Thursday, September 6, 2012

"Cigarettes, Scotch, and Sex" A Look at the Title Sequence of Mad Men

So I thought long and hard into this and I came up with something I feel like the majority of people have asked themselves from time to time: how deep is the title sequence of Mad Men? Currently, I'm on the third season with only one or two more episodes until I progress to the fourth and every episode I watch furthers my interest in the story, setting, and style of the show. Every episode begins the same way, with a mostly silhouetted business man walking into his office before his world literally falls apart, all to the musical stylings of RJD2. The titles, created by production house Imaginary Forces, pay homage to graphic designer Saul Bass's skyscraper-filled opening titles for Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (1959) and falling man poster from Vertigo (1958). Every time I start a new episode because it reminds me that although every visual aspect of the show speaks "classy" on a certain level, nothing is perfect and your world could come out from beneath you as easy as dropping your briefcase, as seen in the show. The intro continues by displaying the man falling from what looks like a skyscraper of advertisements with provocatively looking women, the all American family, and alcohol from the 60s, placing the viewer into the world right next to the characters of the show. I remember the first time watching the intro and thinking to myself, "Yes, I'm going to enjoy this show" solely because the intro's animation got me hook-line-and-sinker.

If you haven't seen it yet, Mad Men is a show on AMC that isn't currently airing new episode but can be watched between the hours of 6 am to about 8 or 9 am on Sundays and is also available online through Netflix and a number of streaming sites.

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