VLC + Skype = Black screen and red vertical line?

I can't be sure, but from what I can tell whenever I'm watching something on VLC and Skyping somebody, my screen will go black and have one red vertical line through it. The sound is gone and the webcam light is still on, but the person on the other end can't see me... it's like the laptop just crashes. Like I said, I'm not sure if it's just when I use VLC & Skype but that's when I've mainly noticed it. It's happening more and more often now... I end up having to hold down the power button to turn it off, and then when it comes on it shows a window that says that it had shut down because of a problem and just asks if I want to reopen everything I had open before the issue happened.

Another thing: I've had this Macbook for just over a month so... yeah I don't know. I'm really disappointed.

Any advice or ideas would be useful!