Crime Drama Genre Research and Initial Treatment Idea

This is my Crime- Drama genre research which establishes the codes and conventions of crime dramas. 
I also looked at 2 different opening sequences relating to this genre and analysed them by taking into consideration the four micro-elements: Editing, Camera, Mise-en scene, Sound. I noted that crime dramas begin with opening teasers that are used to grip the audience to watch the rest of the film.

Crime Drama Genre

Levi-Strauss and Vladimir Propp are narrative theorists.

The narrative theorist who came up with enigma codes (an important aspect of enigma codes) is Roland Barthes, he concluded how stories use different codes to control the way information is given to the audience. In effect enigma codes set up a puzzle for the audience to complete and solve and usually crime drama set up stories full of mystery and therefore enigma codes. 

There is non-diegetic music played in the background in the form of drums, which helped to create ambiance  For about two minutes (which is the length of time our opening sequence should last for) all that is shown in establishing shots of a city setting. At 1:58 a group of gangs are introduced to the audience and as a result they can immediately deconstruct the genre of the film as a gang movie that is likely to include violence, that results in a crime taking place. The costume of the character further emphasise the genre and gang element of the film. This is done through the director's conformation of stereotype associated with gang member through their costume of baggy jeans, large groups, similarly coloured bandannas and the prop of guns. 

The Enigma codes...

• Who is this gang of boys?
• Where are they going to?
• Who are they planning to kill with the gun they have?
• Why do they want to fight?

The music is synchronous to the images and the beginning of the film is really slow, this is highlighted even more as a result of the overt editing of slow motion used. This is a subversion from other crime dramas, which usually use fast paced music and editing right from the beginning to grab the audience's attention immediately. The music and editing of the images create an emotion of sadness and intrigue into the lives of the characters they are being introduced too, the music allows the audience time to focus more on the actions taking place and are able to empathise with the characters a lot more (especially the sad man with the item in his hand), as a result of the slow pace the film promotes. 

The Enigma codes...

• Who is the man shown in close up?
• Who is the man that walks up to him?
• What happened between them?
• Where is the man coming from?
• Why is he going into the motel?
• Why do the men look sad as well as angry at the same time?

Both of the crime-drama films' opening sequence begin with an establishing shot of the area that the film  is likely to be set in, indicating from the outset the location and setting of the film to the audience. There is also a large number of black males, and the story-line evolves around this particular ethnicity.

After researching about crime dramas I created my own crime drama plot, and tried to keep within the codes and conventions of a crime drama in order for my target audience to know my genre immediately, but I also made sure I deviated in order for my crime drama to appeal to a modern teenage audience, without being overly cliche.

My first initial idea:

Title: Misconceptions

Genre: Crime-Drama

An Original Screenplay by:
Eniola, Conor, Sonny, Lauryn

Date: 12/11/12

Group 1 presents:

A Crime Drama film from the Point of View (POV) of an intelligent Black British female Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) named Rae Sharp, whose past unravels as the plot thickens.

She teams up with her Caucasian partner Detective Matt Davidson- a conventionally attractive (“eye candy”) and introverted character- to solve a case.

They take on a case to find out the reason/s (as well as the identity of the culprit) for the death of a young highly successful businesswoman named Ariel Lang -stone.

As the story unfolds a man in a mostly dark room with minimal is almost constantly shown. Each time he is shown there will be an editing of flashes to represent a flashback and the woman who gas been found dead (Ariel Lang -stone) is shown in Black and White smiling directly at the camera, which will show a close up of her face.

We know Ariel is dead due to a news report- this makes the film less grotesque and visceral. Through the help of donors (Propp's theory) in the form of witnesses and intricate mistakes  by the killer, who the audience assumes is the man constantly being shown.

Sharp and Davidson create a resolution and show their accomplishments by successfully deciphering the puzzles created by the killer, instead of being derailed by them.

Our Production company plans to use mainly POV shots to show Rae's perspective ( in order to achieve the desired effect of personal relationship and identity) and an ominous, synchronous soundtrack 

Challenged Stereotypes:
Rae the main character is a black female, whereas in crime dramas they are usually white males.

Opening Sequence:
Starts off with blank black screen with news report playing in the background .
Scene changes to show Rae's hand in an extreme close up stirring a cup of tea, whilst diegetic sound from the radio plays- the news report continues.
Scene blanks out again, radio (news reports) still plays in background.
Scene changes again to show the man with the flashbacks of Ariel.

Enigma Codes:
Who is the man being constantly shown?
What is Rae's background?
What is the link between the man being constantly shown and Rae?

Approval of Executive Producer:
Ms. Butler

Improved initial idea (which I pitched to my classmates):

Title: Misconceptions

Genre: Crime-Drama

An Original Screenplay by:
Eniola, Conor, Sonny, Lauryn

Date: 12/11/12

Group 1 presents:

A Crime Drama film from the Point of View (POV) of an intelligent Black British female Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) named Rae Sharp, whose past unravels as the plot develops.

She teams up with her Caucasian partner Detective Matt Davidson- a conventionally attractive (“eye candy”) and introverted character- to solve a case.

They take on a case to find out the reason/s (as well as the identity of the culprit) for the death of a young highly successful businesswoman named Ariel Lang -stone.

Challenged Stereotypes:

<v  Main character is a black female, whereas in crime dramas the main character(s) is usually white males.

<v In crime dramas, females are usually depicted as weak, dependent individuals- ‘ladies in distress’- who need the constant rescue and guidance by males. The females in “Misconceptions” however are predominant.

<v  Both females shown in my opening sequence are/were highly successful, as well as single showing their non-reliance of males.

 v Both females are/ were independent and exceedingly intelligent.

< v  Also the main characters are young and established, giving a positive portrayal of young people; typical crime dramas generally give a dim view of young people, so most of the dominant characters are quite old.

   v “Misconceptions” tries to challenge the stereotypes of gender, race and age to give a more realistic and positive representation of these groups in particular.

Targeted towards a demographic composed primarily of intellectual females. “Misconceptions” will greatly appeal to this demographic due to the strong and positive representation of young women- especially young black females. Also young people will enjoy “Misconceptions” because they are the prominent characters in the film.

Opening Sequence:

•       Scene begins with blank black screen, whilst news reports (voiced by a woman) plays in the background.
•       A scene change, to show an extreme close-up of a manicured black hand, stirring a cup of tea, the news report isdiegetic.
•       Camera slowly zooms out, to show a character wearing pyjamas,that the audience deconstructs to be the main character Rae.
•       The camera shows a mid-shot of Rae and in the background the audience notice the source of the sound- a radio- thatRae listens to intently.
•       Rae’s character does not make direct eye contact with the camera/audience and instead stares rather blankly at her cup of tea.
•       At the report of the ‘unusual’ death- likely to be a murder- of a highly successful businesswoman named Ariel,Rae’s expression changes slightly and the audience notices it more because the camera shows a close-up of her odd facial expression.
•       Scene fades out to black, news report is still being heard by the audience.
•       Black scene fades into scene of man sitting in a dark room with a single stream of light crossing his face, (this will be shown through the use of low key lighting), without revealing too much of his exact facial features (his identity is not exposed to the audience at all in the opening sequence).
•       During the scene with the unknown man there are a series of flashbacks shown, through the use of fast-paced editing.
•       The camera movement will alternate between Rae and the unknown man.
•       His flashbacks - through the use of jump cut sequences and in Black and White editing- a montage of a young carefree woman.
•       When the young carefree woman is shown she is looking directly at the camera (direct address).
•       There are alternating high angle and low angle shots of the woman as well as extreme close-ups and close-ups, this is because there is a montage of her and each will have a different shot.
•       Then there will be rapid pans between Rae and the unknown man, until the scenes shown are a blur and there seems to be no significant difference between both scenes and characters; when there is focus again Rae appears in the same room as the unknown man with a blank stare on her face.
•       She is no longer in her pyjamas but in a suit.
•       No sound is heard.
•       There is a POV shot of Rae (the desired effect on the audience are personal identity and relationship) who looks down at her hands and, then closes her eyes, which makes the camera, fade to black. Slow, synchronous, non-diegetic instrumental soundtrack plays in the background to create tension.
•       During the blank black screen the words “14 years ago...” appears in white.
•       Jump cut of plain white screen is shown.
•        There’s a flash and an extreme close-up of two young girls (aged about 12) smiling at the camera is shown.
•       Then there is a fade to black transition.

Examples of my Enigma Codes:

Who is the unknown man being repeatedly shown?

Who is the young female he keeps on visualising? Is she his lover? Is she Ariel?

Who is Ariel? Is there a connection between Ariel and the female the man keeps on seeing?

Why did Rae (our main character) suddenly appear to become alert at the reported death of Ariel?

Why has the name Ariel dishevelled Ivy so much?

Is there a connection between Rae and Ariel?

Does she (Rae) have something to hide? If so, what is it?

Why did she ‘suddenly’ appear in the same scene/ room as the man?

Approval of Executive Producer:
Ms. Butler 

My Initial ideas were developed from the Crime Drama genre I researched.
In today's lesson each of us in the class had to pitch our ideas to each other, which then got peer assessed. We also had constructive feedback from our teacher.

Peer Assessment by Ciani:

My Pitch was peer assessed by Ciani who thought that I was overly descriptive ("too much happening"), and this led to confusion and that in my opening sequence I "give the whole plot away." These were the areas I needed to improve to develop my opening sequence. Ciani thought that mt title, character descriptions and my deviations from stereotypes worked well and that overall my opening sequence was "Satisfactory."

Peer Assessment by Ciani


We also had a group discussion today and we discussed how we were going to incorporate each of our individual ideas into one successful crime-drama film. 
We developed ideas that we felt had great potential and would give the most effective outcome and discarded ideas that we believed were not going to be feasible. although we did not completely finalise our overall idea today, we aim to have completely done so by Thursday.