Comparing TV dramas

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmIIEb1VPY4 - Skins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48CcQl77D-E&list=WL31CD517C9E926A0F&index=4 - Inbetweeners

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcngcqA6zHw&list=WL31CD517C9E926A0F&index=2 - Misfits

_________________________________________________________________________________

I have chosen to compare the teen dramas Skins, The Inbetweeners and Misfits.
All three of these are teen dramas, first introduced by Channel E4.
'Skins' and 'The Inbetweeners' are quite naturalistic dramas, whereas Misfits has a stylised approach to comedy and it's producers have decided to combine elements of sci-fi/fantasy with teen comedy.

Skins

Sound
- In the first few seconds, diagetic sound is used when Effy opens/shuts her locker. You can also hear people laughing, talking and walking around them, which builds up the atmosphere of a secondary school and helps the audience identify with the surroundings.

Mise-en-scene

Costume -  Effy is shown to be wearing quite a light top with light colours, which is misleading as she has a darker. manipulative character and usually darker colours would be used to symbolise this.
Freddie is wearing a light top and a hoodie, to show he is quite casual and relaxed. He is also holding a fedora hat, which might symbolise that he is slightly 'classier' than his friends, which corrobates with what he calls his friends at 1:00, showing that he thinks he is above them.

Ethnicity- Freddie is clearly not 100% British (part Italian) and has clearly just moved into the school - "I'm new." His appearance on the show could be used to promote/discard racial steeotypes.

Character Relationship

Effy is clearly the one in charge, which is ironic because both visually and physically, Freddie seems as though he would be in control of the relationship. However, he starts confident and steadily deterioates. By the end shot, he is left alone, almost stuttering.
This is done cleverly, as even though Freddie towers over her, his reaction shots make it seem as though he looking down because he's nervous/confused.

Two Shot
(Medium)

The shots are a mixture of Over-the-shoulder, Reaction Shots, and Two-Shots.
These Two Shots are helpful in this scene as they show the differences between Effy and Freddie, and also the distance between them, which makes him seem even more awkward when he's fumbling for a response.
  They also help to establish the scene, as you can see school lockers in the background.

Over the shoulder

The 2nd video is 'The Inbetweeners.' This is also a teen drama.
Like Skins, it also focuses on the lives of a group of teenagers.
In this clip, the scene is a Track Shot, which follows the 'gang' as they walk along.
At first, Simon is at the centre, as he is the centre of attention has he's the one his friends are trying to convince to go 'clubbing.'

Unlike in 'Skins' this scene focuses more on use of costume to convey the setting. The boys are all wearing school jumpers, blazers, and ties. In the background, also seen in 'Skins' other students are passing by and talking, and these students are used to introduce diagetic sound associated with schools and to identify with the primary target audience (teenagers/students.)


The camera shows medium shots of all four of the boys to show their facial expressions clearly.
E.g. Will trying to smooth over a situation, Simon glaring warningly at Will, Neil looking slightly perplexed in the background as usual, and Jay staring in awe at the two girls. This shot is used to show their personalities in just one second!

Reaction Shots are used later on between Will and Carly's friend. Like Skins, the reaction shots are used to monitor the conversation and especially when the subject topic is becoming more personal.

In both TV dramas, the camera angles have been positioned carefully, to control the Composition.
In Skins, the camera shot only includes Effy and Freddie until Freddie insults his friends. Immediately, the shot allows the audience to see his 'friends' standing not too far away. This is deliberately only revealed to the audience later on for comedic effect.

Similarly, Simon in The Inbetweeners is talking about how 'uncool' he and his friends are, and how they could never get into a nightclub, when the girl he is trying to impress suddenly appears. Again, the camera is angled closely at the boys, only allowing the audience to see Carly after he's made his comment. He then proceeds to talk about how he is going clubbing with his friends.
Again, composition is used here for comedic effect.





On the other hand, 'Misfits' is another teen drama, however, it has a separate sub-genre, in the sense that  it has combined teenage drama with fantasy, and so it's themes are a combination of naturalistic and non-naturalistic styles.

The shots have been edited to show all the different 'young offenders' as they sit down on the sofa.
The costume helps set the context of the show, as they are wearing bright orange uniform jumpsuits, which allows the audience to understand that these teenagers are doing their community service.
There is no clue in this particular clip that this show is comedy/fantasy, as no fantasy element is shown, however, the comedic elements come across quite clearly. For example, when kelly is talking, the camera cuts so that she is in a different place each time she says her statement: 'They graffiti and we clear it up.' This makes it funnier as it is obvious to the audience that a long time has passed since she first said it.

Music is played in the background until Simon (the quite one) enters, and that is where all music stops.

The camera zooms out when it reaches Simon to a Medium Shot.
His body language shows that he is feeling uncomfortable and the frame makes him look smaller as he is sitting in the middle of the sofa with lots of space around him.

Another important thing about this show is that is focuses on teenagers from all walks of life. I think this is done effectively.
Similarly to the clip from 'Inbetweeners' these clip uses mise-en-scene to present this.
For example, Kelly and Alisha are wearing lots of make-up. (Kelly is also wearing golden hoop earings)  which enforces the 'chavvy' stereotype.


Composition 


Before each of the teenagers starts talking, the camera zooms in/smudges their profile, to allow the audience to guess who is going to speak next. This is purposely done to hide the identity of the speaker.

E.g. Before Nathan speaks the camera shot shows only his shoe, but before Kurtis speaks, the shot just shows shows the lower half on his face, but blurs his body.
A cross necklace is shown which is symbolic for regular watchers and symbolises
a) Religion - Kurtis isn't religious but he has higher morals than the other characters.
b) The character themselves.