Essay about Mad Men Season 1 Episode 1 The drama I have watched and will be evaluating is mad men season 1 episode 1 which depicts the male and female gender stereotypes in clear context through the use of camera angles and Mise en scene. Mad Men is a drama set in New York in the beginning of the 60’s and focuses on the portrayal of the main character Donald Draper. The first instance of a gender specific scene was the start of the film set in a bar the camera angle pans across the room and highlights the male stereotype of drinking and smoking as a hobby. The shot is used to highlight male dominance in the establishment and the few woman in the bar where dressed in high class dresses probably for the males to show off in a female stereotype as a less valued person in the shot. The main character Donald draper is portrayed as a high profile character within the bar from the impressions given by his own table in the bar and how the waiter knows him. An over the shoulder shot is used shortly after this to show that Donald is sat alone and the camera focus’s onto a piece of paper with his work on showing him as dedicated to his work but consistently overworking due to the high amount of notes and time he is putting into his personal time to work on his advertising and promotion. This is shown when he speaks to the waiter and self promotes his cigarettes. Point of view shots are also consistent through out the bar scene focusing on the paper he is looking at this shows his dedication to his work and the use of this prop emphasises how repetitive he is with his efforts. Whilst sat at the table a medium close up shot of the waiter lighting Donald’s cigarette shows a general stereotypical racism towards darker skinned people and how when he lights the cigarette it emphasises a general slavery depiction. The scene shortly after moves the main character to a women’s apartment where he enters without consideration for if she was awake showing a dominance to his male authority. The first shot shown after this is an over shoulder shot that makes Donald look higher and more important than the female this portrays a general stereotypical view of masculine dominance over females. This low angle for the shot also makes the height of the male increase and the female look smaller in comparison. The following shot is a medium shot of the woman which portrays her seductive side through the use of her body language this is emphasising a reverse stereotype showing how compared to most women from around that time she is more open than other women about her sexuality. The following shot

of the woman and Donald is a long shot and a two shot showing Donald stood by the bed getting dressed while she lays in bed talking to him. The scene portrays a generally casual approach to what happened and shows how neither of them show remorse for what they did. The tilt down / close up used also depict a body image of someone hanging their head in shame showing disgust in their actions and when the camera tilts back up nothing changed showing their neglect to notice what they did was wrong. This scene is also shot in grey scale showing a colour connotation of emptiness and lack of meaning to what they did emphasising a meaningless action that they consider normal. The next location the film takes to is a busy office building where 3 men in suits get into a lift and promote sexist remarks towards a new female worker. A deep focus shows all three of the men in the lift and highlights there importance to the scene which is followed by there sexist remark towards the appearance of the female in the lift. Shallow focus is used next when a man is talking to his fiancé the focus is on a stripper card highlighting how he is deceiving is future wife and showing how as a female he thinks she can be easily manipulated and deceived and as a man he can get away with it. The birds eye view shot that follows shows the busy streets and depicts males in suits and hardly any women going to work showing a gender-working stereotype of woman having less impact on working environment’s around that time. The shot also shows how in that time period there were very few cars and how different society was in comparison to modern day life now that females have more impact to society and how gender and race stereotypes are gradually becoming less common.