samedi 31 décembre 2016

The Opening Credits





The opening credits instantly give us the tone of the TV series; the gloomy, dark and mysterious atmosphere makes us aware of what the story is going to be about. But it is not all, the sequence is made in such a way that it keeps the tense atmosphere from the beginning to the end. For instance, the opening credits start with a shot between a close-up and an extreme close-up of bubbles where the viewers can see a person tied to a chair and about to drown. This used to be a method of torture. It gives the viewers the illusion to be about to drown with the character, it allows them to relate to what the character is going through. 

Darkness, strangeness, pressure, tension and mystery are the key words of this opening. Indeed, you can notice different shots in high-contrast and in back-lightning which stress the dramatic tone of those shots such as the close shot of the tied hands or characters' shadows. Moreover, a succession of shots where hanged bodies appear, refers to the executions of witches after the trials against witchcraft in Massachusetts in 1692. In order to give the viewers the feeling to be present during those executions, the film director uses several effects; for instance, a tracking shot is used when the lady is sent to the stake where she will be burnt or hanged, a low-angle shot is used to show the dead hanged bodies as for warning us of what happens to those who practice witchcraft, emphasized with the clear sky and the sun shining over them. The jump cuts underline the violence of the shots and create a stressful and dreadful effect.

Shots are really well-picked and coming together, they create an effect that intends to put the viewers into the witches' minds and victims' of those trials; it feels like we are witnessing the whole process since there is a long and high-angle shot showing a court where the trials take place. Many hand-held shots such as the ones where we can notice women screaming and being brought to their punishment give us the same feeling and this technique of camera movement stresses the violence of those shots.

This opening brings out a certain madness, insanity which refers to the fact that people accused of witchcraft were seen as Satan's allies and mad people but the viewer can also feel a certain despair in some shots that creates a feeling of sympathy for them. The viewer becomes empathetic. Religion is also present in the opening, indeed we can notice a shot in focus out of a holy cross. 

It also sets the place of the story/action of the TV series; indeed, a lot of shots are in the woods and branches added during the editing clearly imply that the whole action takes place near the forest but it also implies the fact that rituals take place during the night in the woods. Indeed, the long shot of the full moon indicates it. One of the most striking shot which implies the woods is the one in fast motion where the viewer feels as if he is running away from someone or something. It creates a feeling of anxiety. 

Witchcraft is omnipresent in this sequence, indeed, for instance, from the beginning to the end, shaman signs and writings appear all over the screen and at the end, we can see a normal shot and a reverse-angle shot of the same doll, a sort of a double exposure, mutually wiped away in fast motion which can refer to voodoo practices. The full moon is another example of noticeable witchcraft elements in the sequence. 

The colors are also well chosen: indeed, the fact that most of the shots are in black and white gives the feeling that it takes place a long time ago and the dominance of shades of gray can be interpreted as a reference to the ashes which themselves refer to the witches burnt at the stake. That's the reason why we can notice flames all over the screen at some times. Mixed up with all those medium shots of women, since most of the Salem witches were women, we cannot miss the close and very short shots of women's chest and women without a lot of clothes on that allow us to think that the TV series will also have an erotic and sexy side. The choice of filming those scenes in natural light, without adding a black and white tone drives our attention on the bear skin which confirms somehow the idea of erotic scenes.

Above all of that, the music adds a lot to the atmosphere. First of all, the choice of the singer, who is Marylin Manson, underlines the fact that the TV series is going to be dark. 
Choosing Marylin Manson and that rock song as the music for the opening credits makes a contrast between the historical tone of the story and the modernity of the song and singer. Yet, they match perfectly together since the modern song enables the historical feature to be connected to our present day, to more modern times, so as to fit the contemporary audience.
The lyrics confirm the idea that it is a TV series about witches and supernatural phenomenon.


Pound me the witch drums
Better pray for hell, not hallelujah


The music is very catchy which is a very smart choice since it can easily be remembered. The drums are synchronized with the sudden, abrupt transitions of the shots which make us understand that the music is an actual tool to the opening credits in order to attract viewers somehow.

We cannot deny that a massive work of editing and shooting has been done for this sequence; indeed, everything works perfectly together, from the camera movements to the lighting or the music. The harmony of it gives us a clear message of how to perceive this new TV series : dark, mysterious, violent, old, creepy, odd, gloomy and sexy. The opening by itself is clearly enough to give the viewer an intense foretaste of the TV series. It shows how an opening can play a huge part in the viewer's vision of a TV series. Some prefer them very short, others like them long and catchy. This is the perfect example of long but amazing opening credits. After watching this, any viewer fond of those kind of ambiance who never heard of this TV series would want to see more of it.

mardi 27 décembre 2016

Women in the 17th century Salem





A woman tied-up in the 17th century
During the witch trials in the 17th century, the place of women was very complex because many things had to be taken into consideration. For instance, sex was seen as sinful and so their sexual natures like pregnancy, delivery or menstruations could not be hidden. People reflected these negative attitudes towards women. Moreover, women were seen as great tempters like Eve in the Hebrew mythology, who some said, she was the "forbidden fruit" offered to Adam. And so in Salem we can think about all the women who agree to have sex with a man. They are like a gift to them, we can name prostitutes like Glorianna with Cotton Mather - who is a man of God - since she offers her ‘services’ to please him. However, women like Mary Sibley or Tituba and young innocent girls like Mercy and Anne Hale are also part of those who want to have sexual intercourses. In fact, sex was a very significant element during the witch trials in Puritan New England because in order to keep their moral values, women were expected to be obedient to men and pure. But many reports showed that they were not faithful to their husbands or they seduced men (and other women sometimes). This is shown in Salem, indeed, there are some kissing scenes between women such as Mary/Anne, Mary/Tituba, Mary/Mercy, the Countess Marburg/Anne and the Countess Marburg/Mary. Even if these kisses do not represent any real relationship, they are erotic gestures. 
In the TV series, there are also scenes of adultery: Mary kisses and sleeps with many men (even if most of them are just fantasms) while she is the wife (and then widow) of the mayor George Sibley ; this is also the case of Tituba who shares an erotic moment with John who is supposed to be Mary’s lover. There is also an odd fact between the Countess Marburg and her son, the Baron Sebastian, because she can kiss whenever they want in order to feel someone else.



Promotional poster of Salem, showing women only

Another reluctant point is that women’s social role was not the same as men and so they were easily accused during 1692’s trials in Salem. Moreover if they had temper they would be likely considered as witches avid for power because their voice did not count in church or government. Men were the person to have power in political actions such as in court. And in Salem it is proved because George Sibley often has the last word as he is the mayor. However we cannot deny the discrimination against women so people compared them with the devil and linked them to crimes of witchcrafts. Their daily duties were to take care of children and execute household chores so they clearly had an inferior social status that helped for blaming. Only few men were accused and it was because they were relatives of accused women. But In Salem, all women evolve in a certain way. During the third season we notice that the ingenuous Anne Hale starts to have more power and be a main character in the city as she discovers she is a witch. For instance she reproduces the same torture as Mary Sibley did to shut George’s mouth; that is to say, she put her beloved rat (named Brown Jenkin) into Cotton’s throat the same way Mary put a toad into Georges’. On the contrary, Mary slowly loses her influence upon Salem and she is literally powerless as her son removed them. She is a strong woman that stands for her ideas but she shows her innocence of a lonely girl she used to be, a weakness that people like to attack. Concerning Mercy Lewis, still in the third season, she is rejected by the Countess Marburg and her son so she retired. Then she starts to create a dark place with girls from the street and she becomes a brothel keeper and manipulates the Magistrat to get revenge over her enemies. Since she has been thrown out by important women, she is full or hatred and decides to prostitute girls. A new character is introduced in the third season, Billy who is actually a young girl who had to hide her gender not to be killed. So she pretends to be a boy to be able to help Captain John Alden in his battles against the French.

Through the TV series Salem, we notice many similarities with the reality of the 17th century in Massachusetts, about gender discrimination and how women were considered at a time when men were seen as the only authority. As England was corrupted, men wanted to create a good religious world as the Bible depicted it but women were mistreated and accused to be witches.

dimanche 25 décembre 2016

Puritanism & Salem


Mary Sibley and Increase Mather from S01E09
In the 1692 Salem, Puritanism was the main religion and it took a central place in the Witch Trials.
To understand its importance in this colony of Massachusetts, we will first deal with the definition of Puritanism by giving an overview about their practices and believes before tackling how they acted in the Witch Trials. These elements will be highlighted with the representation of Puritanism in the TV series Salem by trying to analyze and compare fiction with historical facts and common definitions of the term.

Puritans were religious reformers. They represented a branch of the Church of England since the end of the sixteenth century and moved from Europe to escape persecution. As they were influenced by the Enlightenment, many of Christians started to read the bible and understood it in their own way. They wanted a strong separation between the Church of Rome and the Church of England and wanted to turn the Church as a stronger and harsher institution. As they flew European persecutions, they found their main nest in Massachusetts where they settled and organized themselves as societies. They started to build small villages and lived around very rigorous believes such as the supremacy of the man as a male and as a father, the submission of women, the respect of the parents, chastity outside marriage and many other conservative believes. In other words, they stood for purity and the Bible were their holy book. We often associate the image of puritans as a very rigid group who did not really open themselves to others.
In the TV series Salem, the vision of Puritans is deployed through all the characters of the village. In a way it sticks to historical facts since Puritans colonized first Massachusetts and as we saw earlier organized societies. The TV Series tackles the subject of the Witch Trials which took place in the Puritan village of Salem. Most of the characters are represented in an accurate way since they all wear black clothes in public and women had their hair covered in sign of purity and modesty.
In addition to their common outfits, Puritans in Salem are also represented as strong defenders of the Christian faith through many believes and themes such as the ban of sexual intercourses outside the wedlock. Indeed, the first episode of the first season opens in a very shocking punishment scene where a man is held in front of the entire village and got the letter F burnt on his forehead because he slept with a woman who were not his wife. We can see this punishment as a reference to the Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne published in 1850 in which a woman is condemned to wear the letter A because she is accused to have committed adultery in the puritan society of Boston at the time. For the little story, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born in Massachusetts into a family that descended from 17th Puritans who lead the Witch Trial in 1692.
Furthermore, Puritans were sticked to family values and aimed at an idealistic vision of a nuclear family with a respected but also submitted mother, a strong paternal figure and well-educated children. On the one hand, Salem perfectly pictures this characteristic of the Puritan families to some extent. Indeed, the Hale family is composed by different sex parents and apply the biblical laws inside their home in order to educate their daughter Lucy who succeeds in being a model young woman.
On the other hand, the TV series depicts a criticism of Puritan society to some extent. Indeed, the characters of Mary Sibley and Isaac come to contradict the strict vision of marriage and family. Indeed, we know that Mary Sibley married the mayor of the village in order to get what she wants and to provide her an alibi if suspicions are raised concerning her witch status. Isaac, the one who have the nickname of the Fornicator and the one who got punished with the scarlet letter F also represent a character that goes against the Puritan conventions. The most striking one is the reverend who slips with a prostitute he fell in love with. These two male characters in particular emphasize the fact that even led by rigorous religious laws, human urges are sometimes stronger if they are forbidden which draws a satire of the Puritan religion.
Furthermore, only men politically run the village of Salem in the TV series which corresponds to historical content.
Moreover, Puritans had a tough belief concerning the existence of Hell and Devil. They acted in a certain way in order to reach heaven after death and condemned every behaviors that tended to go against the holy book which is why they played an important role in the Witch Trials. Indeed, they wanted to eradicate every evil comportments of their society and considered witches as the very essence of evil. In the series as well as in the historical records, Puritans were the ones who led the witch hunt and sentenced more than twenty women to death because of their 'witch-behavior.'

To conclude, we can say that fiction and history are consistent concerning Puritans in Salem during the Witch Trials. 

Drawing representing Puritans chasing a Witch in Salem in 1692

mardi 20 décembre 2016

The Characters


Here are the characters
from Salem, the TV series !


- And that is the moment when you are asking us What took you so long ?! -




Season 1, Episode 1, The Vow
Season 1, Episode 2, The Stone Child
Cotton Mather in the series, is the main priest of the village. He lives in a rather small room, all by himself, and tries his best to understand the issue with the witches. He is determined but seems fragile, weak and submissive in a way, especially during the first season. There is shift at some point, where he becomes more confident, stronger, especially when he decides to stand up against his father, Increase Mather, who he fears more than anyone or anything else.

Cotton Mather really existed, and truly believed in witchcraft. He wrote Memorable Providences in which he presented all the things he had found out about the witches. In the TV series, the viewers actually see him writing all his conclusions in a notebook, we can imagine that it is a reference to the writing of this particular book. Except from the fact that he was really into finding witches and a true believer in God, there is no other detail that can be found about his temper, however, Cotton in the series shares the same feature, that is to say, he strongly believes the existence of those evil creatures, so much so that he almost seems paranoid – which was certainly the case in real life since he believed in them – but the more the story goes on, the more people believe him and the more he is right about the witches.



Season 1, Episode 10, The House of Pain
Now, let's talk about his lovely father. Increase Mather, in real life, was born on June 12th, 1639 and died on August 23rd, 1723. After being the first President of Harvard College, he became a judge and had a lot of doubts about the witch trials in Salem. He believed in evil possession and apparitions as written in his Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providence, published in 1684.


Season 1, Episode 1, The Vow
Season 1, Episode 1, The Vow

She is the very-main character of this series and yet, she never existed. Mark my words: Mary Sibley NE-VER existed. However, Mary Walcott did and she is the one that took part of the witch trials.

Mary Walcott was Ann Putnam, Sr. niece and Ann Putnam, Jr cousin. She was one of the main accusers in the trials. She is not just any character, added so the writers and producers could create a story around her. She was crucial in the history of the witch hunt and so she is in the tv series.

She is portrayed as a strong, fearless protagonist whom the viewers like to see the evolution throughout the series. Indeed, in the first episode of season 1, she is just a poor unmarried girl, pregnant from her lover who has to go to war. When she heard about her lover's death, John Alden, she married George Sibley, the town mayor and became Mary Sibley. When we say “became”, we mean it. She transformed and shifted into a brand new character – besides from being a witch -, who rules over Salem. She is now rich and powerful. She became independent and embodies just rightly this independence that women at that time, and for many centuries, yearned for. We will come back on that point on the next article.



Season 1, Episode 1, The Vow
Season 1, Episode 2, The Stone Child

Season 1, Episode 4, Survivors


Mary is powerful, strong, fearless and fierce; but as many characters, she has weaknesses, her main one being John Alden. But who is he ? John is the main male character in the series and him, as well, existed. He was a sea Captain and a merchant, and was accused on May 28th, 1692 but escaped from jail and fled to New York with other people who had been accused of witchcraft. It is believed that he had connections with the Indians of Maine. In the series, he is played by Shane West. He is represented as a handsome and strong man who has to leave Salem to go to war. He is Mary's lover and the father of her son. He comes back to Salem 7 years later, when everyone thought he was dead. Throughout the first season, he has absolutely no idea about Mary's activity and is strongly reluctant to believe in witches. He is this down-to-earth and sarcastic character, common to every supernatural story. However, in the second season, when he had fled to New York but was “adopted” by an Indian tribe, he became another person. He believes in magic, in witches and has one goal: to put down Mary, his former love of his life.

As we mentioned it before, he is played by Shane West, aka the hottie. And the question that we are all asking ourselves is, WHY? Well, the answer is easy to guess. We are in a case of a TV series that needs to entertain the viewers; a TV series about witches in a historical background. The aimed audience is certainly young heterosexual women or young homosexual men. As a producer, how do you attract such an audience ? How do you make them watch your show? You hire a handsome actor.





Season 2, Episode 7, The Beckoning Fair One
One of the characters that the viewers see very often in the series is Tituba. In the series, she is Mary Sibley's maid as well as her closest ally and the one who helped her turn into a witch. She is thus portrayed as a powerful woman but at the same time, her status of a servant makes her look weak, until season 2. In real life, Tituba was Indian and not a Black slave, as one could believe when watching the series. She was captured as a child and worked for Samuel Parris. She married an Indian called John in 1689, who happen to have the same name as Mary's lover. Tituba may have had only one child named Violet. She was accused of witchcraft “when shortly after Parris's daughter, Betty, began having strange fits and symptoms, she participated in the preparation of a "witchcake" (a mixture of rye and Betty's urine, cooked and fed to a dog, in the belief that the dog would then reveal the identity of Betty's afflictor)” as our main source points out. Afterwards, Tituba got beaten so as to confess and finally did so. 




Season 1, Episode 1, The Vow
Season 1, Episode 12, Ashes, Ashes
Season 2, Episode 3, From Within
Season 2, Episode 7, The Beckoning Fair One
Mercy Lewis was born in Falmouth, Maine in 1675 and was an orphan. She lost both of her parents during Indian attacks. She first lived with Reverend George Burroughs and worked for his family before residing with the family of Thomas Putnam. Mercy was one of the main accusers, just as Mary Walcott, during the 1692 witchcraft trials in Salem. And the writers of the series wanted to put their finger on that point – pun intended. Indeed, Mercy, played by Elise Eberle, is first a very innocent girl who finds herself diagnosed of being possessed by the Devil. Then, she is used as a witchcraft detector, that is to say, she has the ability to know who is a witch and who is not, by pointing her finger at them. 
In the first season, Mercy has 3 states: first, the innocent child, then the mad and hysterical possessed girl, and finally, the burnt creature. She shifts from a human to a monster.
In the second season, when the viewers had started to forget about her, she reappeared more stunning than ever, at the mercy – not intended, we swear – of the very powerful Countess, who she believes to be the one to be able to give her the revenge that she had been yearning for.

Season 1, Episode 2, The Stone Child

In history, Bridget Bishop was the first person to be executed (by hanging) during the Salem witchcraft trials, so we could say without offending anyone that she was the first victim of the paranoia that had emerged in Salem at that time. In the series, she is hanged as well. The viewers only see her in the beginning of season 1, when she helps a girl deliver a child. Once again, you could wonder what the link between witchcraft and... that is. Well, when giving birth, the mother saw a monstrous figure instead of Bridget for a very brief moment; in other words, she had an hallucination (that was provoked by Mary Sibley herself!) but that was enough for the Court in Salem to call her a witch and ultimately, execute her. She is one of the few characters that the viewers cannot help but feel pity for her (even if she is quickly forgotten) because she is portrayed as a young woman, innocent from the very beginning. She did not do anything at all, she was never a witch and the viewers know that which make them feel bad for her. The worst part of the story is that she REALLY existed and she has REALLY been hanged on the crime of witchcraft.

Season 1, Episode 1, The Vow

Now, THE family Hale. 
What an interesting family.

John Hale, Ann Hale's father, was best known as Reverend John Hale. He was born on June, 3rd 1636 in Charlestown, Massachusetts and died on May, 15th 1700. He had a crucial role in the trials and had a lot of influence. He wrote A Modest Enquiry Into the Nature of Witchcraft, it was published in Boston in 1697.
In the series, he is one of the men who lead the trials, he is trusted by everyone and has power over people. The twist in his character is the fact that... he is himself a witch! Or we should say, a wizard.
In season 2, his daughter, furious after discovering that she was a witch and that her family had been hiding this secret from her for so long, kills both of her parents (what goes around, comes around...). She then becomes both an ally and an enemy to Mary Sibley.


But of course, as we mentioned it before, this TV series borrows real facts and mixed them with an unrealistic world. Thus, many characters were invented. What is interesting to see, is the reason why they were added to the story and what their role contribute to it.


Season 1, Episode 1, The Vow
Season 1, Episode 2, The Stone Child

That is the case of Isaac, the Fornicator - with a capital F. Isaac Walton is one of the residents in Salem and his job is to get rid of the waste of the town. He is a lower-class inhabitant and a friend to everyone. In the pilot, he is portrayed as a sinner and presented as such to the viewers, and yet, he is one of most charismatic, genuine and friendly characters in the show. And despite of the biased representation that has been given to him in the first scenes of the show, he is a character that triggers the action in many ways. In a word, he is this character that looks useless and secondary but has in fact a key role to the story.





Many details were added to each character, changing them partially or completely, which proves that Salem, the TV series, has not been created to be accurate historically speaking but only to give the viewers some details about a certain period in history that they may have heard before. But this series is not a documentary, entertaining a modern audience is the main goal as it is for many other TV series.