Skins:

Our final week of Skins! Sad, sad, sad times! Currently drinking vodka and coke in the green room, not saying why though.

Started on Unseen Skins this week, with the lovely Sarah Dibsdall, who’s usually our 2nd A.D. (Assistant Director) has been firsting which has been lovely!

Did a pub scene on the first day very hungover so that wasn’t the most fun I’ve had. Very upset that Sid doesn’t have his own platform again this year, obviously I’m just not good enough to get one, or too good, either one.

Had possibly the most fun I’d ever had in my life yesterday as a passenger, doing a small bit of stunt driving in the mini. Pretty basic just driving down a road, but to liven it up, we were doing handbrake turns and swerving. To be honest after take 4 I was ready for another 20! The other stunt driver Derek was wicked as well, they both got into it and really seemed to be enjoying it. Must admit they do have a damn good job, and were telling me of some of the stuff they’ve done in the past and am very jealous.

Oh and if you were wondering what the other bloggers look like here’s pictures:

Ben on the left and Dom on the right

And I think Roz has put a picture of me and her in her blog, if not she’s tall, blonde and very nice.

 

 

This weekend, instead of filming the main series, we have been shooting some of the platforms – the mini Unseen Skins episodes (or Epidermisodes as Ben Schiffer very cleverly termed them) that appear on the internet in accompaniment to the series itself.

These can be a lot of fun to film, as they are often quite independent from the storylines of the series itself, and feel a bit like doing a short film. Also we quite often get to explore characters or relationships that aren’t touched on in the actual episodes – for example last year I really loved getting to work more closely with April and to look at the friendship between Cassie and Michelle more closely in the first Unseen Skins "I Mostly Do", as I felt it was a very interesting and realistic relationship that hadn’t been dealt with in Series 1 in that much detail.

We tend to shoot platforms with a reduced crew, which can be quite nice as you feel less aware of there being something of a circus going on around you and you can focus more on your performance. Speaking of crew, there have also been a couple of cameos made by them in the platforms, which make them all the more enjoyable to shoot. If you watch the ninth one “Bye” (which I think may only appear on the DVD) you’ll be able to see Edward K. Gibbon, our costume designer, as a hotel doorman, and Ben Childs, floor runner, as a hot dog seller.

The only slight downside of the platforms is that they tend to be shot at a very frantic pace, which can be quite a shock in comparison to the main unit where you have a lot more time. When I got home today I found myself running around the house in order to do anything, even though I really didn’t need to, just because I’d been used to such a sense of urgency all day. But in reality this is the smallest of downsides, and certainly makes you feel more productive, and eliminates almost all waiting around. So despite my last three days shooting platforms being slightly mad and very cold, they were nonetheless a marvellous time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inspired by youth culture over the past 50 years (since the birth of the teenager) the Skins trend is about anti-fashion and not following the obvious trends. This helps firstly on a practical so as not to look dated by the time the show comes out. Each character has an individual style to reflect their separate personalities and this year the costumes have matured with the characters.

"A timeless distilled essence of youth" is how Edward Gibbon (Costume Designer) described the Skins style to me over lunch today. The look is Edward’s individual take on fashion. There are no rules. All colours can work together, no patterns clash and it’s a mixture of vintage, charity shops, designers and high street. TKMaxx is a favourite. We also customise a lot of our costumes, although most of the tiny details are only really seen if you’re looking closely.

The characters are all very confident in what they wear and each have a colour theme which helps when buying the clothes.  For example Jal’s colours are earthy and natural but still strong (maroons, bronze, yellow and oranges). This series sees Jal with a bit of a make-over pleasing Larissa no end. We purposely try and stay away from black and last year the bright colours helped distinguish our cast from the background.  However, people are now becoming more daring in the colours and fashion they experiment with.

Cassie’s illness is reflected in her costumes. In her head she’s in a 1920’s silent movie and therefore dresses appropriately depending on her state of mind. In Cassie land anything goes.  If Michelle is Vogue then Cassie is ID

Effy has taken the Emo look to a whole new level, this year we’ve been layering and slashing beautiful dresses to create a gothic look, not always practical when filming in November!

Skins series II is rockin’ some great new looks. The boys are, as always looking great. We’ve ditch the jeans for suit trousers and tucked in shirts. Might sound ominous but it looks really smart (in a good way).  So, if you’re a fan and watch the repeats then have a close look at the costumes. You may get inspired.    

 

 

 

Roz Marshall
Costume Assistant

This week's Creative Challenge entry of the week is Alanna Guild - well done! Check out her entry here. Not only does Alanna get a one-off prop from the show, she's also now in the running for the grand prize: a premiere party of her very own. If you haven't entered yet, get a move on.

Skins

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Right, we have three - that's THREE big Skins announcements to share with you lovely people. We can't reveal anything just yet, but come back on Monday to check it all out. You won't be disappointed, we assure you.

Not long till series II!

Skins

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You get asked some strange things to do when working in television. I’m not sure anyone else would be asked to skin up at work that much. It’s a common thing on Skins. Just the other day we were filming at a local school in Bristol when the art department requested they needed some urgent joints for the following days shoot. So we in the A.D department came to the rescue. You can imagine the caretaker’s face when he walked around a corner to find a group of runners, sitting at a table in front of a pile of green leafy substance, skinning up ‘fatty bon batties.’

The poor man nearly had a heart attack. Emma one of our location managers, quickly had to explain we weren’t a bunch degenerate stoners, the joints were props full of herbal tobacco.

It certainly is a bizarre job with interesting people. This is my second year working on Skins and I have to say this series has a lot more to offer. Now the characters are all established the plot lines are thicker and the actors have more to play with, making it much more interesting. It is great to see how the cast have all grown closer over the year and aren’t just some kids anymore thrown together but young actors who have become close friends with growing talent. Their acting, as good as it was before, seems to have improved even more. They’re a bunch of great people who honestly make me laugh every day, especially Joe Dempsie (Chris) who thinks his football side in the Skins match has a chance against mine.

All we could hear today around our studio was a sweet whisper of “It’s on, it’s on, we even have the kit.” This was the confirmation that the Skins football match is, without a doubt, on. We play tonight, and the teams are chosen. Tensions are high and bets are being laid. Joe Dempsie thinks he has a great right foot, but my defence work is just too strong. It’s a battle of the titans. It’s our First assistant Directors team verses our Third assistant Directors team. Cast and crew are all involved results in the next blog.

Yesterday was freezing! I had to hide in my car to escape the cold and the windows steamed up. But, the misty windows weren’t a blank, virginal canvas. The naughty tykes Mike (Sid) and April (Michelle) had each drawn a cartoon ‘willy’ on one or more of my windows and I had to wipe them off before a passer-by thought I was a sex pest.

We have been filming some very exciting stuff these last few days. Naturally, I can’t tell you much but...there might be a car going very fast through the streets of Bristol, Sid might be in the passenger seat and there might be an unusual vehicle giving chase. On seeing Mike pass by in the car, one booze-soaked onlooker shouted, "Ere, there’s that Harry Potter" and then staggered off mentioning something about kebabs. During a recent outdoor shoot, an old lady asked what we were doing "What are you doing" she said. "Filming a telly programme called Skins" I said. "Skids?" she said, and then in her finest Bristolian accent, "Haven’t you got anything better to do?" I had no answer. It was a good question though;didn’t we? Well, not really. You see, there are some rubbish jobs available at the job centre (I’ve tried most of them) but working on a program like Skins isn’t one of them. The days are long, you might be outside all day filming a slug eating a sock but it’s not like cleaning toilets or selling yer body for cash. That’s real work. I should know.

Dom (Runner)

We've been trawling through the Skins Creative Challenge entries all week, and we're pleased to announce we have our first entry of the week!

Congrats to Sinead, who wins a one-off vacuum packed prop from the show as well as going into the draw to win her very own premiere party.

Check out her entry here.

Skins

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Well done to everyone who managed to get tickets for the Skins Premiere Parties - we can't wait! We've noticed some comments you've been leaving regarding ticket collection and confirmations. If you were able to get tickets but have been sent a confirmation for a different city than the one you think you chose, or have any other ticketing concerns then get in contact with this lot:

skins@trinitystreetdirect.com

Skins

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Been working long and hard the past couple of days, well, long; not really that hard. Been pretty damn cold as well and were out on ashton court yesterday so were freezing pretty much all day, but was nice to be out of the studio.

Been taking more photos to add to my wall in the green room. Have very dull walls in our green room, so decided to take photos of cast and crew through the series, print them out and stick them on the wall.

 

I swear there was more but a lot seemed to have gone missing.

Only a few weeks till the end now until it’s all over and everyone’s feeling a bit sad, but still tons of laughs on set.

Had an ADR session on Thursday which was fun, kind of. ADR is when you go into a recording studio and re-record lines or record new lines to be added. Can be quiet hard if you have to lip sync with yourself on screen, but being multi-talented as I am, it was a piece of cake! I lie, I was there for hours.

Was good to see some of the stuff we’d shot months ago like the Gower, which looked really good, and episode 3 (my own!). Made me realise how much time has flown by. One photo which I took in the Gower and am rather proud of would be this one of young Mr Patel.

 

 

 

Yes that's right. All of you who were unsuccessful still have another chance to win quite possibly the night of your life. The Skins Creative Challenge is still open, and the prize is a chance to see the first episode of Skins series II before it's even on the telly, at a party for you and your mates, which we will organise for you with a budget of £5000!
Skins Creative Challenge

Skins x

Don't forget that at 5pm today, tickets will be available for the Skins Premiere Parties! As the clock strikes 5pm, the Skins home page will be updated with a link to register for tickets.

Good luck and hopefully we'll see you there!

Skins x

 UPDATE: tickets have gone, they went in under a minute! Congrats to those who managed to get a pair, for those who didn't, you can still enter the Skins Creative Challenge where the prize is your very own Skins series II premiere party. We'll get our party organisers to create a night you will never forget, with a budget of £5000.
Skins Creative Challenge

These days, at the moment, we are filming my episode (along with the finale), which is absolutely my favourite time of doing a series of Skins. Being at work all day, every day, and then coming home too tired to do anything other than eat, learn your lines and then go to bed ready to get up at 6 the next morning is, quite honestly, the most glorious thing.

Directing this, my episode 9, is Charles Martin. Although we all tend to get on really well with all the directors we’ve had, on both series, you do tend to form a slightly closer relationship with the director who does your episode. I definitely remember Kaya referring to Adam Smith, who directed episode 8 last year, as her director, and there’s quite a lot of accuracy in that (though of course he was also Larissa’s and Joe’s). So the person who directs your episode is going to be a very important part of your enjoyment of and success in working on it, and so obviously I wanted Charles Martin to be wonderful. And he is.

The fact that he won a Bafta the other weekend and brought it into work on my second day filming with him (I got to hold it – they’re very heavy) was certainly very impressive, but really is only the icing on the cake. I’m learning from an incredible amount and he’s kind of forcing me not to be so scared of the camera as I am. I generally have this tendency to sort of hide my face and find things to fiddle with because I get nervous, and I find it very hard to properly hold a gaze towards someone if the camera is in my peripheral vision. But he’s stopping me from doing that, and sometimes even putting the camera right in my face and really not letting me shy away from it. It’s so great to be taken out of my comfort zone and hopefully to give a better performance as a result.

I’m really really really enjoying this final block.

There’s a lot of nakedness in Skins and I guess I should give a behind the scenes insight into how that works.  Because the actors are actually the age they play there are loads of legal regulations to deal with so they never really are naked.  Although it wasn’t in my job description when I started series 2, I’ve somehow landed the job of official naked person on set.  This means that on many an occasion I’m faced with lots of naked Skins boys at 7am!  Something many people would love but for me it’s kind of like seeing your little brother’s bum.  (Not great, especially so early in the day). 

Anyway, to hide their modesty we’ve made a strange construction which looks like the front of a pair of pants but is gathered underneath with no back. The boys strap themselves in and I use medical tape to keep it on and them in!  There was a lot of discussion about shaving after the guys discovered that removing medical tape from a certain area is about as painful as waxing.  If their bums aren’t on show then we’ve got jock straps for them and they’ll usually wear trousers if the shot is above their waist. The same applies for the ladies in Skins; a backless, strapless stick-on bra usually covers all eventualities.  So, sorry girls and guys but they never actually get their kits of, its just TV magic.

There seems to be quite a lot of sex going on in Skins this year (no surprise there then, but between whom…?) We’ve even got Sex Monday scheduled for next week, where we’ll be shooting two sex scenes in various parts of the studio which we haven’t had a chance to shoot yet.  I’m always surprised how much work is involved for a costume department when there are no actual costumes in the scene.

As I’m on about the sex I may as well mention the underwear.  Underwear always factors at some point in for each character and it’s a good one to keep an eye out for.  My favour pair of pants this year is Chris’ Pink and White leopard print pants; he’s got a pretty impressive array of pants for a guy.  Topman, H&M and Gap have provided us with some fab boy pants this year and we’ve got our hands on the ever faithful American Apparel Y fronts too. Cassie also spends a lot of her scenes in lingerie this series and obviously in true Cassie style wears some great vintage numbers including a pale pink moth eaten nylon teddy - as always, Cassie carries it off.   

Roz Marshall, Costume Assistant  

Did you watch it? We've posted up an interview with them in their dressing room here and here. We think they should hijack the Big Brother house!

 

 

It’s not always easy and glamorous working in television. We shoot on camera twelve hours a day in rain, sleet or snow with tight deadlines to meet. It can be stressful, exhausting and tempers can flare. However with this crew, this cast, I wouldn’t miss it for the world. After nearly six months working together we’re more like family. It’s a pleasure to hard graft with people you can joke and laugh with while working to produce fantastic television.

Fantastic is an understatement you should see some of the cameo’s we have this series. Bill Bailey, Mark Heap (‘Spaced, Green Wing’), John Thompson (‘Fast Show, Cold Feet’) and even a certain actor from ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ alright not Depp but Angus Barnett who plays ‘Mullroy,’ one of the funny guards. He was a personal favourite, most hilarious person I’ve met. Also I have to add our new Director, Charles Martin. This series is definitely onto a winner.

As for our cast they’re all working hard and enjoying themselves, though Hannah Murray who plays Cassie is slightly upset at the prospect of the new film ‘The Golden Compass’ coming out. That is one girl who won’t be seeing it, let’s just say they’ve taken a bit too much of the book out the film. An angry lady to say the least. The rest of the cast are just upset they can’t beat me at table football.

Talking of football, The Deal or no Deal crew seem to of wimped out from our challenge of a game. So we’ve decided to have a massive eleven aside Skins Game. This is dangerous, with the competitiveness of this crew anything could happen.

Oh and our poor new camera assistant had the fright of his life the other day. While filming next to a mental home, we convinced him a patient had escaped. He may have soiled himself when Joe from props leapt out of the camera van at him. I’ve never seen a lad run so fast.

It’s all very busy in the land of Skins. We have filmed some big scenes in the last few weeks and filming for series 2 is very nearly over.

For the last two episodes in the series, our director has been the award-winning Charles Martin. Charles is a very talented director. I have been trying to pick–up some techniques and so far I have noticed that he smokes 3 fags to one Diet Coke every hour. I’m not sure if that’s the magic formula to become a great director, but it works for him!

The weather has been against us in the last few weeks and woolly hats and big coats have become the crews uniform. We all look like we are off to work on a trawler boat. Runners Ben and John have both grown beards on once fresh-faces - they look like salty old sea dogs who have been at sea too long.

The journey has been spiced-up a bit this week with the arrival of Mark Heap and John Thomson on set. Mark Heap (or ‘The Heap’ as he calls himself) is a bit of a hero of mine, and he lived-up to my expectations when he introduced me to his imaginary friend ‘Prickly Nigel’ when we first met. Also on set this week was the local celebrity known as Big Jeff. Big Jeff is a bit of a legendary figure in Bristol; his mop of ginger hair can be seen at almost every gig in town so it was fitting for him to feature in Skins. Although only a ‘Supporting Artist’, his presence on set was met with the same excitement as some household names we have worked with! 

Hello hello!

Well what a week it’s been in Skins land; what with all the new Skins trailers that have gone up, the announcement of the Skins Premiere Parties and this week’s Skins Creative Challenge entries to contend with, we feel like we haven’t stopped! Now we deserve a much needed sit down, but this being the world of Skins we'll have to settle for rolling about covered in squirty cream at a house party in the suburbs. Or maybe that's next weekend.

You lot all seem as excited as we are about the new series, especially now we’ve seen the trailer. What do you think of them? It seems like overall they’ve been getting a lot more ‘yays’ than ‘nays’ so that’s literally a big thumbs up. We must admit we love it – it’s so different from the first series, but what we want to know is, does it mean that series II is going to be darker than the first?

We also have a brand new video, featuring a recorded message from Sid to Tony, which still has us asking whether he’s going to be around for series II. By far the most popular video though is Michelle’s video diary. You know - the one that features her in stockings and underwear. When we say most popular, up to now it’s been viewed over 25000 times, making it the most viewed across the whole of E4.com! Yes, that saucy little minx Michelle is a bona fide e4.com hit. Who would have guessed?

From the comments you’ve been leaving, it seems you’re still as desperate to know more abut series II. If you haven’t already read the other blog posts, we suggest you do. We have blogs from the crew as well as Mike Bailey (Sid) and Hannah Murray (Cassie). The blogs include behind the scenes pics, and gossip letting us know what goes on behind the cameras, and the cast and crew will be posting some more up soon. As well as that, as part of The Lost Weeks, we have blogs posted by the Skins gang, updating us on what they’ve been up to this summer. So if you’ve been wondering what Chris has been doing with himself, you’re curiosity will be quashed. Hopefully.

Then we have the Skins Premiere Parties which are going to be the biggest thing you lot have seen in a long time, so don’t put off scrambling for free tickets – otherwise you’ll regret it! The Skins Creative Challenge is still open for another few weeks so send us your entries and you could win a premiere party for you and your mates. We know it sounds out of this world, but someone has to win, so don’t put it off thinking it won’t be you – as it really could be!

Anyway that’s us done for the time being, as series II draws closer each week we wonder how the last week could be topped, but every week something bigger and better seems to happen. We hope you’re enjoying it all; we have loads more stuff around the corner to keep things interesting. Let us know what you think, and keep rating your favourite vids, that way we’ll know what you like and what you don’t.

Skins

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We're one week into the final block of the hit series Skins, filming episodes 9 and 10 and so far, so good!

On Tuesday, we did a 6 page scene around a table, which took 7 hours to shoot. Because after about 4 hours we were starting to get pretty bored of sitting there and saying the same lines again and again we tried to think of games to play. After a few different alphabet games April came up with the game of putting the word ‘tampon’ into film titles. Some of our favourites were ‘Tampon wars’, ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of tampons’ and ‘O’ tampon where art’ thou’ to name a few.

This morning I was in only about half an hour before someone in the camera department managed to break the dishwasher. I spent yesterday driving around the streets of Bristol in a mini for some shots for the final episode. Was nice and small for 3 people and a camera and just stank of carbon monoxide fumes, which almost killed us all. We have now realised as well from doing this that no one in Bristol looks when crossing the road! So let that be a warning, you could die! Was fun though, better than spending all day in a freezing cold studio. Also we found out today there will be a skins calendar 2008. For anyone who wants a sneaky peak, there’s your Mr February:

As I write this, me and Joe (Dempsie) are sitting on sofas in dressing gowns, jogging bottoms and slippers. Behind the scenes on Skins, the cast will generally be wearing some combination of these three items of clothing over their costume – particularly if this costume is minimal in the first place – and maybe also a big warm coat. I am incredibly fond of Cassie’s bedroom this year and could quite happily live in it if it was just a little bit warmer. There are strange and beautiful paintings on the walls, and a pig, a cat and a squirrel on top of the light switch. Chris’s bedroom is really nice as well, as it contains several tanks of fish. Although sadly I think one of them died this morning. Outside of the studio itself things are much warmer, if less interestingly decorated. The Green Room, where I am now, is where we all relax when not actually filming, where the boys play lots of table football and where Larissa (Wilson) is usually found to be asleep. Across the corridor from here there is a small kitchen where you can make tea and toast, and if you're waiting around for a long time, eat four or five Kit Kats in a row. When we’re on location things are a bit more basic, and you can really only get toast at breakfast time. There are little trailers (Claire the make-up designer calls them our hutches) which we hang out and get changed in, and which for some unaccountable reason do not have curtains in their windows. The toilets are called the Honeywagon. We all eat lunch on a double-decker bus.

There is no clear definition of the ‘Runner’ job. We don’t ever run (that’s dangerous – health and safety!) but we do make lots of cups of Tea, run errands and drive the cast and crew around.

Along with those standard Runner tasks, there have been quite a few additional skills that myself and the other runners have learnt during the filming of Skins 2. Skills I don’t remember being mentioned in the job interview.

One of those skills has become known as 'Pigeon Wrangling' It's not uncommon or strange for one of us to be seen waving our arms and jumping about in an attempt to rid the studio roof of the dreaded birds. You see, the pigeon-coos are picked-up by our sensitive microphones and would be heard in every scene if not for our bizarre Native 'American Rain-dance meets Robinson Crusoe attracting a passing vessel' technique.

'Dog Coaxing' was another hidden talent called upon during filming on a beach in the Gower, Wales. Seemingly oblivious to our cast running naked into the sea, a deaf old canine wandered into shot and decided he had found his perfect spot for the day. Many a technique was adopted to move the old-boy out of shot.  Gentle persuasion was too subtle and a firm-tug just made him more determined. The old 'Biscuit in the pocket' trick was (predictably) the winner.

Back in Bristol, A skill none of us seemed to posses was the art of 'Tramp Hampering' as we failed to persuade a 'Vagabond' from walking straight through a scene with all the Skins-gang sat on College Green. The man would have appeared as the usual passer-by if he hadn't pissed dog-like against a tree in the background, metres from the action. Luckily, when "Cut!" was called, the gentleman finished marking his territory, put away the offending weapon, and wandered off, none-the-wiser of his near brush with stardom!

It’s been an exhilarating few months on series two of Skins. From filming on the beach in the Gower with the sunshine beaming down upon us. To filming on the vibrant streets of Bristol. Once again we’ve tried to get as many Bristolians involved as much as possible either as extras or introducing new local bands showing the talent and fantastic characteristics Bristol has to offer. We’ve also just finished filming with the demanding yet formidable Harry Enfield (calling him a perfectionist would be an understatement.) He’s directed two episodes with passion and preciseness adding his comic genius to the skins formula. However it is hard when working not to notice traits of his comic characters within him. I kept on thinking he was suddenly going to turn into ‘Smashy and Nicey’. And I did refrain from asking if he was earning “Loadsa money!”  It was a pleasure to watch the man at work and he seems to have a natural talent for directing. Other news on the set of Skins, a certain someone is rather upset at the fact that he can’t knock me, ‘The angry Koala,’ (as he refers to me) off first position in the Table football competition. This plays an important role in our lives every lunch time in the studio and has caused a fair bit of competitiveness in everyone, cast and crew. Joe our props standby has nearly pulled all his hair out with the stress of it. As for Mike Bailey, who plays Sid, well he’s just terrible you can beat him one handed. It’s even more competitive than our five aside football games which are a weekly event. I say football I mean who can hack and shove the most and kick the ball the hardest. Mitch who plays Maxxie even went cross eyed for a while after the last game; although I think he was faking an injury to get more time to do his hair for a team photo. We’ve even challenged the ‘Deal or No Deal’ crew to a game and are still pending an answer. We are now filming the last two episodes of ‘skins’ and all I can say is that the plot is captivating and with our new, young, director Charles Martin (Bafta winner) behind the reigns we can’t lose. Oh yes and Gemma our other props standby was nearly knocked out by a giant golden penis the other day, but that’s a different story altogether.

Well, what’s been happening behind the scenes in Series 2?  To begin with it was really exciting to see everyone in the read through for Episodes 1 and 2. We hadn’t all been together for 6 months and after filming so intensely for 6 months last year it was great to catch up with cast and crew alike. I was really looking forward to see where the writers were going to take Series 2 after being left with quite a few cliff hangers’ last Series.  Can’t really give anything away but one thing’s for sure, if you were hooked Series 1 then Series 2 has some major treats in store for you!  Our first week involved filming a school musical which we’re still (5 months later) singing the, slightly un-pc, songs on set. This gave Mitch a chance to show off his dancing skills far more than we saw last series (he’s actually an amazing dancer and not just at tap!) Keep an eye out for his gold leaf Converse dancing shoes, which our costume designer Edward Gibbon, customised himself.  They look awesome.  In August we all took a trip to the seaside where we spent 4 days on a beach with the cast. The sun stayed out and spirits were high. A few of us crew members camped by the trucks. Not only did I wake up to an amazing view of the Gower every morning but we also got fried breakfast (an essential for any camping trip).  There was a lot of swim wear action so the costume department had their work cut out keeping the actors warm and dry! Hot water bottles, blankets and chocolate seemed to work pretty well though.   

Sometimes my job is all about keeping the actors warm. We film day and night from July to December but it’s eternal summer in Skins Land.  This often causes trauma in the colder months when our actors are wearing very little indeed!  They’re pretty hardened to it now though but often you’ll spy them wearing Ugg boots and jogging bottoms under their costumes when not in shot.  I’ve become incredibly mummsy with the cast over the last 2 series and have learnt that Mike is never cold whereas Larrisa likes her dressing gown for comfort and it’s hard to get Hannah out of her tracksuit trousers.  Life on Skins is indeed glamorous!

Roz Marshall, Costume Assistant

Hello!

So now Christmas and New Year is over, we though we would fill you lot in on what’s been happening with us here at planet Skins.

As part of The Lost Weeks, we’ve already posted up videos to whet your appetite for series II and these will keep on coming until series II begins. We already have the Skins Christmas special, Effy's video diary, and Michelle; in stockings and not much else - the dirty minx!

As series II gets nearer, we’ve been speculating as to what’s happened to Tony, is he dead or alive? It seems you lot are just as curious. Alas, we’ll have to wait a little while longer for the answer, but we're finding guessing is a good substitute until Skins returns. and if that's not enough, we’ve also got the SKINS SERIES II TRAILER which will be on this very site from tomorrow (Friday 4^th Jan)! As well as a behind the scenes film. In fact, we have so many Skins videos on their way we have to lock them in a special vault. We’ll be releasing these weekly in the run up to series II, as we don’t want the site to overheat with all the excitement (it’s possible – we checked with IT, not even a reboot would fix it).

There are also some special blogs written by some of the cast and crew that they wrote whilst filming series II. We’ll be posting the first ones very soon so keep ‘em peeled.
Then we have the Skins Creative Challenge, which opens on Monday 7^th January. Have you started working on your entry yet? The premiere party prize is something we would love to get our hands on, but unfortunately we can’t – e4.com takes competitions very seriously these days and we don't want to get arrested. Instead we’ll leave it down to you to enter. Upload something amusing, stupid, creative…it doesn’t have to be a work of art, but it does have to entertain us, (to be honest that’s not too difficult). What have you got to lose? You may discover you’re actually quite good at it.
Yep, that Skins time of year really is almost upon us...