Skins

Our first TV Drama case study will be Skins, beginning with an analysis of representations found in Series 1, Episode 1. We will be looking at how the makers of Skins, Jamie Brittain and Brian Elsley, establish the characters and the world of the show, through the five key questions.

Representation in the Media Industry

Want to work in the media industry? Are you female? Well, between 2006 and 2009 the TV industry shrank by about five and a half thousand jobs. No surprise in these trying economic times. However, five thousand of those job losses were women as the female workforce shrank by 20%...

Who is making the representations we see every day? How are those representations constructed - and in whose image?

Read about the cutbacks in this Guardian article, and review the figures in the Skillset 2009 Census.

Sun Headline of Distinction?

They had two months to think of a headline - and this is what they came up with? Really?

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

This film is great for looking at narrative and representation, although our primary focus is on applying Dyer's Star Theory here. Gondry subverts traditional typecasting in his presentation of Clementine and Joel, casting Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey against type in an audacious move - just one of many audacious things about this film!


More to follow...

Stars and Star Theory

Firstly, apologies for freaking everyone out with The Sandman.

Secondly, there is some really interesting stuff about Star Theory out there - some it quite advanced, some of it simpler.

This is a basic introduction to Star Theory: http://www.mediaknowall.com/Starsgcse/Starsmain.html. Use the links at the bottom of the page to find out more.

And here is an example of Dyer's star theory applied to pop music: http://www.mediaknowall.com/Popular%20Music/popstartheory.html

This is a Warwick University blog summarising the key elements of Star Theory and its history at a much higher level: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/stars_and_star/