In the opening scene of Skins age is represented in several ways through the critical use of editing techniques. For example, the montage of tony’s wake up routine reflects his age positively as it shows that he cares about his appearance and that he is healthy, which is a juxtaposition of the common stereotypes around teenagers of being lazy, messy, and typically unhealthy. The use of cross cutting between Tony in his room and Effy outside the house connects them through their mischievous actions, therefore negatively highlighting their youth. An eye-line match is seen when Tony is looking at the naked women across the street, from this is it seen that tony’s interests are surrounded by sex negatively presenting him as young and lustful as compliant with the typical age stereotypes of teenagers being obsessed with sex. The use of match on action from Tony’s dad kicking the toilet door to Tony flushing the toilet, conveys the dad’s immaturity through his use of anger and violence suggesting he's going through his mid-life crisis, however Tony is seen to be clean as he cleans after himself which is a juxtaposition to his dad, therefore his dad is reflected negatively with age whereas Tony is reflected positively.
The use of mise-en-scene portrays Tony as the counter-typical teenager whereas Effy and Sid are seen to be stereotypical teenagers. The beginning of the sequence we see Tony’s room to be clean and organised, therefore he is positively represented for his age, whereas Sids room is seen to be messy with clothes and cigarette buts all over the room, while Effy’s room is dark with clothes all over the bed. These both comply to the stereotypical teenage rooms of being untidy and unorganised which is a stark contrast to Tony’s portrayal. The contrast in age representations is seen through the colours of Tony and his dad’s boxer shorts, Tony’s being white which connote to purity therefore he is being portrayed positively according to his age. Whereas his dad’s are red which connotes to anger and violence therefore his dad is portrayed negatively and stereotypically to be a man during his mid-life crisis to be short-temper and unsatisfied with life or his family. A final observation to be said is that we see Tony on the toilet reading a book called ‘nausea’ a book about the reasons behind war while sitting in the thinker pose, which positively represents Tony to be intellectual and well read, which is a counter type towards teenagers, who are stereotypically not well read or intellectual and whose interests lie in social media and not literature.
Another way that age representations are put forward through skins are in the use of camera shots. The first shot of Tony in his bed is a medium close-up which reverses out to a birds eye-view of his room to show him awake. This gives the impression that he is well organised as he is awake before his alarm goes off, also presenting him as self-reliant which is unusual for a teenager therefore Tony is presented as a counter-typical teenager in this way. An over-the-shoulder shot is seen over Tony’s shoulder in the direction of the naked women which suggests that Tony’s thoughts revolve around sex therefore he is being highlighted in a negative light as a stereotypically horny teenager. The low angle shot with Tony in the foreground and his dad in the background portrays Tony to bare more power than his dad as he appears before him in the shot. This represents his dad as stupid and a fool whereas Tony is presented as being intellectual and able to make a fool of his father showing that he has wit. While this positively highlights Tony as a juxtaposition of being stupid like common stereotypes, it also highlights his immaturity therefore he is negatively portrayed as a teenager who likes to embarrass his elders, showing his lack of respect commonly found amongst teenagers. His dad on the other hand is seen to be weak and stupid, which is a contrast to common middle-aged men, therefore he is presented as a negative counter-type. The contrast between Tony and Sid is seen at the end of the sequence where a birds eye-view of Sid’s room is shown, where it is messy with various items on the floor and bed, therefore their contrast in rooms reflects their contrast in personalities, as Sid is immediately seen as a teenager in a messy room, while Tony is seen in an organised and clean room, unlike Sid who is seen to be the stereotype.
Finally, the use of sound is a further technique sampled in order to represent age in certain ways. For example when Tony wakes up and starts working out the non-diegetic music plays which is quite erotic therefore suggesting that Tony is sex-fueler like most teenagers. When Tony turns on his speakers a diegetic synchronous sound is heard of heavy rock music which is commonly associated to rebellious teenagers. The diegetic sound of Tony’s dad shouting portrays him negatively as violent and quick to temper, traits stereotypically found in men going through their mid-life crisis. A juxtaposition is seen between Tony and his dad when Tony is using the toilet when his dad needs it, the audience hear a diegetic sound of his dad screaming and struggling to form a sentence using multiple swear words for the use of fillers, whereas Tony is able to string a sentence with ease. This portrays his dad as stupid and negatively, whereas Tony is seen contrastingly as intelligent.
