2. • In this essay I shall be comparing the representation of British youth from an actual established film and
television soap. Representation is the way the media symbolizes something as being for real in reality. A
stereotype is a label which involves a process of categorisation and evaluation. In the UK the British youth
is stereotyped as a group of young violent, aggressive, hoodie worn, knife carrying thugs, who do nothing
in their lives but drinking, taking drugs, having sex at a young age and cause trouble to the community.
The two videos that I shall be comparing in this essay are, Kidulthood and Skins.
• There are a variety of ways in which British Youth is represented in a film called Kidulthood. Stereotypical
representation has been portrayed in the Kidulthood. A key character in this film, called Alisa, is showed to
be pregnant through long shots, which is representing that the British youth are not careful or mature
enough therefore they have unprotected sex without knowing the consequences of the stressful period of
time. Furthermore, I believe that this is a negative way of representing the British youth. Similarly, there
was an extreme close up used in this film showing a character named Becky selling her body to
disrespectful males. This therefore represents the fact that the British youths are ready to do anything for
money, and are able to lose self respect just for a certain amount of cash. I believe that the media
represented youths in this case as a negative aspect to British youth. The majority of the people living in
the UK believe that young British youths are all part of ‘gangs’ and commit ‘crimes’, in this film we are able
to see long shots of male characters such as Jay and Mooney who are part of a gang with the leader, Trife.
In addition, Trife was carrying a weapon, such as a knife with him. Which proves the stereotypes against
the British Youth is not just an accusation but in fact it is true. Following this, there has been a great use of
Mid-shots used in this film to represent youths as drug addicts as Trifes uncle, Curtis was represented as a
drug dealer selling drugs to teenagers. Throughout Adulthood, Sam is the antagonist in the film and bullies
everyone; he also made a young innocent girl named Katie commit suicide due to all the bullying she had
to go through and actually commits suicide, I believe that Sam just crossed his limit and don’t deserve to
be known as a human. This therefore is another negative prospection of the British Youth as being
murderers. Sam’s girlfriend, Claire is a white teenager who is represented in this film as a “slut,” this is
mainly because the characters and the audience see how Claire gets around with anyone at any time. For
example, when Sam was not at home, and jay broke into the house, Claire did a thing with Jay although
she has a boyfriend. This therefore, makes audiences stereotype increase as the majority of people believe
that most teenage girls are “slurts.” In the ending scene within the house party where all the characters
are at, there was a great use of mise-en-scene used, showing loads of alcohol and underage drinkers.
Therefore, this is obviously portrayed as a negative representation.
3. • Throughout the film, adulthood, violence is like a casual everyday thing. In one specific scene, there was a long shot used of jay trying
to buy alcohol, however he has no ID to prove his age, therefore he walks out with the dinks whilst the shop keeper gets a bat,
expecting this behaviour to stop, however jay throws something at the shop keeper with aggression. These therefore makes me think
that the British Youth have no respect for older and commit crime but get away with it more often. Following this, another scene that
represents violence from the British Youth is the burger joint. This is when Mooney has onions in his burger, instead of negotiating for a
new burger, or getting a refund, he gets up aggressively with his “gang” and throws the burger at one of the cooks face whilst she looks
down and hangers her head as if there is nothing she can do. I believe that this also strengthens the public’s stereotypes against the
British Youth and that the British youth has been represented by the media in a negative way. Furthermore, i believe that Kidulthood
follows the typical Todorov narrative, however it can be criticised for containing no answers and only magnifying situations in society, if
the film was simply reflecting society then surely it should contain some answers. The resolution is tragic, as the protagonist dies. We
also have the presence of Proppian characters as Sam being the villain and Trife being the hero, this therefore reduces the reality of the
film as it makes it become typical.
• Following this, in the TV drama, Skins, British youth is exaggerated and has a strong sense of overstatement. There is a lot of focus on
the stereotypical aspects of youth of today. Such as, drugs, sex and partying. However I believe that this is not a true representation of
the actual youth of the present as it only focuses on one specific social group and is not a fair representation of youth society as a
whole. As often the case with groups who are not easy to categorise, teens often find themselves demonised in media representation
because they don’t fit in with the everyday lives. Teenagers is a significant in between period and even dramas deals with stuff of
adolescent anxiety, such as, friendship, love, sex and impending adulthood. Similarly, the TV Drama Skins deals with most of these
problems, such as relationships, parents, the demands of studying, peer group pressure etc.
• In Skins Promo trailer, there has been a variety of camera shots used. When we tend to see the camera move, it tends to move with the
characters. For example, when a guy stumbles and falls to the ground, the camera moves side to side then falls to the ground with him.
Also throughout the majority of the trailer, the camera pans and slightly sometimes zooms into the shots until the last frame were all
the main characters lying down this is when the camera zooms out. Before the last frame there were extreme close-ups used to show
the facial expressions of the characters, this can therefore symbolize that the characters are one of the main characters and throughout
the episode we will come to know more about their lives. There have been a variety of sounds used in this extract to represent the
British Youth. At the point where darkness starts to flash in the shots where the good half of the party ends and the bad half just begin,
the beat in the song also drops implying that things are just about to change. At the end of the shot the music stops completely leavings
a slow heart type beat low in the background telling audiences that the party is now over. This links to an opposition of what a heart
might beat like in the previous trailer while its rushed and exciting. There isn’t a great use of editing techniques used in Skins to
represent the British Youth. The most editing technique we can see whilst watching this trailer is the amount of cuts in the shots, these
shots move really fast allowing a second or so to be seen.
• In conclusion I believe that both extracts, Kidulthood and Skins, represent British Youths in a negative way. However, I disagree with
this, from my perspective; I feel that this representation towards teenagers is not realistic and that it has been magnified highly. Skins
has pin pointed one social group in particular and this does not represent the British youth as a whole. However for some youths this
representation may portray how and what they do but for the majority of the youths, this is not realistic enough.
