Class And Status- The Street

Class:

'A status hierarchy in which individuals and groups are classified on the basis of esteem and prestige acquired mainly through economic success and accumulation of wealth. Social class may also refer to any particular level in such a hierarchy.
Four common social classes informally recognized in many societies are: (1) Upper class, (2) Middle class, (3) Working class, and the (4) Lower class'

Status:

Depending on your social class, leads to what status you hold in society. Status can show importance and your role to the general public.

The Street:

The title of the TV drama being 'The Street' initially shows us the class and status of the family before they are even introduced. They are shown to live in 'working class' accomodation in a surburban area.

Husband:
The husband is presented as a lower, working class man. He is scruffy, very casually dressed and works as a builder. In the first scene we meet him he uses bad language/swearing frequently towards his wife and infront of his children, this again shows us his lower class status as appearance and status dont seem to be either of his main priorities. He is the main and only income into the family, and takes a very traditional and stereotypical role as a father and husband.

Wife:
The wife is also presented as a working class woman. Her appearance is scruffy, very plain and casual. Again, she also frequently swears and shouts in the first scene we meet her and is clearly in an unhappy marriage. She takes the very stereotyical role of a housewife getting the children ready for school and caring for them 24/7 in general. The wife is shown to be a stereotypical housewife, but not the 1950s glamorous sort, if anything that is what she is seeking. Her relationship with her lover reflects this as she is falling into the role of being someone's mistress who takes part in casual sex and indulges in cakes, the idea of all this makes the wife quite happy and content as before her life was very tedious.

The married couple are both introduced as angry, unhappy and stressed individuals who are surrounded by conflict and arguments in their daily life and seek happiness from outside their relationship.

Lover (Peter):
As a first impression he is shown to be of a higher class than the husband as he is well dressed (in a suit) and drives around in a respectable car. Although, he really is no different. He is also stuck in an unhappy marriage with three kids (same as the husband and wife) and seeks happiness elsewhere. he is also surrounded by conflict and chaos in his everyday life and is a working class citizen.


In the first scene we are taken into the family's house. It is presented as very dull, dark and basic. No lights are on inside the house (this could reflect the atmosphere and the lack of money they may have). The decor in the house is not very elaborate, they are clearly struggling for money and this is proven in the argument they are having. The colour scheme is mostly beige and blue, they both connotate negative emotions (blue being very sad and miserable and beige being dull and lifeless) this also reflects their day-to-day lifesyles.

In the first scene, the camera angle is between two doors that are only ever so slightly open. This creates a very secretive feeling, like we as viewers are not supposed to be seeing what is going on. However, the girl sat at the table can see and hear the whole argument going on in the kitchen. action shots are used throughout the argument to show each individuals reaction and facial expressions. This fast pace adds pressure and chaos to the atmosphere inside the house. The music playing in the background is diegetic from the TV the two boys are watching and is contratpuntal to the current scene. It contrasts the current argument and emphasizes the chaos and conflict.

The camera shot then cuts quickly to the husband working on a building site. He is shown to be a very angry and aggressive character from his previous scene and now as he is aggressively using his tools, this also shows us as the viewers he is unhappy in his life and job, but has no option but to work because he is the family's main and only source of income. The scene is very dark, grey and dull which reflects his mood and the atmosphere. The diegetic sound of a train passing by and his tools hammering conclude that he is on a building site in a busy area.

In the last scene lots of fast paced editing is used as the girl is hit by the car, using jump shot edits creates a panic, it adds pressure and also shocks the audience. After the girl is hit by the car it cuts to five different shots of characters reactions around the street, this helps to show the seriousness of the accident as everyone stops they are doing due to what has just happened. Diegetic sounds of people panicking and shouting, phones being dialed, car alarms/horns going off and the referee on the TV all add the chaotic scene and concludes into a scene of complete bedlam.

Representation of Tony Stonem

How is Tony Stonem represented in Skins?

Tony Stonem is represented in a very different way in Skins to how normal teenagers his age would act. The stereotypical teenager is seen to be lazy, messy and irresponsible. Whereas Tony is completely different to this stereotype, he is represented  in this clip as very neat, controlled and responsible, he is shown to be a very pedantic character.

The first initial shot we see of Tony is a close up of his face, from this we can see the smug look of pleasure on his face as he has conveniently woken up before his alarm has gone off. The shot then pans out into a high angle shot where we see Tony lying in his bed under a duvet of a naked man and woman, funnily enough we see Tony in the middle of these two naked figures, this gives us the impression that maybe Tony is undecided of his sexuality being 'stuck in the middle' or maybe that he is bisexual being in the middle of the two genders.

The shot then jump cuts to Tony's alarm going off and him getting out of bed very swiftly. From this shot we can see Tony's room is very neat and tidy, his room is illuminated by the bright sunlight coming through the window, showing his room to be very clinical and bland, this could show a reflection of Tony's personality and proves my previous point of him not being a 'normal' teenager, as we would expect his room to be very messy and dark. We then see that he clearly has a daily routine when he gets up; turning off his alarm, stretching, working out, watching the woman across the street get dressed and then getting dressed himself. Filming all of this includes camera shots as mid shots of Tony's torso, long shot of Tony in the window and over the shoulder shot of the woman in the window across the street. We then move to a high angle shot of Effy walking down the street obviously looking worn out as she is scantily dressed from a night out. This is very ironic as we instantly see the massive contrast between the two siblings. On one hand we have Tony who isnt the 'typical' teenager: he is very organised, neat, well dressed and pedantic and on the other hand we have his younger sister Effy who is very much a stereotypical teenager: rebellious, sneeky and messy. The high angle shot of Effy shows her vunerabilty being the youger sibling and Tony looking down on her as the older, more responsible brother. Tony then pretends his CD player has broken, and distracts his dad whilst Effy sneaks in.

The sound used throughout the clip so far has been very varied. We move from the diegetic sounds of the church bells ringing and birds singing to the non-diegetic music which is pulsating and slow, building the scene up. We then return back to diegetic music as Tony puts his soundsystem on which is much more fast paced and louder and reflects the chaos he is about to cause by playing it and diegetic sound as his Dad comes in swearing and shouting at the high volume of the music. The dialogue between Tony and his Dad seems very well rehearsed like this isnt the first time Tony has woken his parents up to music blasting, we know this as his Dad says "every fucking morning" and the look on Tony's face shows he takes pleasure in winding up and annoying his Dad so easily.

We are then taken to a shot of Effy's room, which reinforces my point of her being a very stereotypical teenager. Her room is messy, decorated with bright colours and hardly illuminated at this time in the morning, the dark state of her room could represent the dark side to her personality which her parents obviously have no idea about and is masked by the decor  of her room being so childish and girly.

We then move on to the next scene where Tony purposely locks himself inside the bathroom just to annoy his Dad, he then climbs out of the window, down the drainpipe and back into the house to take a seat in the kitchen. he does all of this whilst his Dad still thinks he is in the toilet, until his Dad comes downstairs and to his dismay sees Tony sat at the table eating his breakfast quite arrogantly and looking very smug at how easily he can annoy his Dad, we see Tony taking great pleasure in doing this which returns us back to the actions of a stereotypical teenager; going out of his way to annoy and wind up his parents. Tony is represented to have a very mistured and varied personality, some sides of him being very different to your average teenager and other sides being quite a normal annoying teenager. Tony however, over all doesnt seem to conform to the normal expectations of a teenager, whereas Effy does and having the contrast between the two siblings highlights the differences in how they act in everyday life, which isnt seem to be the norm for most teenagers in the UK.