Represntation of Age: Skins

As Skins begins, we see a panning shot of the main character Tony, under his bed covers which has a naked man and woman as a design. From this the audience can tell that Tony is a sexualised character, this is then reinforced with the shot of him getting out of bed in his pants. The lack of clothes connotes he is sexual, or not concerned by the way he looks, in fact this may be the opposite, Tony finds himself attractive and likes the way he looks. From the mise en scene set inside the house, we can see that Tony is very organised, with his shirts folded away immaculately and even his bed covers are very flat and neat. Tony may be represented as almost having OCD, however after watching further into the programme, he is represented as a modern, metro sexual teenager. This then contrasts to his father who is the stereotypical man. He swears, he is big and hairy with a beer belly and loses his temper to show his dominance in the household, despite being undermined by his son. The mother is also a stereotype

Exam Practice Question 1

Both SAGA Magazine and GQ feature famous actors with Sir Michael Caine and Clint Eastwood respectively. Both men are ageing but are instantly recognisable with both British and American audiences. The fact that both men are similar in age would suggest that age has no bearing on their social status or ability to look "cool", hence why they are being featured in fashionable magazines.

On the cover of Saga, Michael Caine is dressed in a casual suit, with glasses and grey hair which contrasts greatly to the image of Clint Eastwood, dressed completely in denim. The way the men have been dressed connotates and gives the reader ideas of what these actors are like and perhaps the stereotypes that come with them. For instance, with Michael Caine being British and dressed in a suit, it automatically creates an idea that he is affluent, intellectual and suave. In real life, Michael Caine is all of these things, however the characters he normally acts are lower class, down to earth men. When this is compared to Clint Eastwood in GQ, both differences and similarities appear. Eastwood,being dressed in all denim, looks more casual but tough, sticking to the American stereotype of what a man should be. His sleeves are rolled up which could suggest a hardworking man, likes to get dirty and fix things himself. This overall image is similar to the characters Eastwood has played in the past. As mentioned before, both men are older but this does not detract from the overall image that they are "trendy and cool". Facially, the men differ, with Michael Caine having a dead pan facial expression which connotaes that he is calm and collected however with Clint Eastwood, his characteristic facial snarl suggest a fiery temper and aggressiveness.

The background of the Saga magazine is white which contrasts with Caines suit, highlighting him as the main focus of the cover, but this is not the case for the GQ magazine, with the denim Eastwood is wearing seeming to blend with the darker background. This could connotate a dark side of Eastwood or a negative aspect of him. As for the colour scheme ont the Saga cover, it could link to dark and light, or could even link to the famous James Bond opening credits with the black and white circles being used which would link in with the stereotypical idea that British men in a suit must be undercover agents.


The layout and design for the two magazine covers are similar with both men being in the centre of the cover, this would suggest that they are the most important article or feature in the magazines. Both magazines keep to a colour scheme with Saga incorporating red, white and black and GQ also using a similar colour scheme of red, white and blue/black. The two covers are also similar with the fact that there are 2 pieces of text relating to the actors, with Saga using a text box about what Michael Caine will be talking about in the article and a quote from him. The quote is in black font colour which relates to his suit which backs up that he is saying it, it has come from him. The GQ magazine however features no quotes just simple, short text boxes which relate to Eastwood. The text surrounding the magazine covers feature famous individuals that are important to both British and American life, however GQ again uses simple text boxes, with the individuals names compared to Saga's text boxes which use small amounts of text to add extra information underneath the titles. The font of these text boxes are smaller, suggesting that they are not as important as th main feature but both layouts of the magazines allow the articles to seem inticing and interesting.


The language used for these covers are quite different, perhaps due to the origin of the magazines. Saga's language is more developed, however it does incorporate some British terms like "top brass" which non- british readers may not understand at a first glance. GQ's language is less formal and typically American, using terms like "BADASS OF THE YEAR" which is not a negative thing as it is used to describe Clint Eastwood, who is normally associated with being tough and hardy, the archetypal American male. Also texts boxes such as "THE BEST STUFF '09, CARS CLOTHES FOOD MUSIC GADGETS AND MORE" suggest that the demographic for this magazine would be 20-30, males. This contrasts to Saga's which would be 30 year olds, mainly male.