Stereotypes(Skins)

In this skins trailer, there are quite a lot of things that represent the life of teenagers who are roughly between the ages of 17-20. In the opening scene of this trailer there is obviously a party going on and the typical things that one would think would happen in a teenage party such as: drinking, dancing, kissing etc. The scene has been put together in this way because they are portrayed as very irresponsible and carefree which are the sorts of characteristics that are associated with the majority of people of that age.

    A majority of teen dramas have certain stereotypes and appearances that portrayed or presented on purpose and other than the fact that he is most likely established as one of the main characters. The leader of the group in Skins gets most of the attention for the girls and in the trailer he is holding a gun and what I recently found out that the fact that he is holding a water gun is something called falic imagery because it is obviously supposed to send a message across.

 In a majority of teen dramas the directors try and make it as controversial so therefore they and try and deal with things such as: relationships, cheating in relationships, sex, drugs, rehab, police, prison etc.

In conclusion, in terms of teen dramas like Skins, other than the fact that they are aimed for teenagers, I was also taught that quite a lot of people in their thirties actually watch this show and that was a bit odd for me but after being explained to, the main reason why people in their thirties watch this program is because to them it is a good to sit down, kick back, relax and reminisce back to when they were like that so for them it is almost like an hour nostalgia.       

Linear, Non-linear and 3 act structure (Narratives)

Linear and non-linear narratives are the most common ways of explaining a story or simply narrating.  In the linear and non-linear narratives there are things that make them different, but most importantly the best thing to know is when and how they both can be used but also efficiently.

  Linear narratives follow something that is known as the three act structure and it starts off in the first scene where the story is setup, furthermore the plot point is established when the main characters are established.  The second scene is also where there is some sort of confrontation or the characters face obstacle and also an antagonist and in the final scene usually meet our villain and the story moves on and finally in the last part of the film, there is a final battle, the hero saves someone or something dramatic happens and the heroes automatic reward is most likely the female (if the storyline involves that) and they live happily ever after.

 

This sort of process of laying out is normally easy and straight forward and this sort of lay out in a film specially appeals to younger audiences in the age range of roughly about 3-12, because recently class after watching the movie up I learnt that it was structured in a Linear narrative and this a good example to back up my previous point. There is also a problem with Linear narratives because it gives a bad misconception about life in general when really and truly in  real life we don’t necessarily always have comebacks when we have setbacks and the hero will not always get the girl and in some occasions the bad guy does actually wins. 

Non-linear narratives are not consistent with the three act structure, and as a result of that it makes the whole project more complicated. Non-linear narratives are sometimes presented in a dream or nightmare etc. A non-linear narrative works for certain projects because as a result of its complexity, the audience has to automatically put more thought into understanding the film and even for the director of the film, it is also a harder job for him to keep his audience engaged when using a non-linear narrative.