Mad Men

I make no secret of the fact that my favorite TV show of all time is Mad Men.

Yes, partly it is because the 2nd series both starts and ends with an allusion to my favorite poem by one of my favorite poets. And yes, it is partly because it is written by the guy that made one of the best season dramas of all time.



What really makes Mad Men such a pleasure to watch however, is its attention to detail. Every aspect of the mise-en-scene has been painstakingly chosen to create the perfect pastiche of 60's America. The costumes, the hairstyles, the office furniture, the various products that we see the people using throughout the show... everything about this show gives us a powerful living image of an era that died out nearly fifty years ago.

From the perspective of Media Studies, the show also serves as a fantastic introduction to the world of advertising, and the various jobs that are needed within a team to produce an ad-campaign. Having watched an episode of the show, can you identify what the main departments needed to run an advertising company are?




It isn't just the costumes and the props that make this such a clever callback to the 60's however - it is the characters themselves. To watch Mad Men, is to be sucked back into a world where men were misogynist by default, where the work place was full of arrogant men in suits, smoking in the office, drinking whiskey during work and passing the time by cracking racist and sexist jokes. The beauty of the show however, is that we do not hate the male characters for their politically incorrect opinions and their contempt for women - but rather we feel sorry for them. As the second series progresses, we see the women of Mad Men begin to acquire power in the workplace and we see that the small-minded, patriarchal opinions of the male characters seem more and more ridiculous as they begin to face extinction.

I recommend that anyone taking Media Studies should set aside a weekend with a Mad Men boxset and a bag of Doritos.

Putting it all together...

As we come to the end of our third week of Media Studies, it is important to re-cap and bring together the concepts we have been exploring so far.

As our final assignment for this module will be concerning advertising, I see this as a fine opportunity to explore the fine work of Saatchi & Saatchi.

Firstly, spend ten minutes looking at the weird and wonderful things that the two different Saatchi agencies have used in recent years in their ad-designs. When you look through them, I want you to consider:

Why are their adverts effective?

Do they have anything in common?

How do they capture your attention?

You will find galleries of their more exciting recent projects

here

and

here.

Now you have looked at some of their wonderful advertising creations, I want you to look at these two specific example. For each of them I want you to write a summary in note form with each of the following sub-headings:




Text-type:

Audience:

Purpose:

Genre:

Denotation:

Connotation:

Iconography used:

Representation of particualr types of people:

And finally, for each of these adverts I want you to write a short comparison of how each one uses colour and why the advertisers have done this.

Representation

No activities on this update, just a few ideas to go along with today's lesson on 'Representation'.

The idea of representation in the media has always been important. Public figures have always been very careful to control their 'public image'. Politicians are always being photographed doing various good deeds (visiting hospitals, etc.) to represent them as good people.

Magazines always look for pictures of celebrities doing things they don't want to be seen doing. Look at the photograph of Britney Spears at the top of this entry. Now look at the one below:



The difference here is representation. The 2nd photograph shows Britney as her record label want her to be represented; youthful, beautiful, healthy, clean-skinned and in control. The first photograph however, does not fit in with this image at all - she is shown here as not having flawless skin, looking unhappy as she sits smoking a cigarette (an image which does not fit in with the values of a 'teen-icon'.



All this leads me to start thinking about one of the biggest revolutions in the media over the past decade or so... facebook.

Have you ever had that feeling of signing into facebook to see that little red arrow in the bottom right-hand corner to notify you that 'you were tagged in 5 photographs'? Nervously, you make your way to the offending photo album to be horrified at how weird a certain picture makes you look? Or how you had your eyes closed when the flash went off? What do you do?

Easy... de-tag.

When you de-tag a photograph you are making choices about your representation in the media. The medium in this case is 'facebook', but it is no different to when a celebrity chooses not to use one photograph in favour of another. You are making a choice about 'how do I want to be represented? When people look through my profile, what photographs am I happy for them to see and associate with me.'

For this very reason, parties and almost every other social event now have their own amateur paparazzi of people who turn up with their digital cameras in the hope of getting a few good shots to go on their profile.

People will listen to their iPod on the way home from work, hear a catchy lyric and think to themselves 'yeah... I am totally changing my status to that when I get home.'

When we put together an internet profile, and have to list our favorite books, music and films, we don't genuinely pick all of our favorites do we? We pick the ones that we want people to see... the ones that fit in with our image... the ones that represent us in the way we want them to.

Mise-en-Scene and Iconography

Hello and welcome to the first of many entries on this media blog created especially for you, my lovely Year 10 cohort!

Today’s focus is on two of the most important pieces of Media Studies terminology: ‘mise-en-scene’ and iconography.

Activity 1 - Defining the Terms

In your books, write a short definition of ‘mise-en-scene’ in your own words.

Activity 2 - Using Examples

With the sub-heading ‘James Bond - Iconography’, write down all the images which you would associate with this fictional character. You should be able to come up with at least 8!

Do not read on until you have completed this task.

Look back at your list. By including any of these things in the mise-en-scene of a Bond film, the director is employing ‘iconography’ (images and objects which hold specific connotations with a certain subject).

Activity 3 - Employing your own iconography

In the world of film, iconography often involves pandering to certain stereotypes.

Have you ever seen an American teen-comedy set in a high-school? Think of all the images you would expect to see which would tell the audience that you are looking at an American high school; the tall lockers, the benches in the cafeteria, the bleachers where people sit to watch football games, the clothes people wear to signify what social group they are in.

All of these things are symbols which the director has put in the mise-en-scene to let the audience know where the film is taking place. These symbols are all taken from what we call ‘iconography’ - the images and objects which we associate with a certain time, place or subject.

Your task is simply this:

Briefly describe what you would include in a film set to show us that we were in the following locations:

1. The bedroom of a teenage boy who loves sport.

2. The bedroom of a teenage girl who is in love.

3. The classroom of a frustrated teacher.

4. The office of an important businessman.

When you have done this, give your own definition of iconography.

Activity 4 / Homework: Putting it into words

1.Look at these pictures from charity advert campaigns. Some of them are disturbing, but as we are due to be making our own charity campaigns, it is important that we become familiar with the conventions of this genre... one of which is unpleasant images. Write down any indicators which show you where these scenes are set. You can refer to anything you can see in the pictures including the people in them.

2. Write a paragraph detailing your thoughts on why mise-en-scene and iconography are important in the media.