1. Mad Men
Mad Men is a drama set in the nineteen-fifties, which revolves around Ad-men.
The opening title has a blacked-out, suited, character falling through skyscrapers,
which are covered in advertisements. It is noticeable that a majority of these
adverts feature women; because of the style of the adverts it can be suggested
that in the fifties, women were considered somewhat trivial and made only to
please men. This is backed up later by a female worker introducing a new
employee and telling her that everything she needs to do her job are things that
would only benefit the male workers.
Before the episode starts, there is a title card which explains the title of the show,
stating that “Mad Men” was the name Advertisement workers in America went
by in the fifties, it then explains that the ad men their selves “coined it”. This sets
the tone for the series, creating a feel that the Ad men are somewhat arrogant
and ambitious.
The first scene is set in a bar; a tracking shot is used to establish the setting, as
the shot features a male dominated area, where all the men are all smoking and
drinking. The audience are given a shot from behind of the main character, Don
Draper. He has a table to himself and is served voluntarily by the staff; this
suggests he is an important character and a regular in the bar.
Don draper openly makes conversation with the bar staff and when asking for
another drink he simply says “this again” which could furthermore suggest he is
a regular at the bar.
When Don Draper speaks to the bar staff, the racism of the time is shown as the
bar man, who is African-American, is standing over Don Draper but is still on a
level shot with him and has to light Dons cigarette, this creates a power struggle
on the screen, as Don is still the dominant character even though he is sat at a
lower height than the barman.
In the next scene a new character is introduced, they are a female character but
they are set apart from other female characters as she is the only one to wear
trousers and a shirt. This could symbolise that she is not going to conform to the
style of the time and could later be an important character. Both Don and the
female character are always shot at equal heights, adding further to the fact that
she is equal to him in a time when women are thought lesser than men. They are
also both usually kept in shot together, known as a two-shot, to establish further
that they are equal and that she is different to other women in the show.
Once again new characters are introduced, this time they are three men who are
associates of another Ad man who works in the same place as Don. They are
presented in a deep focus shot so the audience can see all three of them in the lift
when they are making sexist remarks towards a female worker, who later is also
an important character.
The three men are shown walking through the office talking by a tracking shot, in
this shot the audience can simultaneously see all the female workers in the office,
who are larger in numbers than the male workers, yet are oppressed to the
2. status where they simply sit in rows behind desks, waiting for instructions from
the men. Whilst they are walking they still have a sexist tone to their
conversation as one man, who seems like the most sexist of them all, says “you
have to let them know what kind of guy you are so they know what kind of girl to
be.” Firstly, a woman does not have to change herself to tailor to a man’s needs,
and secondly he refers to a woman as a “girl”, this is a demeaning term to refer to
an adult as a child.
As the three men enter an office they meet their friend, who is talking to his
fiancée over the phone. His tone to his fiancée sounds somewhat undermining
and as if he is talking to a child as he tells her to ease her worries by taking her
mother shopping and doing other activities that, at the time, were seen as
stereotypical things that women do.
He lies to his wife over the phone about his bachelor party, saying they are
probably “going to see my fair lady” while as he says this, his friend holds up a
card for a strip club. This is shown through a pull focus, from the camera
focusing in on the friend’s expression, to pulling focus onto the card.
This whole scene implies that men thought women were less intelligent, which is
also implied later through a typewriter being described as “so easy to use even a
woman can use it”.
The new female employee, who received harassment from the men in the lift, is
now followed through the office by another tracking shot, once again showing
the large number of female workers in the office.
A female worker, Joan, who is presented as more experienced, as she is always
shot at a low angle, is showing the new employee to her work area. Her presence
has power behind it, even though she believes that she is only there to impress
the male workers. Joan’s perspective is portrayed through one sentence as she
says something similar to: “take a paper bag, cut out eyeholes, cover your face
then look at your body, point out all the good features.”
By saying this, she reveals that she believes women are only there to be used by
men, it doesn’t matter who they are and they won’t care about them.
Contrasting the feeling of power Joan emits, she is shown to want validation of
her own appearance from the male workers of the office, as her tone becomes
very polite, with a sultry air, as she welcomes two male workers who arrive, one
of these workers being Don Draper, connecting the stories.
The new employee is presented as being somewhat naïve, as she is shot from a
high angle and doesn’t always understand what Joan is talking about, such as
when she mentions body image and hints that she needs to impress the male
workers. This fact could foreshadow that the female employee could be an
important character later in the series, as she could be one who challenges
societies view of women in the workplace, or maybe even societies view of
women in general. It would be important and beneficial to this show to present
the side of feminism in the fifties, as some viewers may not understand that the
view of women in Mad Men is distorted and wrong, however has to be
performed as such, because that is how things were at the time.
3. Don Draper is again the main character in the next scene, as the story follows
him to his office. The audience learn more about Don’s character as he has a
drawer full of new shirts, this implies that Don is married or in a relationship, yet
he cheats on his wife or partner on a regular basis. This could be because he feels
old and distant from modern society, as he says, “Next time you see me, there
will be some young executives picking me apart.”
The most commonly used camera technique used in Mad Men is a tracking shot,
the reason behind using this so often could be to show the full scene, so the
audience can see everything that goes on, or it could be to symbolise the past
paced, dynamism of the city in the fifties, or the lives of the ad men.
