How does the Skins promo trailer create representation of young people?

The Skins series 1 promo trailer represents young people in several different ways using several different techniques. To show how this is achieved I will be looking at such aspects: editing, camera angles and movement, sound and mise-en-scene.

It could be argued that the camera angles are POV shots of different parts of the night. This helps the audience too relate to what is going on. This allows the audience to get a real insight to a young person’s party and therefore draw conclusions such as young people like to have fun as seen in the first half of the promo, but not so sensible in the second half. A similar effect can also been seen with there being a selection of low camera angles in the first half show that the characters are superior to the rest of the world at this point but is contrasted with high angle shots in the second half showing that they don’t have control and maybe representing young people as not being sensible. In most of the shots you can see the character’s faces and most are not covered up showing that nothing is being hidden therefore the trailer maybe saying that this is what all young people are like. Having the camera mainly showing faces it lets the audience see the emotions of the characters.

Some conclusions can be drawn about youths from just the very little editing of this trailer. There are short sharp cut between each clip, of which they are only seconds long. However short the clips maybe it gives us quite a big overview of the party. The short sharp cuts from scene to scene represent how changeable young people’s lives are. The cuts could also represent how fast childhood really goes.

The sound track “Standing in the way of control” along with the drugs being taken in the trailer shows that the characters don’t have much control over the way they’re behaving. The song is upbeat emphasising the speed of which childhood passes to becoming an adult. The music slows down in the middle of the trailer when the party takes a turn for the worst. At the end of the trailer the music slows right down and kind of dies out indicating that the party has come to an end this may represent how young people may have moments of craziness but soon die down.

The first thing you see in the trailer that is very representative of young people is the record. Teenage life now-a-days tends to revolve around music and serves as a big influence on people’s lives. The record also link in with the song being played in the background saying that young people aren’t very responsible and just want to have fun. A person in a bear suit dancing is seen shortly after. We generally represent bears with when you are a child, as this is a bear suit we would think a parent would wear this at a child’s party but as this is worn by a teenager at this party it shows that they aren’t children anymore but are in fact turning into adults. Reports of drug use is quite often in the news and is generally frowned upon. As drug use is being shown in the trailer anybody of a different age may generalise drug use to all teenagers. Other things contrast in this trailer such as the water guns and the lipstick. The water guns may represent childhood and having carefree fun whereas the lipstick represents being grown up and sophisticated.

In conclusion the trailer generally represents young people in a negative light to people who may be of a different age. It shows a group of people having fun but also being quite irresponsible, people may frown upon this and not see young people as being grown up although this is just a party and not just a normal day. I don’t think that the trailer is very representative of all young people as there are several different sub cultures within today’s society.