Choose one aspect of the show's production design to discuss, in terms of how it enhances the show's overall quality, or enhances the show's historic context. Lighting, set design, costumes, sound and/or music, acting, hair and make-up, properties, writing, direction,any or these are appropriate. feel free to do some digging online through the many blogs and articles devoted to the show for inspiration (give credit to any sources cited and make them part of your discussion. Write about 500 words; this can be informal in style. Strive for careful and thoughtful wording; revise thoroughly to make sure no words are wasted and your thoughts are clearly stated.
Friday, September 26, 2014
MAD MEN writing assignment
Choose one aspect of the show's production design to discuss, in terms of how it enhances the show's overall quality, or enhances the show's historic context. Lighting, set design, costumes, sound and/or music, acting, hair and make-up, properties, writing, direction,any or these are appropriate. feel free to do some digging online through the many blogs and articles devoted to the show for inspiration (give credit to any sources cited and make them part of your discussion. Write about 500 words; this can be informal in style. Strive for careful and thoughtful wording; revise thoroughly to make sure no words are wasted and your thoughts are clearly stated.
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One feature of Mad Men’s production design that enriches the show’s historic context is its costume design. Janie Bryant the brilliant designer who has influenced present day designers, retail clothing stores, and numerous written interpretations dedicated to the show. Fans of the show literally go senseless over costume design and stay tuned just to see who wears what next.
ReplyDeleteAs quoted by Bryant in an interview, “The audience has been so excited about the costume design, I think in part because it is a period show.” People feel a sense of nostalgia while watching Mad Men, and people recognize articles of clothing that they remember from their past. In the interview she clarifies where she finds her inspiration, “When I'm designing the show, I'm looking at vintage magazines of Ladies' Home Journal, Elegance magazine, Time magazine, Good Housekeeping magazine and a lot of the catalogs of that period as well.” According to Natalie Zmuda author of “Mad Men as Fashion Muse”, elaborates on the inspiration from the costume design, “Bloomingdale's is doing plenty to expose the show. The retailer has featured "Mad Men" in store windows and launched shops-in-shops that stock clothing, accessories and barware in keeping with the show's sensibility.” Zmuda mentions how today’s designers are taking note, “Michael Kors, who has cited the show as an influence for his fall collection, was tired of casual, dressed-down looks, said Billy Daley, VP-communications for the label. "[Michael] wanted to return to a polished, more dressed, more grown-up look," he said. "And he realized he was obsessed with 'Mad Men.'" Amazing to appreciate how much stimulus has developed just from costume design.
From the AMC blog, Bryant attentively explains in detail her perceptive on the costumes, “The year 1960 is a transitional period in women's fashion. The hemlines are becoming shorter as opposed to the earlier fifties style of a circle skirt that has more of a flat front and that is longer and fuller. By 1960, there's a gathering at the waist and the hem length has come up a lot: It's right below the knee and getting shorter.” Bryant then compares characters Joan and Peggy from the show, “In designing for the secretaries, we created a definite mix, between the '50s and 1960. It is again a transitional period. Joan has a more forward kind of costume. Her silhouette is more fitted.” In contrast, “On the other end of the spectrum is Peggy, who is more old-fashioned in the cut of her garments. Her clothing has a look of innocence and coming into this world, where she's learning so much and seeing all these things happening with the men and the women in the office. So her costume reflects that.” This resonates to be true, some women dressed more provocatively while others dressed more conservatively.
Bryant is conscience of the historical time period she is working with as well as her characters. She utilizes previous archives for her influences in order to stay true to the historic context, while catering to the diversity each character represents.
http://blogs.amctv.com/mad-men/photo-galleries/mad-men-costume-design/#/5 - a link to a photo of Peggy and Joan in their costumes.
Works Cited:
"Mad Men Costume Design." Amc.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
PAREKH, RUPAL. "Behind Every Great Mad Man Is Janie Bryant." Advertising Age 82.32 (2011): 8. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
Zmuda, Natalie. "'Mad Men' As Fashion Muse." Advertising Age 79.30 (2008): 6. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
The costumes in the show “Mad Men” enhance the quality of the show because of how they make the setting realistic for the time period it’s set in. The show’s characters aren’t seen wearing casual wear in their homes or to work like people do today. Rather, they wear formal attire. The men wore hats on their way to and from the office. Despite the old-fashioned men in today’s society, it’s uncommon for men to be wearing hats to and from the office. Even in the home men always wore a shirt with a collar. The impact of the show’s costumes were not only huge for the show becoming popular, but on the wardrobe choices of the shows’ fans.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to how women dressed, there fashion choices were based off of the two fashion icons of this time period, Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe. According to the Forbes.com article The 'Mad Men' Fashion Effect, the show’s fifth season, which took place in 1966, showed how “feminism’s second wave was beginning to take hold at the time. The article talks about far women have come in society since the ‘60s. The example the article gives is that women are no able to wear flounce dresses to work. Women during this time also always wore long gloves when they were leaving their home. This is something that it is not seen at all nowadays. This fashion style is completely outdated and I can’t imagine it ever coming back. The style choices made by women during the ‘60s proved how gender roles influenced society because of women always having to look proper. Nowadays, both men and women dress in a more casual manner, both at work and while at home.
I read an interesting article on The Guardian titled How Mad Men changed the way men dress. The article explains how Don Draper influenced the hipsters that living in this generation. The authors, Jonathan Heaf and Lauren Cochrane said, “Then Don Draper waltzed in, with his grey suits, heavily pomaded, side-parted hair, billowy white shirts and perfectly neat pocket square. He looked like your dad, but sharper…For fashion writers, Draper became a totem of a new era of formality in menswear. Designers caught the 60s bug, with the show inspiring collections from the likes of Brooks Brothers and Banana Republic.” “Mad Men” became so popular that it not influenced the production of how shows are made, but it influenced the way in which a generation of people now dress.
Overall, the costumes in “Mad Men” helped the show feel as if it were actually taking place during the ’60s and they helped influence the current generation’s style choices. This is important because it made the show historically accurate, while also relating with the people of today who are watching the show.
Works Cited
Bourne, Leah Bourne. "The 'Mad Men' Fashion Effect." forbes.com. 22 Mar. 2012. Web. 29 Sept. 2014.
theguardian.com., “How Mad Men changed the way men dress” 15 Apr. 2014. Web. 29 Sept. 2014. .
One of the best aspects of Mad Men is the show’s ability to capture the cultural, social and technological changes that developed from the show’s first season, set in the late 50s, to where the show stands now, in the late 60s. The show represents these changes through its set design, in particular, the television. As the show carried through its second and third season, well into the 60s now, television became the staple in American households. The show emulates this in several different ways: the advertising company, Sterling-Cooper, forms a TV department and the reference to real shows and news broadcasts played on the TV at home. So the TV is strongly present at work and at home. In a way, the TV seems to become this separate character in the show, one in which all other characters know and are effected by.
ReplyDeleteThe TV itself in the show is not of the same quality that we, with our HD and flat screens, are used to today. In the episode, “The Grown-ups” Harry Crane sits in his office that he recently acquired by forming his position as head of the TV Department, his little antennae TV with its stubby channel dial plays in the corner of his office. Television still had antennas, so the TV was in black and white and staticy. The reels of Cronkite’s coverage of the JFK assassination shown in Crane’s office goes blurry, the image slides up and down the screen and the microphone screeches. If we saw this behavior in our own televisions, we’d most likely become impatient and hit the TV or mess around until we got a better quality picture. But in the 60s, this poor quality was expected. In the show, it’s not the TV’s quality that matters, but the content. Everyone surrounds the little brown box, watching and completely engrossed.
The episode also shows how television becomes background noise in the home and the office. In the beginning of the episode, Campbell walks into Crane’s office for a chat. The TV is playing and Campbell takes note of it:
“Can you turn that off?” Campbell asks, nodding towards the TV.
“Not really.” Crane answers, turning down the volume.
Television becomes its own character, playing either loudly or softly in the background, but always playing. It is used to show the larger picture of the show. It takes us and even the characters outside their own dramas to see what is happening in the 60s culturally, politically, and socially. The 60s were a time when our societies’ institutions are called to question. Weiner weaves this beautifully between the inner worlds of the characters and around the nation. When Oswald is shot on TV, the institution of justice is broken. Betty, in particular, is highly effected by this. For her, if that institution is broken, what about all of the others? Did these institutions ever really exist? Later in the episode, Betty decides to leave Don, breaking the institution of marriage followed in the 60s (AMC). Mad Men shows how television changed our way of consuming news, but also how it changed our cultural and social views in the larger and smaller scales.
Works Cited:
http://www.amctv.com/mad-men/videos/inside-mad-men-the-grown-ups
Colors can do a lot in any context, in AMC’s hit show Mad Men, colors are used constantly as coded messages to help add to the character’s. Janie Bryant, costumer designer for Mad Men, uses colors to keep us enthralled. Janise’s choice in colors function as a characters way of advertising themselves., displaying their emotions, and as a gateway into the fluctuating time periods that the show covers. In season three we find ourselves in the 1960’s, also known as “the Camelot era” where the Kennedy’s were basking in the light of America love. The 1960’s was a time of a lot of social, political, and personal changes occurring in peoples live which is why the episode “The Grown Ups” holds such importance in the series.
ReplyDelete“The Grown Ups” episode seemed to have a color scheme of its own, which went along with the dreariness that the episode held. From the very opening scene red, blue, brown seem to be the main thing to focus on.
The first color we are drawn to is red, something that has been seen before in many characters especially in the season finale of season three. As Lane tells Peter Campbell that the promotion he had been working for will be given to Mr. Cosgrove there is a red chair strategically placed directly in the middle of them. The red is a symbolic representation of power and control, something both of them displayed, in this tough business decision. This episode has a primarily dark undertone while we cover Peter Campbell’s loss of his promotion, the assassination of JFK, the chaotic failure of Roger Sterling attempt at a wedding, and the assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald, not to mention the sexual tension between Betty and Henry at the wedding. The entire episode is sad, dark, and ominous, yet through out the episode the characters are found in almost comforting colors. Brown is seen the most in the episode, mostly throughout the assassination, which represents stability, support, and a safe haven from stress. As well as pink is found with Betty and with her nanny, as they watch T.V. and mourn over the death of the president. I believe this was used to show the compassion and love that people had for the president. All of these colors are representative of hope, comfort and support, something Don Draper actually goes on to display throughout the episode. As said in the A.V. club article, “Don Draper post assignation looks like the model of modern fatherhood”. Don is able to separate from his marriage, work, politics and is able to sit with his children comfort them and let them act like the grown ups.
The shows imagery remains to be one of the most important parts of the show. With its powerful characters, Janie Bryant really has the accessibility to have a lot of fun crafting the characters into these perfectly fitting colored pieces of clothing. While this clothes change so do the colors. According to Time, the show began with the muted browns and grays of the late Eisenhower era. As the years passed so did the lines on the clothes, skirts got shorter, legs get longer, and there was a hole heap of new bright colors to help. This vivid palette while it may seems happy go lucky is actually suppose to represent unhappiness and discontent. The irony is that the colors used represent the happiness of the people because they are getting what they want but end up being discontent. The shows ability to represent character emotion while staying truthful to the time and culture is something unique to television.
Works Cited:
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2114449,00.html
http://www.avclub.com/tvclub/mad-men-the-grown-ups-34831
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/fashion/2012/06/mad_men_costumes_joan_ginsberg_peggy_megan_wear_red_.html