How do the contemporary media represent British youth and youth culture in different ways?

Harry Brown (2009)
Director: Daniel Barber

In Harry Brown young people are represented in a very negative way. It is how people perceive youths and their youth culture. In the opening sequence there was displays of drugs, violence, murder, weapons all very negative things that show how young people act. The mise-en-scene also represents them badly, the hoodies are a very popular image related to youths at the moment, this puts all youths in a box labelled 'hoodies', they are hooligans causing trouble, and in some extreme cases, like in Harry Brown they are causing very bad things to happen, like shooting in broad daylight on an estate.  The camera was a hand held camera, this is very different to the typical Hollywood cameras used in America and for more high budget films. You can tell it's a British film, because it is set in an estate in England, not very glamorous. The handi-cam gives it more of a fast pace, quite scary for the audience to watch. It is like the audience become part of the gang because the are right in the middle of it, and when they are on the bike in the film, it is as if the audience are on that bike too, because it is filmed from the youth on the bike. When he gets hit by the car the camera goes down with him and therefore so do we as the audience.

Guardian (November 2009)

• misunderstood
• compared to monsters
• compared to vampires (non-fiction vs fiction)
• breaking through the mediated representations
• me me me society (selfishly motivated)
• lower class - underclass
• self-fulfilling prophecy
• primitive                                                    
• environment - physicality on where they live
• implications on society - fear - moral panic
• hoodies - associated with the KKK and the grim reaper

Eden Lake (2008)
Director: James Watkins

• How are Jenny and Steve (the main couple) represented? To be a middle class happy couple,
• How is this contrasted with the representation of the other characters? They seem to be rough, not very well educated, quite intimidating
• How important is the issue of social class? The youths would not like them because they may see them as snobs, the couple may see the youths as trouble makers and no good.
• How are young people represented? As being the 'baddies' or the villains of the film. They torment the couple and are trouble.

Horror and the Representation of Youth

• Film theorist Robin Wood argues that the basic formula of the horror film is 'normailty' here...to mean simply 'conformity to the dominant social norms'.

1. What is the significance of the emergence of a cycle of British films in which the 'monster' is young people? It could make the public audience go into a sort of moral panic, where they are scared and fearful of the villains of films these days. They are scarily realistic, unlike the vampires or monsters in other horror films. The audience know that this could happen and that there are youths like this in their society. It is extreme circumstances, but that's what makes them good horror films, because there is a balance with reality and horror to make entertainment. Since there are quite a few films with the baddies being youths it becomes the norm thing in our society for the youths to be shown in a negative way.
2. How do the threaten normality? They threaten normality because it makes it harder for the audience what is being representative and what is being made up for the purposes of the film. It makes it harder to differentiate what is normal and what is extreme at the moment, with these films out, because they are so realistic.
3. What term could we use instead of normality? Realistic

Attack the Block (2011)
Director: Joe Cornish

1. How are the main characters introduced? Intimidated, fearless, low-key lighting, swearing - colloquial language, low camera angle - intimidation to audience, mise-en-scene
2. How does this representation change? Opening sequence stereotypical hoodie representation. As the film progresses the representation becomes more positive. Develops a more sympathetic representation. The film initially represents the young people as 'monsters', then replaces them with actual monsters. Contrast to other 'hoodie horror films'