WEEK 6

For Tuesday, 9/27

1. Mad Men 1x6 and watch ep. 5 and 6

Mad Men 1x6 - Babylon.pdf (script cover says 105)

2. Friedan, Ch 1-3.

The Feminine Mystique-from Ch1.pdf

The Feminine Mystique-from Ch3.pdf

For Thursday, 9/29

1. Mad Men 1x8 and watch ep. 7 and 8

Mad Men 1x8 - Hobo Code - says 107.pdf

2. Second Sex, selections from Chapter 14

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Additional Material for Mad Men

Mad Men — The Art of Character Arcs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF5CrPXMqjQ

Mad Men: The Tragedy of Betty Draper

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHrnNwrz5TU

Mad Men: Joan Holloway, A Subversive Venus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNGs4IW8ruo

Mad Men: Who is Don Draper?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RcBWhTyffI

Mad Men: We Are All Pete Campbell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4uZPwRL6PQ

Mad Men: Roger Sterling, The Mad Man in Decline

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2ywvsRPMYY

Mad Men: Peggy Olson, the New Girl

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bKVACKDTVs

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Advice for First Drafts

Most of you writers have probably settled on something to examine, which we will call a “subject of interest.” The theme of marriage, the idea of monogamy, the role of women, relations between men and women, the inner life versus the outer life, etc.

Now the central question is: Through WHAT will you examine your subject of interest. You need to TRACK something—an element—that has to do with the construction of the stories, their engineering, the way they are built.

Here are some examples of elements you might TRACK to try and uncover insights regarding your subject of interest. Some of these are redundant. Forgive me in advance for that.

• A pattern of corrections/edits between the script and the screen versions.
• A rhetorical pattern that recurs in a striking way to you.
• Rhetoric can be verbal (e.g., the way the white characters in GET OUT talk about race).
• Rhetoric can also be visual, a position the camera takes, whether it moves or stays still, framing (such as when the camera makes use of mirrors or windows in the shot), the lighting, the color palette. The fashion, dress choices of the characters. (Think of the turban/hijab.)
• The way something is staged, e.g., the suburban household or the abortion clinic in JUNO. The “destroyer” party in SIN NOMBRE.
• A grouping of scenes, such as all the scenes where Missy stirs the teacup, or where Chris meets other black characters at his girlfriend’s house.
• A pattern of expressing desire or attachment in one or more related characters.
• Visual or verbal cues throughout the works.
• The presentations of cycles or seasons, holidays, historical events such as elections, etc, as an organizational principle.
• The way storylines are interwoven or juxtaposed—whose story gets more prominence? Whose is there for comic relief?
• Escalating pressures advancing a plot or sub-plot.
• The way the conscious or unconscious desires of a character (or characters) express themselves, or the way a conscious desire changes as a character develops.

Remember to confine, limit, restrict your investigation to tangible patterns that you can track IN THE WORKS we studied. If you do this you will save yourself a lot of trouble, because your task will be defined, which is to go through the material, the actual physical materials, and gather data, make a chart, or groupings. Then analyze that data.

Then, your thesis will emerge as a natural conclusion of this process! As a writer, the leg work is in your concrete investigations. The big thoughts follow.

Good Luck and THANK YOU for working so hard!

Your Fearless Leader