Evaluation of Skins

The scene begins of with the audience viewing a close-up camera angle shot of Cassie looking spaced out and in her own world, in the mise-en-scene of the back of a bus - the morning after a massive, out of control party. All throughout the bus journey there’s non-diagetic music of children eating food, which is ironic as the audience see a close-up camera angle shot of Cassie discovering a note in her dress with the words “EAT!” written on it. This indicates that the representation of this scene is focusing on Cassie’s eating problem, and the disease anorexia.
Throughout the first scene on the bus, Cassie is almost made out to look like an angle, as she’s wearing a stunning white dress, and her long blonde hair is flowing around her shoulders, overall making her look very childlike. On the bus accompanying her is very much a theme of children, as there are a variety of close-up and medium shots of young children, eating food which exaggerates the theme of Cassie’s anorexia. The camera angle when Cassie is sitting on the bus is positioned in front of her face, so the audience gain a clear view of her spaced out facial expression, and there’s an effective medium-shot of her sticking the note saying “EAT!” upon the bus window.
However, when the scene changes and Cassie is shown walking into her middle-class house, you automatically see the symbol of W.V van, which is the type of vehicle that middle-age hippies own, suggesting to the audience that her parents are going to be quite eccentric. What you notice straightaway when Cassie enters her house, is the naked painting of her mother, which actually appears about three times in different rooms of the house. Automatically, you gain a sense that Cassie’s relationship with her parents is very erratic and not a close one, as you see a zoomed in close-up shot of Cassie’s gormless facial expression when she walks in on her parents in the kitchen just as there about to have sex. Therefore, this induces another representation in this scene, not just anorexia but focusing on the relationship she shares with her parents. When Cassie’s dad pointedly asks if she’s had breakfast, and Cassie is blatant lying when she says how Michelle cooked her breakfast, you can tell that her dad doesn’t even care, yet is more thinking about having sex with her mother.
Cassie’s mum is not a stereotypical mother at all, and all her family are dressed in white, therefore it as if there all acting like children, and can’t let go of there “hippy” childhood, which is why the mise-en-scene of the very clean, middle-class house doesn’t contrast at all with the bright orange hippy van. Therefore, this concludes that Cassie’s loose relationships with her family could be the reason for her controlling her body and eating habits. Therefore, is anorexia really a disease, or is it just a way of teenagers controlling there body? This almost leaves you feeling sympathy toward Cassie, as she is struggling with her illness.
The audience also see Cassie almost turning into the mother, when she takes the liberty of looking after the new born baby. The mise-en-scene of the baby’s bedroom is very stereotypical of a toddler’s room, and Close-ups of Cassie cuddling and comforting the baby portray an image of Cassie almost a child herself. When diagetic music of the baby chimes start playing above the crib, it’s almost armour to cover up the noise of her parents having sex. Cassie still remains looking spaced out, and the scene ends with a wonderful shot which makes Cassie look like the baby in the crib, as it she’s looking above at the chimes, which soon blur out, making the audience almost feel as if there drifting of to sleep.