prison – English 1102: Television and Feminism

Tag: prison

While the first season of Orange is the New Black is generally shot in the drab confines of Litchfield Penitentiary, frequent flashbacks spice up the visuals while providing intriguing backstories to many of the prison’s residents.

The show immediately kicks of with a series of quick cuts from a flashback of Piper enjoying getting clean, ending with a jarring closeup of her which eventually zooms out to reveal the confines of prison. Although the show is pretty much entirely shot in third person, the camera follows a variety of perspectives, some with minimal relation to the protagonist. The scenes generally only contain a few characters, but may start with a zoomed out view of many characters (such as in the mess hall), before focusing on the primary character in the scene.

The confines of prison are generally drab, but relatively well lit. There are several scenes that take place at night or in darker environments, such as in the prison theater or late at night in the dorms. There are also a fair number of romantic and sexual scenes, which are shot with much longer takes than other parts of the show. The solitary confinement is shot with an alternating focus on the inmate and the emptiness of their cell, giving the viewer a sense of that character’s isolation. Overall, there are many scenes with one on one interaction where the camera switches perspectives frequently, such as Piper’s meetings with Larry and Healy.

I believe the frequent cuts of the show serve to demonstrate how quickly change can occur in prison, while the longer shots emphasize individual relationships and emotions. The generally uninteresting background draws more focus on the colorful personality of the characters, who keep the prison from becoming too boring. Overall, the producers of the show did an excellent job keeping their shots in tune with the plot of the story, and using visuals to emphasize characters and emotions.

Below, I have linked an article that goes into much more detail on the equipment used in shooting OITNB.

https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news-features/doing-time-inside-netflix-original-series-orange-new-black-423037

Finding Everyday Women in Litchfield’s Guards

By Lauren Garrett

On October 14, 2018

In Review Topic 5

Gender plays an interesting role in Orange is the New Black, since almost everyone in the show is female. All prisoners at Litchfield are female, and most of the guards are male. Obviously, since the story is told from Piper’s point of view, all the guards are seen as antagonists (and all of the male guards are portrayed as perverted and sex-obsessed in some way), but the three female correctional workers also play a significant role in examining the stereotypes of working women.

Officer Fischer is very empathetic towards the prisoners, as seen in her buying Miss Rosa a Coke at her chemotherapy appointment. Her voice is often soft and kind, she is new to the prison and she is willing to let the prisoners bend some rules. However, she is choked by a prisoner after trying to enforce a rule, a product of both the strong emotions at the time and, likely, the image of the officer as someone that could be an easy target. In this way she is seen as the caring one, yet also someone that can be taken advantage of and manipulated, as are many women beginning their career. They are uncertain of their future or concerned about causing others to dislike them, so they “play nice” to avoid creating hostility, instead compromising their respectability.

Officer Fischer is known for being kind to the prisoners – arguably to a fault.

The other female guard is older, has a hardened face and a sharp tone. She is the foil to Fischer and snaps at prisoners over tiny infractions. However, even she is empathetic to the fact that the female prisoners have specific needs and expresses concern for kids’ futures when Scared Straight visits Litchfield. She represents the women who have worked long enough in a male-dominated career or job that they recognize they have to overcompensate to prove themselves, yet still care.

Another female guard is much less caring, yet still views the prisoners as human.

Finally, Fig, the warden, is a power-happy, cold female who is unsympathetic to anyone, even the other administrators. She repeatedly tells the prisoners that she doesn’t care about their complaints and takes actions only to improve the prison when journalists begin asking questions. She represents the stereotypical powerful female, someone a bit like Petra from Jane the Virgin, who has had to harden herself and get good at manipulating others in order to achieve success.

FIg is cold and cares only about the prison avoiding the spotlight.

Looking at these three women, all struggling to make themselves in a very male-heavy arena, it begs the question – is it possible for a kinder, caring female like Fischer to be rise to the success of someone like Fig? Does a woman have to be as uncaring as Fig in order to achieve success? And finally, is Fig a product of a system that forced her to be cold or was that how she was before, allowing her to be successful?

Making Prison Feel Like… Prison

By Lauren Garrett

On September 24, 2018

In Review Topic 3

A typical episode of Orange is the New Black goes like this: we open a relevant scene from Piper’s pre-prison life. Flash to Piper’s life now, in Litchfield. Plotline begins to develop, related to another character as well. Flash to that character’s past life. Flash back to Piper, in prison, with said plotline. More flashbacks to reveal the background of the other character. Repeat.

Although difficult to follow sometimes, the transitioning back and forth through different scenes does wonders for how the story is told and for the viewers’ understandings of each character. Episodes tend to follow one character and their involvement with Piper heavily, so the exposition of each character comes out by episode. For example, while Piper fights back and forth with Red, the kitchen boss, we see scenes of Red’s past life in Russia where she is alienated and rejected by upper class society. These flashback scenes allow us to understand Red’s deep pride, which Piper repeatedly accidentally insults, and to empathize a bit more with her. She is no longer a crazy, evil Russian lady but instead someone who has also loved and lost and is suffering her punishment.

We love a humanized character.

Flashing back to Larry, Piper’s fiancé, and the rest of her family and friends allows the audience to also remember that life is continuing without Piper, bringing up a very real conflict that many long-time prisoners experience – they are disconnected from their families, friends, jobs and all other aspects of their life, leaving them with very little left of what they had before when they are finally released. Although Larry attempts to continue to involve Piper, including trying to have her listen in to a call with a Barney’s executive regarding her soap line, there are small signs that he is beginning to re-adjust to life without her, including hiding her picture as he watches Mad Men without her (something that he had promised not to do).

Notable also is the lighting, and the stark variance of the lighting between real-life and flashback. While showing prison scenes, the lighting is fluorescent and sterile; it gives the impression that the inmates are just that, and there is no coziness. Even at night, the highlighting that allows the audience to observe what is occurring is white and cold instead of yellow and warm, as a night light would be. In contrast, almost all flashbacks have softer lighting. They feel homier, friendlier and happier, even when the events depicted may not be. Here, the filming clearly aims to invoke feelings of emptiness, general hopelessness and longing for freedom while the inmates are shown in prison and aims at showing their happiness and satisfaction with life outside of prison.

Through this method of storytelling, viewers find themselves respecting and empathizing with each character, not just the protagonists, and they can begin to see the events of the show unfolding from different perspectives. It is genius, really – and we get sucked into it every time.

A Writer’s Perspective: Viewing Television in a New Light

By Alexander Marin

On September 11, 2018

In Review Topic 1

In this post, I detail the writing and story line of the first episode of season 1 of Orange is the New Black. To prepare myself to better analyze the episode, I read the following article by Rob Serling, one of the first prominent television screenwriters.

https://www.rodserling.com/PPBintro.htm

This article is actually the introduction to his script Patterns, which was a popular live broadcast in the 1950s about a corporate power struggle. The introduction expresses the mentality and struggles of a television writer. Serling stresses the need to take advantage of the visual nature of television and the advantages of incorporating certain actors and themes into scripts. Something significant that I noticed in this article was that Serling claimed “There are no courses, however specialized and applied, that will catapult him into the profession.” This statement, although in the nascent stage of television, helped build the assumption that women could not be screenwriters.

In contrast to Serling’s beliefs, Orange is the New Black (OITNB) written by the talented female screenwriter Jenji Kohan. Kohan, who is also known for Weeds and Tracy Takes On.., employs several strategies to develop an intriguing introduction which draws viewers in to watch the rest of the season.

In episode 1, the show is told in first person perspective, which I assume will continue throughout the show. The plot of the episode revolves around a middle aged women (Piper Chapman) who is sent to serve a fifteen month sentence in prison for carrying drug money for her ex-lover ten years ago. The primarily one to one nature of the character’s interactions lead me to believe that the show will heavily emphasize relationships between characters. The episode prominently features flashbacks to give background information about the protagonist, especially about her relationship with her lesbian, drug smuggling ex. These flashbacks also show that this part of her life continues to haunt her psychologically and shows some of the complex emotional issues that women have to deal with that are not often portrayed in media. To set the premise for future episodes, the writer introduces a conflict with the prison cook and unexpected challenges for Piper, such as not having any money for her first few weeks. There is also a focus on the unexpected aspects of prison, particularly for a person coming from a privileged background.

Kohan constructs Piper as an emotionally complex character who made a mistake in her younger years, allowing the audience to sympathize with her predicament. The appearance of another lesbian prisoner foreshadows that Piper will continue to explore her sexuality, unlike the stereotypical female character. The script also flips traditional gender roles by having the woman outside the household instead of the man. In conclusion, Jenji Kohan starts off Orange is the New Black with an engaging episode that will keep viewers coming back for more while also introducing a complex, realistic female protagonist.

Piper? Oh you mean Chapman…

By Justin Lau

On September 11, 2018

In Review Topic 1

Orange is the New Black starts off the show by introducing newly prison inmate Piper Chapman after charged with smuggling drug money internationally with her previous lesbian love affair. She committed the crime five years before the time of her sentence, of which she surrendered to the prison officials. Now, she is struggling to adjust to prison life.

I am focusing on discussing the writing of “I Wasn’t Ready”, the first episode of Orange is the New Black, which was written by Liz Friedman and Jenji Kohan, and directed by Michael Trim. Liz Friedman has in the past written known shows such as Conviction, Law & Order, Notorious, and even produced House M.D. Jenji Kohan has also written other shows such as Weeds and The Stones, a pair of older shows that were produced before the 2000s.

The main writer for the first episode, Jenji Kehan.

Throughout this first episode, Kehan and Friedman do a superb job of setting the tone of the show. During Piper’s first several minutes in prison, it is evident that the writers created many different personalities to accompany the characters in the show. For example, Piper’s dialogue I’ve noticed is on the straightforward side. She likes to get her point across but is rather hesitant in voicing her opinion against people of higher power, such as the security guards in the prison. With Red, it is seen in the first episode that she acts along with her will and power in the system, being the chef of the prison. This is directly seen when she discreetly gave Piper an unpleasant meal after Piper accidentally insulted the prison’s food in front of her at the lunch table. Not only these two characters, but it is seen that there are numerous types of varying attributes assigned to everyone in the prison, creating a unit of diversity and makes the interaction between the inmates more interesting. It is also noticed that in the dialogue, the writers utilize many metaphors and references to past events and culturally separated groups to signify the division within the prison mates.

A component highly worth discussing in the first episode was the initial voiceover at the beginning of the show, where Piper’s voiceover describing both her life back home and life in the prison, signifying the difference in environments and truly assisted in introducing the plot effectively.

The main character of the show, Piper Chapman.

The way the first episode was structured by Friedman and Kehan was extremely well-done, the plot was clear to understand and the various transitions with scenes and character personalities kept me engaged and interested the whole way. Overall, it left me wanting to keep watching.

English 1102: Television and Feminism

Dr. Casey Alane Wilson • Georgia Institute of Technology

Tag: prison

Light and Dark: Cinematography of Orange is the New Black

Finding Everyday Women in Litchfield’s Guards

Making Prison Feel Like… Prison

A Writer’s Perspective: Viewing Television in a New Light

Piper? Oh you mean Chapman…

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