olivia pope – English 1102: Television and Feminism

Tag: olivia pope

Cinematic Crash

On November 13, 2018

Image of the plane crash from Scandal S1E

Good evening, people. I am signing on just one more time. In my last blog post, I plan to revisit cinematic elements in the Scandal show, but in episode 5, “Crash and Burn”. The cinematographers capitalize on portions of the show where characters face tragedy and crises. Specifically, the cinematographic tactics used when Olivia and her team see the plane crash site and when they listen to the black box recording of the crash.

This episode begins with the disappearance of Pope and Associates’ client, Amanda Tanner. The team goes into a frenzy and cameras switch quickly between their faces as they scramble around. The show then suddenly cuts to Quinn and Harrison stumbling down a hillside to discover the horror of a deadly plane crash. The cameras flash horrific images of burned plane pieces, smoking fabrics, scattered clothes, and even dismembered body parts. Then, it pans back to the shocked faces of Quinn and Harrison. Dramatic music plays in the background and there is a grim filter on the lens as it blinks between these somber pictures. I believe Rhimes and her directors wanted Scandal viewers to feel the gravity of the situation just as Quinn and Harrison were experiencing. Olivia and her client, the husband of the plane’s pilot, visit the site later, and the somber mood is amplified by the client’s explanation that the red flags symbolized parts of passengers bodies. The cameras then proceed to pan around the crash site to demonstrate the hundreds of red flags scattered throughout the smothering plane pieces and all along the ground.

However, I think the most cinematographically intense scene occurs when Olivia and her team must listen to the black box recording of the crash. The pilots start out just conversing between each other in a friendly manner and the camera remains zoomed out at a long distance from the team while they listen. But, as the action picks up and the crewmembers become increasingly stressed, the camera starts focusing in closely on the facial expressions of Olivia’s team. Eventually, the camera starts cutting faster and faster between their horrified faces as the recording on the box intensifies. Finally, after all this action has built up, the camera stops on Olivia’s face, which fills the entire frame, at the exact moment that the plane crashes and the audio cuts out. Thus, viewers are left with her intense look filling the screen and it is completely silent. This very dramatic sequence of cinematographic elements increases the heart rate and suspense of viewers as they watch and listen carefully to this scene, just as the team’s heart rate and suspense rose when they listened to the black box recording.

Therefore, I believe in this episode of Scandal, the cinematographers desire to use their filmographic art to connect the viewers to the emotions and experiences of Olivia and her team.

Moral Compass and Actin’ Pompous

By Callie Anderson

On November 6, 2018

In Review Topic 4

Good evening fellow Scandal fans!!

** these Scandalous feelings got me like…

Tonight, we are discussing THEME. The final episode of Scandal’s first season deals heavily with the theme of morality. Almost every single main character is shown facing questions about their morality. A long chain of immoral actions and unethical decisions becomes a vicious cycle as the culprits start lying in order to cover their previous mistakes.

Well, let’s begin at the start of the episode. It opens with a very gruesome scene that places Quinn at the scene of a horrific murder. Instead of calling the police, Quinn calls Olivia. Together the team argues over whether they are willing to break the law and risk their freedom to defend someone they barely know. Ultimately, they decide to break the law, not because they care about protecting Quinn, but solely because of their fierce loyalty to Olivia.

From here, the show depicts how Billy, the victim’s actual murderer, copes with his actions. He must decide whether he will come clean, run away, or cover it up. Initially, Billy really grapples with himself after killing the victim. In private, he struggles with his emotions, but he puts on a brave and innocent face in public. Billy finally decides to lie about this incident and make up an additional issue concerning the President, raising further questions of morality.

Next, the President must decide how he will handle his immorality. At first, it seems as if Fitz will do the unthinkable and actually tell the truth about his affair(s). Shockingly, his wife and former mistress (Olivia) convince him to lie about his affair with the office aide.

Finally, David, the Attorney General, condemns Olivia and her team for breaking the law. He calls himself the law and states he will always keep it. However, in the very last scene, we see David conflicted with compassion and the moral high ground. Thankfully for Quinn, David chooses compassion. But, we can tell this decision still really bothers him, as he feels he is betraying his country and his duty to uphold justice in this country.

Overall, this particular episode of Scandal desires to demonstrate to viewers that each human on this earth will face different questions of morality. In this episode, the show asks the hard questions like, “Is doing the right thing always right for everyone?” or “Is kindness more important than justice?” and of course, “How do you internally handle your immorality?”

Obviously, a show called Scandal will be dealing with some aspects of immorality. But, by showing how each character wanted to respond to the immorality they faced, versus what they ended up doing, Scandal shows us that the world is not strictly black and white. Sometimes good people do bad things for the right reasons. Sometimes bad people do good things for no reason. And, sometimes people just don’t know what they are doing at all, but they desire the best for others.

Long Takes and Heartaches

By Callie Anderson

On October 16, 2018

In Review Topic 3

CINEMATOGRAPHY in Scandal

Camera Crew with Kerry Washington on the set of ScandalS

Season 1, Episode 6, of Scandal dives into the story of how Olivia and Fitz’s notorious affair began on the campaign trail. The episode is the most fitting to study cinematography within the show because very distinct cinematic strategies and elements are used to tell the backstory and current status of the relationship.

The show is shot very methodically and has a few captivating cinematic characteristics I would like to specifically point out. For example, opening scenes and occasional transitions are shot with pans through the background setting or behind an unfocused blocking object before focusing on characters. In addition, Scandal is filmed with extremely close-up shots. A large majority of the scenes in this episode and others are purely facial. Scenes with two or fewer people hardly ever show below the shoulders of the actors.

Another factor in the cinematography and filming direction of the show is the length of takes. The most notable length of cuts are the very long scenes of just Olivia and Fitz. This episode, in particular, emphasizes their alone time through lengthy takes with only their faces in the frame. For example, twice in the episode, Fitz asks for just “one minute” of silence with Olivia and the cameras grant him both of those moments in full. The only short takes with these two characters are during sensual scenes. During the sex scene, the camera spends very little time on each frame and there are nearly a hundred different takes within the two-minute scene. The intro itself is a flash of multiple images within two seconds with a clicking noise, which imitates the paparazzi cameras. I believe the directors wanted to stay true to the theme of the theme of the show, its namesake, scandal. The longer scenes with Olivia and Fitz are more romantic and pure. Meanwhile, the sex scene being more inappropriate (since Fitz is married) is much shorter and filmed like the intro, insinuating the scandal that it is.

In regards to lighting, the show uses it to reveal mood and dictate morality. Olivia and Fitz’s scenes are always dark with a few warm colors, indicating romance and a sensual tone. During interviews, debates, and other campaign events, the scenes are very bright. I believe this is to show how the darkness attempts to hide the affair, but the lights used during the campaign events follow the old narrative that where there is light, there is truth. Thus, a brightly lit campaign demonstrates a candidate of truth. However, the darkness tries to hide reality.

The use or lack of color may be the most distinguished cinematic element in the episode. The directors choose to desaturate the frames in order to reveal flashback moments. This specific episode, “The Trail” explores the Grant campaign trail of two years prior and details the evolution of Olivia and Fitz’s affair. Therefore, the lack of color in certain scenes is what tells viewers that this happened previously.

Love and Honor

By Callie Anderson

On September 11, 2018

In Review Topic 5

Today, September 11, 2018, marks 17 years since 9-11. Thus, today seems an appropriate day to analyze the very first episode of Scandal which deals directly with military service, honor to your country, and respect. Most importantly, this episode deals with love and society’s expectation of it. In this blog post, I will analyze the gender representation of a gay soldier in the “Sweet Baby” episode of Scandal.

Lieutenant Colonel Sully St. James, the most decorated veteran since the Vietnam War, and the primary suspect in his wife’s murder.

Overall, Scandal has a very large gender spread within it’s cast. The main character is a powerful female, Olivia Pope, and her team on the show consists of two other females and three males. Writer, Shonda Rhimes, created the show with a balanced cast, and throughout seasons 1 and 2 (all I have seen so far) the cast remains fairly balanced. However, at the end of the day, Olivia Pope is the ultimate leader and provides an almost overwhelming female presence to the show, alone. Above, I used the term “team” loosely, as Olvia really holds all the power. Whatever she says, goes. Even though she may extend a vote to her team, she many times completely over-rides their unanimous decisions with the opposite choice.

In this particular episode, the character Quinn lacks significance. Although fans will discover her meaning later in the show, during this episode she is pointless. We actually see her loose power throughout the episode. She begins strong and confident but ends the episode crying in the bathroom.

Despite these last two paragraphs being about the presence of women and their significance in the show, I really want to write about the underlying gender representation in this particular episode regarding the gay soldier, Sully St. James. James approaches the Pope team covered in blood, saying his girlfriend is dead, and that of course, he did not kill her. Olivia goes against all members of her team and decides to take his case simply because her gut tells her to. During their investigation, the team discovers James’s alibi… He was out kissing his boyfriend!

Yes. Yes. So, uh, here is where crap hits the fan.

Y’all, this man is crazy!!!

Sully St. James refuses to release his alibi to the public and chooses to be taken to jail instead! This drives Olivia crazy since she could have kept her client from prison and a death sentence, but instead, he chose his reputation as a Conservative, Christian, anti-gay war veteran over his innocence.

Olivia later encourages Sully St. James to think of sharing his story for reasons outside his innocence at stake. She tells him that he should be just as proud of who he loves as he is of his incredible military background. Olivia challenges the social norm and asks James to be proud of his identity as both a gay man and a conservative soldier. Thus, the show connects gender to sexual orientation and gender interactions axis of representation.

such scandalous love :)

Scandalous Intro

By Callie Anderson

On September 4, 2018

In Intro Post

My motto is pretty similar to Mel’s: sit back, snack, and talk some smack.

Hello, fellow gladiators! My name is Callie Anderson, and I am a business administration major with an anticipated graduation date of 2022…ish. My overall experience with English classes has been quite enjoyable. I always learn new aspects of literature and communication, and I look forward to furthering my skills this semester. This is my second English class here at Georgia Tech. Over the summer, I took English 1101 with Dr. Rose and absolutely loved it. Her class had an urban sustainability focus which I got to implement into my life here at Tech. In both English 1101 and 1102, WOVEN serves as the platform for communication development. Written and visual forms of communication are where I thrive. I love depicting stories through artful language or by providing fun and helpful visual aids. Although I believe WOVEN is a great foundation for growth in composition and communication skills, I struggle with certain parts. Oral communication is my real-life version of Eli Pope (for all you Scandal fans). Every once in a while I can outsmart that sucker, but he always comes back to get me in the end. I rehearse, prepare, recite, and sometimes I am actually successful. But most times, even when I think I excelled, I stumble and stutter through a presentation, receiving a disappointing grade. I know my oral communication skills will not transform magically overnight, but I am hoping Professor Wilson’s class will “handle it” over time.

Image result for handle it gif from scandal

Whip that communication into shape, Dr. Wilson!

My experience with the theme of this class is both limited and extensive. Many of my nights have been spent watching countless hours of Netflix shows. If the Ghost of Christmas Pasts came to see me, he would probably focus on the boat-load of hours I have wasted watching mindless Netflix shows, eating the best junk food on the planet.

Mhmm I ain’t lying.

However, and here comes the scandalous part, I have almost no experience with feminism…

Say whaaaaat???

Yes, you read that right. I do not consider myself a feminist. I do wholeheartedly support equal rights for women across the globe, but I hate taking on the victim mindset which I believe “feminism” embraces, especially in American culture.

This is why I chose Scandal as my TV show to analyze throughout the semester. I believe Olivia Pope, Melly, and other female characters fight to be treated equally without ever feeling sorry for themselves. Instead of stopping their jobs to protest unfair treatment while hoping for some government intervention, these women power through and fight for what they want. Not only do they fight for themselves, they usually succeed, which is quite refreshing and satisfying to watch. Therefore, I plan to demonstrate the real “feminist” work being done by these women in my blog posts over the semester. I hope that my blog posts will inspire the women that read it to put down the victim-focused protest signs and pick up their intelligent mental weapons to go get want they want and deserve.

English 1102: Television and Feminism

Dr. Casey Alane Wilson • Georgia Institute of Technology

Tag: olivia pope

Cinematic Crash

Moral Compass and Actin’ Pompous

Long Takes and Heartaches

Love and Honor

Scandalous Intro

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