Representation Task: Skins

Tony's Representation

Sound-

The diegetic sound (dialogue) suggests that Tony is passive aggressive in his behaviour towards his dad, as he does things to wind his dad up but never actually gets angry, shouts at him or responds to his dad's anger. His dad's way of showing his anger is shouting and swearing which is completely different to Tony (who stays calm and winds the dad up because of it). There is a big contrast in their behaviours and they are binary opposites in this way. Tony's behaviour to his dad also shows that he is manipulative and likes to control people.

Other diegetic sounds that tell the audience something about Tony's character is music that he puts on his stereo in his room- which is loud and almost sounds like something from the Screamo genre. This shows us that Tony is not the stereotypical popular teenager- despite his good looks, work out routine and clear popularity- that listens to chart music, he instead listens to this very different genre.

His dialogue with his friends on the phone suggests that he is quite controlling of them, as he wants Michelle to sleep with Sid, and that he is sexist, as he just expects Michelle to say yes and he objectifies her. He is also manipulative to his friends. He is also quite patronising to Sid, especially about his virginity, and makes fun of him on the phone to Anwar. Sid is the binary opposite of Tony (he is geeky and not good with girls), you wouldn't expect young people like them to be best friends in reality, so this helps to appeal to a wider audience of different types of people. The way that Tony seems to be the one arranging everything on the phone to his friends suggests that he is the ringleader, also it shows that he likes to control others.

The non-diegetic music (the score) playing at the beginning of the episode up until when Tony puts his stereo on is rap / R'N'B and it suggests that he is youthful and is into the things that are popular.


Editing-
I didn't make any notes about editing as I don't really understand it yet.


Camera work-
The camera begins on a birds-eye shot looking down on Tony, and this suggest that we're looking at his life from an outsider's point of view- like a bird- also it gives the audience a chance to see what Tony looks like for the first time. It then zooms out from Tony, which gives the audience a feeling that we were intruding on his life but now we're moving away, this could represent that Tony doesn't like people knowing things about his life. The camera zooming out could also represent Tony's life and, the way that it zooms out from him, could represent that he is disconnected with his life. 


There are point of view shots from Tony's perspective when he is looking at the stereo and his clothes drawers- this shows to the audience straight away that Tony is the focus of the episode and that we're going to be seeing events through him.


When Tony is walking down the street and talking to his friends on the phone we see a long shot of him so we see him from head to toe and know exactly what he looks like, the camera also uses a crab shot as Tony is walking so that we keep up with him and feel like we're walking with him too. This also makes the audience feel like everything is from Tony's perspective and that's why we're keeping up with him and not the other characters. The other characters tend to be shot in a more close-up way so we don't see as much as them as we do Tony, so once again we know Tony more than the others and therefore our focus is on him.


The audience is introduced to Tony's friends very early on in the episode- and they all appeal to different groups of society, for example Anwar is Muslim and Max is gay. This appeals to all different types of audience members quickly and makes them feel included and involved.


Tony gets most of the screen time as the audience clearly are meant to be focusing on him more than the other characters.

Mise En Scene-

Many things suggest that Tony is obsessive and likes to control everything, for example at the beginning of the episode we see him lying in bed- already awake before his alarm goes off- and he looks as if he hasn't moved the whole night. This suggests he likes to keep his bed neat and he likes to be in control of things he does. His clothes are also neatly put away- unlike a stereotypical teenager who is extremely messy.

We can tell that he is narcissistic and thinks highly of himself. For example he works out when he wakes up, and this looks like it's a daily routine as he gets out of bed immediately when his alarm goes off and starts exercising, he then admires his muscles in the mirror and preens himself- all of which suggests that he cares greatly about his appearance. Furthermore, the character thinks that he is intelligent as he reads a highly intellectual book (Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre) which is usually for people at university, yet he thinks he is clever enough to read it although he is only at college.

He is also represented as being stylish and smart through his costume for example, he wears plain clothes, for example he wears a pair of chinos, a plain red t-shirt, a black V neck over it and white shoes. This is quite a classic look and goes against the stereotype of what people of his age might wear, other teenagers would usually wear things that are in fashion at the time. His hair is also stylish and simple, which adds to this idea of going against the typical teenage boy stereotype. Teenage boys at the time stereotypically would have had whatever hairstyle was in fashion, like spiky hair (which we see in his friend Chris). Furthermore, he is represented as being stylish through props in his room such as his retro film posters (for example, Blow up and the 8 1/2) that other typical teenagers would probably not watch.

The character is also lustful and sexual, we can tell this as he watches the woman get dressed in the house across the road and this comes across as something that is a daily routine. Also, his bed covers of the naked man and woman suggests that he is quite sexual, yet they can also infer that he is lonely and he wants his bed covers to become a reality for him. You could infer from his position in the bed, which is completely in the middle between the male and female bodies on the quilt cover, that he is bi-sexual- as he is between the two. You could also say differently, you could say that he is confused about his sexuality and isn't sure if he's gay or straight- so he's undecided in the middle. 

The lighting on only half of Tony's face at the beginning of the episode when he's in bed could also show that he's lonely and that his life is a bit dark.