The New Girl on the Block

In almost every episode of Mad Men, artistic elements are used in order to support and enhance each scene: elements such as lighting, music, and nuances in the text. Many of these elements are present in two short, continuous scenes in the episode, “New Amsterdam”, directed by Alan Taylor and written by Matthew Weiner. Taylor, along with the rest of the Mad Men creative team, used artistic elements in order to further characterize the new woman on the block: Helen Bishop.
In this episode, there is a scene in which Betty witnesses an uncomfortable interaction between Helen Bishop and her ex-husband, Dan. The first shot reveals Betty walking the dog, after putting the kids to sleep. As she approaches Helen’s house, we see Dan pounding on the door, wanting to be let in. He sees Betty and asks to use her phone, but she refuses him.

This whole sequence is interesting because of how Taylor decided to shift the mood from pleasant to gloomy. When Betty is simply walking her dog, nothing seems to be wrong. But the moment we hear pounding on Helen’s door, dark and sinister music begins to play. The lighting becomes a bit darker, and we realize it’s about to be nighttime. The director had a reason for wanting a darker mood to surface the moment Betty reaches Helen’s home.

The next shot shows Betty’s feet (in slippers) walking down the stairs to answer the door, clearly on the same night. When she opens the door, we hear, “Can I come in?” but we cannot see a face. Again, there is a feeling of mystery and suspicion because we hear a noise but do not see who is speaking until Betty opens the door…and Helen walks into the house.

The following conversation is emblematic of the show’s theme of people covering up their true feelings in order to seem polite or even just to seem happy. Whereas the earlier shots in front of Helen’s house are rich in artistic elements (music, lighting, etc.), this scene in Betty’s house is rich in text. Helen starts off by apologizing for Dan’s rude behavior and reveals how embarrassed she is about the whole thing. Helen’s admittance of her embarrassment startles Betty, forcing Betty to instantly reply, “I don’t know what you’re talking about," even though she is clearly aware of the situation.

As the scene continues, Helen shares a bit too much information for Betty to handle, stating the reason she left Dan; he was cheating on her with women in Manhattan. Weiner is clearly poking fun at the viewer in this conversation, because we all know that Don Draper is doing the exact same thing. It is no coincidence that “Dan” and “Don” would be the same name if not for one letter. Helen states the truth about something that Betty cannot bare to discuss or even think about, for obvious reasons.

Through the mysterious tone of the first scene, and the awkward interaction in the second scene, Taylor and Weiner create a foil by strongly differentiating the characters of Betty and Helen; one is polite and refined, while the other is blunt and able to express her true feelings. The mysterious lighting and music of the previous scene foreshadowed the dark topic of the ladies’ conversation about affairs and divorces. This just goes to show how every detail in Mad Men is planned and constructed for a reason- every detail goes towards telling a more clear and dynamic story.

The above image is posted at http://woodscolt.wordpress.com/2009/09.

Feeling Trapped

A very memorable scene from the earlier part of the series was the birthday party scene from the third episode entitled "The Marriage of Figaro." In this scene we really got to see the dynamics of suburban life. Rather than experiencing a sense of community, like one would expect from a birthday party scene, the viewer feels trapped like the characters in the scene. Most of this is can be attested to the crowded, claustrophobic sense created by the way the scene was filmed. In contrast the characters that are the most trapped are the ones we see by themselves. We can see, from the way the scene is framed, that Betty, Don, and Helen feel trapped by suburban life.

The viewer only sees Betty Draper alone for about thirty seconds in the beginning of the scene. We see her making a punch for the adults. Instead of pouring a moderate amount of alcohol in to the cocktail, she dumps an extreme amount in to the pitcher. She then sighs and picks up the drink. We next see her in a sea of neighbors and friends with a happy smiling face serving drinks to the guests. It then becomes obvious throughout the remainder of the scene that her main concern is being a proper housewife and making sure everything is perfect.

After a few minutes, Helen Bishop enters the scene with her son Glen. Up to this point we know that Helen had recently hit a rough patch and gone through a divorce. The scene becomes interesting when the women are talking about their honeymoons and marriages in the kitchen. Helen displays herself as a strong woman as tensions rise within the conversation. The camera begins to switch between three extremely tight shots at lightning speed. Unlike the other characters, Helen Bishop has found her escape. She is asked about walking an she explains that she does it just to clear her mind. She shows strength through her ability to cope with stress and difficult situations. The other women don’t accept this and they put it off as her being divorced and deranged.

Finally, there is Don. We see Don taking home movies. There are three shots that we see from the first person perspective. We first see the kids running around. Then, we are taken to a shot of Helen and one of the men having a very intense and semi argumentative conversation. We end by seeing a couple sharing a kiss. These three shots represent three different aspect of Don’s life. There are the kids, who is will always make him happy no matter what. Then the other two shots represent the two options he has with his wife. He can either be bicker-some and put on the facade of being happy, or he can be loving and caring towards her. Pressured by this Don attempts to escape to the backyard where the children are playing house and bickering like their parents, a subtle reminder of the life he doesn’t want to lead.

Helen then joins Don outside, and they mention how the crowd of adults inside the house is the same as the crowd of children outside the house. Inside the kitchen the women are still discussing how they don’t approve of Helen’s lifestyle. It is brought to Betty’s attention that Don is outside conversing with Helen. Immediately, Betty goes and removes Don by telling him to go get the cake. Don does so and the scene ends with Don finally finding his escape by driving off, disappearing. Where he goes we don’t exactly know.

By the end of the scene that two of the characters have found a way of dealing with their sense of entrapment. Don has his escape of getting away and leaving the house for extended periods of time. Helen has her walking. Betty doesn’t have something like this. As the series progresses it is almost a sure thing that she will try to find an escape. This will likely be one of her greatest struggles. When she succeeds, it will be one of her greatest accomplishments. For now, we leave that in the hands of the writers.

A Different Angle on the "Carousel"

The “carousel scene" from Episode 13 of Mad Men’s first season has been recently celebrated as one of the best moments in television. Critics, fans, and even casual observers have noted the scene for its dialogue, creativity and intellectual underpinning. These elements, however, are not what makes the scene so powerful; rather, it is the camera shots and the different angles from which the viewers see the characters. Indeed, the entire scene is filmed to prove the audience with an intimate setting to experience the power of nostalgia.

Naturally, any scene in film is composed of many different elements, and, the relationship between these elements determines the success or failure of scene. Excellent dialogue can be undercut by poor editing, while the best costumes and sets cannot fix wooden acting. Since film is a visual medium, the camera work takes a special place in all of this, because it physically captures what we see. The shots and their angles provide the window through which the audience peers, by highlighting what we should see and excluding what we should not. It is our only window into whatever it is we are watching.

The “carousel scene” derives it power because it understands and utilizes these relationships exquisitely. The window the camera creates turns Don’s pitch from something the audience watches into something they experience. By creating a series of continually smaller and tighter shots, finishing on either Don’s face or a side in the projector, the audience literally comes face to face with the power of nostalgia

After a few shot/reverse shots of the characters talking at the conference table, the lights dim, and the world of Sterling Cooper falls away. Everyone fades into the darkness, and all the audience sees is Don and the pictures of his family. Through the haze of memory and cigarette smoke, fragments of Dons life before the diegesis of the show emerge. These snapshots of love, celebration, rest and relaxation fill the shot—they becoming the entirety of the image. For a second, they are the entire world. We escape that office and that boardroom and, for an instant, travel into Dons past—perhaps a reflection of our own. His slides could be scenes from anyone's life, and by showing them to us as the entirety of the shot, we confront our own existence. It’s no longer a television program we see before us but the intimate moments of a human life. The shots take us out of the show and place us into the memories of a family, which may be remarkably similar to our own. By filling the screen, the slides become a portal into the pains of Don’s life, while echoing the nostalgia we feel for our own departed experiences.

Even Don himself is captivated by the images he sees from the projector. As he discusses the power of nostalgia, emotions build. He looses the cool conversational tone, and his voice begins to crack with feeling. The more Don talks, the more he feels the power of nostalgia, and the closer the camera moves towards him. The scene builds until Don’s face occupies the shot, and his voice cracks with heartache and sorrow. The audience experiences Don’s pain by seeing it in its totality. By filming Don and only Don, the emotions become much more powerful. The place “where we know we are loved” does not exist for him, and we wonder, does it exist for us?

Taken together, these camera angles and shots produce an extraordinarily powerful scene. The camera becomes a tool to convey feeling and reflection. It creates a complicated yet subtle emotional event for the viewer. Not only do we hear about the power of nostalgia, but we observe it in the primary character and sense it in our own hearts. The shots manifest the esoteric nature of Don’s ideas, making them real and palpable. It allows us to watch and feel the power of memory and heartache. It is this effect which makes the "carousel scene" so good—it shows us, through Don, a slice of our own lives.