Youth

• Criminals
• Addicts
• Drains on society
• Violent
• Lazy
• Arrogant
• Uneducated

In 1904 Stanley Hall wrote Adolescence in 2 volumes in 1904, in this text he puts forward a theory known as the ‘Storm & Stress Model;

1. The common mood of teenagers is a state of depression.
2. Criminal activity increases between the ages of 12 & 24.
3. Young people are extreme and need excitement; “Youth must have excitement and if this is not at hand in the form of moral intellectual enthusiasms it is more prone to be sought in; sex, drink or drugs.”

Bill Osgerby argues that; “The portrayal of youth is not entirely pessimistic,” and used the terms coined by Dick Hebdige (1988); “Youth as fun,” and “Youth as trouble maker.”

In the extract of Skins, the theories of Stanley Hall and Bill Osgerby are both supported and disrupted through the media language present in the clip. I will now explore this in more detail with reference to how; camera work, mise-en-scene, sound, and editing contribute to constructions of representations of youth.

The opening shot of the extract is an extreme close up of a young male character from a birds eye view. The character has one side of their face in darkness and one side not, which could have religious connotations and be representative of Osgerby’s theory of youth being both fun and trouble making, as represented by the light and dark sides of his face respectively. There is also a diegetic sound effect of church bells, which could relate to this imagery and add connotations of religion. Under the sound of church bells is the diegetic sound of an alarm clock. The fact that the character is awake before their alarm shows a disruption of the generic stereotype of youth being unruly and unprepared.

The next few shots are quickly cut together and show the male character performing a work out. The first shot of the sequence is a birds eye view shot which can be compared to the opening shot where it was the same angle but shows the character in a different position. It then shifts to an over the shoulder shot and continues on to show the male character looking at himself in a mirror. This shot is also over the shoulder and somewhat adheres to Halls theory of young people being prone to sexual activity, and drugs. Throughout all of the previous shots have a diegetic music track that sound bridges between shots and also somewhat supports Halls theory once again.