research into my chosen genre

Research into my chosen genre of Crime /drama

Crime / drama genre is the genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is one of the most popular genres of films. It can incorporate them s of criminality, policing, race and social and cultural values. It revolves around the actions of a criminal mastermind.

Crime dramas very often focus on murder and serial killing , which creates great anxiety amongst the audience. They can often incorporate different aspects of law enforcement including the police, detectives, psychologists and lawyers.

They often prompt debate on the question of guilt or innocence, and on morality. They usually end with a resolution, for instance the catching of the murderer.

They are often set in normal everyday environments allowing the audience to empathise with the ordinary people in the movie.

This genre can extend from the realistic portrayals of real life criminals to far- fetched evil actions of fictional villains.

They can incorporate power struggles between divisions in the police and between police and the judicial system. There can be conflict between different methods of policing.

On the other hand, they can show how teamwork builds and contributes to success. They can also show how dedicated policemen have to make sacrifices in their personal lives to succeed in their jobs.

Crime dramas tend to be a male dominated genre although there are exceptions to this.

Crime dramas can incorporate gruesome depictions of killings, including high intensity graphics.

The genre is usually fast paced.

There are many sub genres of crime dramas

• Detective fiction
• Legal thrillers – 12 Angry Men
• Crime comedies – Lock, Stock and Two smoking Barrels
• Crime Thrillers – Silence of The Lambs
• Mob Gangster Films – centre on organised crime or the mafia -Once Upon A Time in America  Goodfellas, Scarface.
• Film Noir – a distinct style of crime drama popular throughout 1940s and 1950s – has a black and white visual style and stark lighting effects – The Maltese Falcon

The opening Sequence of Goodfellas

Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. The chilling opening sequence gives an explosive introduction to the cast and crew. It was designed by Saul Bass.

The opening sequence begins with white credits on a black background flashing off and on to the screen. It is accompanied by sound effects of a car swishing past really fast.

This leads the audience in to a scene of a car travelling along the road.

The time and place is set by the credit New York 1970.

The audience is presented with three men, obviously very tired, driving along in a large black car. They hear noises coming from the rear of the car. They pull over into a forest. The lighting is dark, connoting mystery, and the red lights from the car denote danger. They open the boot and discover that the man they thought was dead is still alive. One of the men sticks his knife into the body many times with great force and the other shoots him at blank range many times. This is totally gratuitous violence – just one of those acts would have killed him. The audience therefore expects the film to contain a great deal of violence.

The camera turns to a close up of one of the gangsters faces. He says, “ as far back as I can remember, I  wanted to be a gangster”.  This is accompanied by a very jazzy song, From Rags To Riches. This gives an idea of a glamorous lifestyle full of high living.

Opening Sequence of Anatomy of a Murder

The opening sequence of this movie takes the title and gives a literal interpretation to it. Again it is the work of Saul Bass. Immediately on watching this opening, you know you are not going to get a happy ending to the film.

Each member of the crew is presented next to a dissembled body.

It begins by showing a whole body and the director is presented. Then each piece of the body appears in turn, appearing like part of a jigsaw. Cut out animation is used here. The parts of the body are cut from paper and appear on a dark grey background in the upper left hand quarter of the screen. There are arms legs, a decapitated head.

The jazzy non-diegetic music from Duke Ellington adds life and a sense of glamour.

The opening cuts to show a car travelling along a road. Immediately the interest of the audience is aroused.