lot of character dialogue and I think that suggests something about her personality or maybe it’s because of something she goes out for most nights. Also, in her uniform she looks younger than she did at the start of the scene; this could be why she has so little dialogue.