Clever Adverts and Stupid Movies
Having been searching through YouTube recently for new ideas & videos, I found 'Future Shorts'.
“THE LARGEST SHORT FILM NETWORK IN THE WORLD
Future Shorts is one of the leading and most innovative short film labels. Since 2003, Future Shorts has created a rapidly expanding network that allows filmmakers the opportunity to have their work seen on the largest theatrical platform worldwide. Passionately believing in getting short films seen and creating a culture around the medium, Future Shorts is recognised by filmmakers, the industry and press alike as the cutting-edge short film label. Future Shorts is a worldwide monthly film festival as well as a distributor, sales agent, consultancy service and DVD label. This is fresh cinema- Future Shorts.”
From Future Shorts
After watching some of their videos and subscribing, I found myself involved in a whole new situation. The short film, not to keen among the average Hollywood action viewing public, it is usually a showcase for the new writer or director and the aim is to present themselves. In the past many have started their career's through short films and in actual fact- even those who have already made it still continue to quench the thirsts of over enthusiastic film lovers by filling in the time between major releases, for example, a personal favourite, David Lynch (Favourites include The Boat and The Amputee).
Anyway back to the point, I was in the cinema today and saw 21 (Starring Jim Sturgess, Kevin Spacey and Kate Bosworth) highly recommended and before the film started it was time for the ads and trailers. The first to appear was endorsed by Future Shorts and was entitled "Procrastination" and for the next minute and a half, I was treated to a very dreary voice describing his day while the pictures were being drawn. At first, you wonder what the point is, but as the day continues, the dots become connected and what turns from a day for him to do 'his stuff' turns into a day of anything other.
Below is the video
This made me smile, I will be glad to let you know that I could not only see the intelligence that was put into this but that artist's handiwork on screen was so simple that it was ingenious and very intriguing. As the minutes goes on, you start to want to guess what happens next and if this 'stuff' is ever going to get done.
Another reason for me to mention this is the fact that short films are finally getting their time in the spotlight. Most people get to the cinema in time for the ads and so by placing this at the beginning, massively increased the viewership and hopefully some of those people remembered the name 'Future Shorts' and checked them out when they got home.
The term, 'clever ad' reminds me of the recent Ford campaign of the stupid dogbot and that there are two sides to everything, read between the lines, is the saying that comes to mind. But in the last decade we, as the viewing public, have been presented with adverts which don't stretch our mind and either just clearly advertise an item or try in vain comedy (Daz or Bounty) to entertain the audience. But I feel that the new era of ads have arrived, they not only want to amuse the audience or incline them to buy their item but also want to make the viewer feel comfortable within their situation or expand their brain activity!
To this end, I suggest a stand against watching just any rubbish, if films and television are searched through for the best and most hard hitting then why must we accept anything less from our advertising?
I felt a trend coming and after watching "Procrastination", Adidas' new advert came on. After being treated to images of dingy London, the voiceover was making it clear that the only way to be happy with the environment you live in, is to make it your own and this was then followed by a small group as they buy plants and then during one night, plant them along a path near a bridge. We are then told the only way to make it right is to 'Leave Your Mark.' Here is another prime example of the new trend of advertising, which is made to make one happy- to look at what is being done and think, that if each of us did this, we could produce something pretty amazing.
You may be wondering how I am able to speak about ads for so long but here is the complete contrast, the lights dimmed in the cinema and the trailers for upcoming films began. Films in recent years (Crash, Babel and The Hours) have climbed in quality as they include accomplished casts and actual meanings that make people think. They are not scared to show the problems with the human condition, Crash's main premise is just that, the only way for people to communicate, to think about each other is to crash, to collide, to cause conflict and this sort of movie, although becoming more popular these days are still being trumped for films like Sex and The City (The Movie) & What Happens in Vegas!
Now, do understand that from time to time a good comedy, a feel good movie, something which won't really change my life is always good but with the bombardment of so many all at the same time! Is this really what the filmgoers among us yearn for?
Congratulations to HBO for really launching the career of actresses like Sarah Jessica Parker and for giving the world a comedy drama like SitC- the first proper look at city life from the working woman's point of view but in 2004 the series that really did influence our look of TV finished and now, four year later, the team reunite to show what happened afterwards. Do we really need to see our TV on the big screen? Is this what they signed up for when they first started- sure the money must be great but does this at all go against what the show first stood for. It was easily accessible for most people and with DVD sales on the rise, these days, I am sure that the show was doing well... Is it really the right time for the likes of Mr. Big and the lives and loves of Carrie Bradshaw to hit the big screen when there is so much more to write about, when talented writers with something really important to say are turned down by big producers and therefore find it hard to make their point?!!!
Now, people I have spoken to recently about this next topic, can't understand what my problem is... but here it is... I can't stand Indiana Jones... I think the whole franchise is flawed and although I would not want to take away from the massive amount of work gone into these films in the past 20 years, I do find that the idea is repetitive and that somewhat so archaic that it should stay in the past! Supposedly the biggest expected film of the year, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is, I am sure, already creating Oscar Buzz and yet, I can't see the Indie fever... No need for prescription drugs for me, I would be very happy for Harrison Ford to put away his whip and perhaps find retirement as a likely option.
Where are the new ideas? They are being back benched by producers who find the tradition formula works well and therefore don't want to step out of their safety zones (like our ad's!) and yet I wonder what people said to Spielberg and Lucas when they first created the idea of I Jones... So he swings from trees (Have you seen Tarzan?)
Seriously people, put down the mainstream and think about opening your mind... Step away from the DVD boxset and make a stand... where are the new writers? Well hopefully one is right here and within just one person there are a lot of ideas!!! Hopefully, one can make their mark!
As you can tell, the path of this post has gone slightly away from what I originally thought, it was meant to be a jibe at second rate rom-coms and a big thumbs up for a new strand of ads and yet, I have sidetracked... let's have the new ideas... take a stand and don't be handed just the traditional formula... it's time for a breath of fresh air!
Showing posts with label blockbuster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blockbuster. Show all posts
May 04, 2008
March 24, 2008
Ollie///Beauty is my media studies essay
Well here it is- my Media Studies Crime Essay, I could have carried on going but you know... the way life is. Have not got the mark back yet, but will keep you posted :D
Media: What makes a crime drama?
There is no specific path on the road to writing a crime drama, when looking at the genre you see that there are many types of ways that it can be interpreted. From the forensic crime drama (CSI), the Hollywood blockbuster and the traditional format of the whodunit there are many different options, which can involve the nature of the characters and the entire premise of the show or movie.
Each of the different interpretations is open to varying codes and conventions. Crime fiction deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. The beautiful thing about this genre is that the line between genres can be blurred and so therefore you are see a collision between different types of fiction such as the crime genre and the sci-fi kind (Life on Mars). Within the genre there are many sub-boundaries, some are mentioned above, amongst others including courtroom drama (Law & Order), legal thriller (Damages) and the police procedural (Prime Suspect).
The earliest crime novel is The Murder of Machine Operator Rolfsen by Mauritz Hansen, published in 1839. Other examples of earlier crime fiction are the darker works of Edgar Allen Poe (The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) & The Mystery of Marie Roget (1842)). The evolution then came when the creation of the locked room mystery came along, these involve a murder or other crime which happen under impossible circumstances, no one could enter or leave the scene and the death could not have been a suicide. The biggest stories of these mysteries are of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
When trying to pin point the fiction, it is difficult because the central motifs of love, danger and death are big in most sections of fiction. A recent example of this is the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, about a Wall Street tycoon and a serial killer called Patrick Bateman living in NYC, although the crimes are described in vivid detail, the book has never been classed as a crime novel, perhaps due to the absence of the police and that Bateman was never bought to justice.
Crime films are usually those, which deal with the darker side of the human nature. These blockbuster films can be split into different sub-genres most commonly drama (Crash), thriller (Se7en), mystery (Agatha Christie novels), gangster (The Godfather) and film noir (Basic Instinct).
One of the most widely used codes in crime films is the use of a femme fatale. She is a seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in the bonds of desire that often leads to deadly situations. The phase is French for a deadly woman and she tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using things like charm, beauty and sexual allure. One of the biggest modern femme fatale was the character Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct. A European critic defined the character as “a mix between the classic femme fatale and the new psycho killers, one of the most evil characters ever created, on Hannibal Lecter’s level.” She was a murder suspect in both Basic Instinct and Basic Instinct 2 but charmed her way to the top, ultimately sleeping with Michael Douglas’ character in the first and David Morrissey’s in the second.
To concentrate on one particular example of the genre is forensic crime. The biggest player in this genre is that of CSI and the spin off-s CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. The original CSI is set in Las Vegas and was first aired in 2000, created by Anthony Zuiker, the show set out to show the behind the scenes of the crime drama. Instead of being out on the field (although the show does contain the detection and solving of the crime) we are shown behind the scenes how the crime is solved. The series has once lapsed into the fantasy genre (as seen in the season seven episode, “Toe Tag” where the story is told from the point of view from several corpses in the CSI lab). What set this show apart from other crimes genres are the unusual convention of camera angles, percussive editing, hi-tech gadgets, detailed technical discussion and the graphic portrayal of things like bullet trajectories and blood spray patterns. The technique of shooting extreme close up’s, normally with an explanation from one of the characters we are shown things like evidence recovery or how something within the body works. Many scenes in the show are quite lengthy in which we are seeing experiments/tests and the work is very detailed usually with minimal sounds, a technique similar to that used in Mission Impossible. The mis-en-scene elements of the show are influenced by avant-garde film.
Another technique that is used in the genre is that of music. Music in the crime genre is a heavy influence in the movies more than the television. Prime examples of the use of music are that in Psycho (Hitchcock), the famous shower scene contains very famous music of a plain hitting beat. This represents the knife as it goes through the woman each time, creating tension and suspense while adding another level of entertainment. Music is used a lot of the time as means to creating tension. An additional example of this is in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. The film centres around two young women, trying to make it big in the movie industry. At the beginning of the film, there are several dead people and throughout the film different mentions of crime and the darker side of humanity. Not always considered as a crime film but as a Lynchian film, this is due to the fact that Lynch films are very abstract and the meaning is not always straightforward. But the use of the music is very important in this, without the tension, the film would make even less sense. Tension keeps the viewer involved and wanting to get to the conclusion, expecting a massive ending.
Blurring between the different types of genre is what makes some television. The most modern example of this is Life on Mars 2006-2007; this show mixes the crime genre with the sci-fi genre. The main premise of the show is that in 2006, DCI Sam Tyler is knocked over in a car accident, when he wakes up, he is in 1973. The show is called a crime genre, as the main characters are all police, each episode shows the team solving a crime. Parallel to this is the fact that Sam is trying to find out how to get back home. We hear flickers from 2006/7 in his head while constantly getting reminders of alternate realities such as the BBC girl and doll in real life as well as the television and radio talking to Sam. Techniques, which highlight this series in the genre, are the constant voiceovers. These are clues to finishing the puzzle of the series, without these; there would be no story. They give background to the characters while allowing the audience to try and work out the puzzle for themselves. Other characteristics in this show are the use of flashback; these are both from before 1973 and during the present day. Giving more backstory and adding to the suspense of the story these show the audience a greater percentage of the satisfaction and expectation.
The traditional whodunit is sometimes referred to as a Golden Age Mystery. They are complex, plot driven detective stories in which the completion of a puzzle is the key to solving the murder. One of the biggest British writers of these is Agatha Christie. A lot of her novels have been adapted into either films or television adaptations. The set out of this sort of the crime is quite basic. The easiest way to show the plan to this sort of the genre is by looking at a television serial. For example, Cracker, the series has run over many years and the main character, Dr. Eddie ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald is a criminal psychologist and with the help of the police team, he creates a profile in his head of the murderer and in the end captures the murderer while explaining the motives behind the crime. The way these start are with a murder /s, once the crime has been committed the police come in and collect as much evidence as they can. Throughout the story, we are shown the ways that the team speak to suspects and piece together the puzzle.
The principle usually heads the team in solving the murder and capturing the offender. Another aspect to the whodunit crime is that the audience are treated to learning about the main characters (hero/heroine). One of the greatest writers creating characters that the audience become emotionally attached to is Lynda La Plante. Her creation, Prime Suspect’s main character, DCI Jane Tennison played by Helen Mirren goes through many different changes over the years of the show and so therefore a loyal audience member starts to understand the character and goes through the same emotion as those on screen.
Dick Wolf created the Law & Order franchise; these include some of the biggest shows in the courtroom drama genre. Adapted from the whodunit syndrome, the courtroom drama sees the criminal being bought to justice. The courtroom drama also comes under the genre of police procedural. Codes, which are typical in these sorts of dramas, are the primary focus on the crime in comparison to the character-based dramas. They present a much more complex picture of the juditional system and a closer look at police business. Legal dramas depend on situations where there is an obvious injustice or ones where the characters are very interesting or unusual. Another convention for legal dramas/courtroom dramas is the fact that the writer/director will concentrate much more on parts of the process that can be portrayed dramatically such as an oral argument instead of the areas such as researching for a written brief, as they could bore the audience.
The lighting in crime drama’s is another technique, which sets the mood and can sometimes affect the pace in which the action takes place. An example that comes to mind is the 2007 film, Disturbia. The film, which is loosely based on the story of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, takes similar effects from the latter. The story of Disturbia is about Kale Brecht, after being on house arrest, he starts to spy on the neighbours. When he suspects that the man across the road is actually a murderer with the help of two friends they want to find the truth. The film, set over a number of days and nights is dimly lit. When the action during the day is happening, either the curtains are drawn or the lights are off and this creates a sense of mystery. At night, the biggest action happens and this leads to creating almost a horror like atmosphere where anything could happen. The director has changed the saturation of the colours to highlight all the darker shades and this therefore adds to the tension.
Another convention that is seen in some crime drama’s is the use of dysfunctional characters. Although a lot of the time, the criminal is not of sound mind and that their killing is sometimes a revenge effort, a killer or suspicious character that identifies with all the classic horror of the 60’s and 70’s accompanies films such as Disturbia and Identity. When they are in shot, they give away apprehensive looks and gestures, which sometimes gives the audience clues as to their point in the film. They tend to creep around when no is looking and usually creep up on someone from behind.
Another type of crime blockbuster is the action thriller. Modern examples of these are The Sentinel, Die Hard and Shooter. The difference in these is that the majority of the time they are set around institutions such as the FBI and CIA. Also, they are full of action involving guns and explosives. The reason these fall into the crime genre is because most of the time they start with a killing or conspiracy to kill. Shooter’s main point is when the president is almost assassinated and the movie then revolves around the point of finding who committed the crime.
Television shows/serials such as Spooks and Britz base their foundation on agencies such as MI5 & MI6. They deal with public affairs and therefore they base their stories around items such as terrorism and collision of cultures. When crimes are committed, agents must solve the crime and bring whomever to justice. Spooks, for example, is made up of a team. It is a drama and as well the crime, the drama aspect of starting feel emotionally attached to characters and wanting to fight for their cause is just as important. They usually deal with current affairs and involve a great number of the population the culture that the show is aimed at. Sometimes the writer is trying to put a point across and change the view of the audience.
Fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who are usually against better-equipped villains characterize thrillers. Devices used in the film, television and novel are suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers. Thrillers usually overlap with mystery but are discriminated by the structure of their plots. The thriller can end in two different ways, when the mystery climaxes and is solved and the hero defeats the villain. The second way, usually seen in film noir and tragedy, is the compromised hero killed in the process. Crime thrillers focus on the criminal rather than the policeman and central topics include murders, robbers, chases, shootouts and double crosses. An example of the crime thriller is The Inside Man, which follows the group of bank robbers. The majority of the film is seen through the eyes of either the criminal or the victim.
The different types of detective that can seen in crime drama range from the amateur (Marple, Murder, she Wrote), private (Holmes, Poirot), police (Morse) and forensic (CSI, Kay Scarpetta). The serial killer genre has films like Zodiac, The Silence of the Lambs and Sweeney Todd, which sees some of the killers, become big in popular culture.
Media: What makes a crime drama?
There is no specific path on the road to writing a crime drama, when looking at the genre you see that there are many types of ways that it can be interpreted. From the forensic crime drama (CSI), the Hollywood blockbuster and the traditional format of the whodunit there are many different options, which can involve the nature of the characters and the entire premise of the show or movie.
Each of the different interpretations is open to varying codes and conventions. Crime fiction deals with crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. The beautiful thing about this genre is that the line between genres can be blurred and so therefore you are see a collision between different types of fiction such as the crime genre and the sci-fi kind (Life on Mars). Within the genre there are many sub-boundaries, some are mentioned above, amongst others including courtroom drama (Law & Order), legal thriller (Damages) and the police procedural (Prime Suspect).
The earliest crime novel is The Murder of Machine Operator Rolfsen by Mauritz Hansen, published in 1839. Other examples of earlier crime fiction are the darker works of Edgar Allen Poe (The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) & The Mystery of Marie Roget (1842)). The evolution then came when the creation of the locked room mystery came along, these involve a murder or other crime which happen under impossible circumstances, no one could enter or leave the scene and the death could not have been a suicide. The biggest stories of these mysteries are of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
When trying to pin point the fiction, it is difficult because the central motifs of love, danger and death are big in most sections of fiction. A recent example of this is the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis, about a Wall Street tycoon and a serial killer called Patrick Bateman living in NYC, although the crimes are described in vivid detail, the book has never been classed as a crime novel, perhaps due to the absence of the police and that Bateman was never bought to justice.
Crime films are usually those, which deal with the darker side of the human nature. These blockbuster films can be split into different sub-genres most commonly drama (Crash), thriller (Se7en), mystery (Agatha Christie novels), gangster (The Godfather) and film noir (Basic Instinct).
One of the most widely used codes in crime films is the use of a femme fatale. She is a seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in the bonds of desire that often leads to deadly situations. The phase is French for a deadly woman and she tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using things like charm, beauty and sexual allure. One of the biggest modern femme fatale was the character Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct. A European critic defined the character as “a mix between the classic femme fatale and the new psycho killers, one of the most evil characters ever created, on Hannibal Lecter’s level.” She was a murder suspect in both Basic Instinct and Basic Instinct 2 but charmed her way to the top, ultimately sleeping with Michael Douglas’ character in the first and David Morrissey’s in the second.
To concentrate on one particular example of the genre is forensic crime. The biggest player in this genre is that of CSI and the spin off-s CSI: Miami and CSI: NY. The original CSI is set in Las Vegas and was first aired in 2000, created by Anthony Zuiker, the show set out to show the behind the scenes of the crime drama. Instead of being out on the field (although the show does contain the detection and solving of the crime) we are shown behind the scenes how the crime is solved. The series has once lapsed into the fantasy genre (as seen in the season seven episode, “Toe Tag” where the story is told from the point of view from several corpses in the CSI lab). What set this show apart from other crimes genres are the unusual convention of camera angles, percussive editing, hi-tech gadgets, detailed technical discussion and the graphic portrayal of things like bullet trajectories and blood spray patterns. The technique of shooting extreme close up’s, normally with an explanation from one of the characters we are shown things like evidence recovery or how something within the body works. Many scenes in the show are quite lengthy in which we are seeing experiments/tests and the work is very detailed usually with minimal sounds, a technique similar to that used in Mission Impossible. The mis-en-scene elements of the show are influenced by avant-garde film.
Another technique that is used in the genre is that of music. Music in the crime genre is a heavy influence in the movies more than the television. Prime examples of the use of music are that in Psycho (Hitchcock), the famous shower scene contains very famous music of a plain hitting beat. This represents the knife as it goes through the woman each time, creating tension and suspense while adding another level of entertainment. Music is used a lot of the time as means to creating tension. An additional example of this is in David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. The film centres around two young women, trying to make it big in the movie industry. At the beginning of the film, there are several dead people and throughout the film different mentions of crime and the darker side of humanity. Not always considered as a crime film but as a Lynchian film, this is due to the fact that Lynch films are very abstract and the meaning is not always straightforward. But the use of the music is very important in this, without the tension, the film would make even less sense. Tension keeps the viewer involved and wanting to get to the conclusion, expecting a massive ending.
Blurring between the different types of genre is what makes some television. The most modern example of this is Life on Mars 2006-2007; this show mixes the crime genre with the sci-fi genre. The main premise of the show is that in 2006, DCI Sam Tyler is knocked over in a car accident, when he wakes up, he is in 1973. The show is called a crime genre, as the main characters are all police, each episode shows the team solving a crime. Parallel to this is the fact that Sam is trying to find out how to get back home. We hear flickers from 2006/7 in his head while constantly getting reminders of alternate realities such as the BBC girl and doll in real life as well as the television and radio talking to Sam. Techniques, which highlight this series in the genre, are the constant voiceovers. These are clues to finishing the puzzle of the series, without these; there would be no story. They give background to the characters while allowing the audience to try and work out the puzzle for themselves. Other characteristics in this show are the use of flashback; these are both from before 1973 and during the present day. Giving more backstory and adding to the suspense of the story these show the audience a greater percentage of the satisfaction and expectation.
The traditional whodunit is sometimes referred to as a Golden Age Mystery. They are complex, plot driven detective stories in which the completion of a puzzle is the key to solving the murder. One of the biggest British writers of these is Agatha Christie. A lot of her novels have been adapted into either films or television adaptations. The set out of this sort of the crime is quite basic. The easiest way to show the plan to this sort of the genre is by looking at a television serial. For example, Cracker, the series has run over many years and the main character, Dr. Eddie ‘Fitz’ Fitzgerald is a criminal psychologist and with the help of the police team, he creates a profile in his head of the murderer and in the end captures the murderer while explaining the motives behind the crime. The way these start are with a murder /s, once the crime has been committed the police come in and collect as much evidence as they can. Throughout the story, we are shown the ways that the team speak to suspects and piece together the puzzle.
The principle usually heads the team in solving the murder and capturing the offender. Another aspect to the whodunit crime is that the audience are treated to learning about the main characters (hero/heroine). One of the greatest writers creating characters that the audience become emotionally attached to is Lynda La Plante. Her creation, Prime Suspect’s main character, DCI Jane Tennison played by Helen Mirren goes through many different changes over the years of the show and so therefore a loyal audience member starts to understand the character and goes through the same emotion as those on screen.
Dick Wolf created the Law & Order franchise; these include some of the biggest shows in the courtroom drama genre. Adapted from the whodunit syndrome, the courtroom drama sees the criminal being bought to justice. The courtroom drama also comes under the genre of police procedural. Codes, which are typical in these sorts of dramas, are the primary focus on the crime in comparison to the character-based dramas. They present a much more complex picture of the juditional system and a closer look at police business. Legal dramas depend on situations where there is an obvious injustice or ones where the characters are very interesting or unusual. Another convention for legal dramas/courtroom dramas is the fact that the writer/director will concentrate much more on parts of the process that can be portrayed dramatically such as an oral argument instead of the areas such as researching for a written brief, as they could bore the audience.
The lighting in crime drama’s is another technique, which sets the mood and can sometimes affect the pace in which the action takes place. An example that comes to mind is the 2007 film, Disturbia. The film, which is loosely based on the story of Hitchcock’s Rear Window, takes similar effects from the latter. The story of Disturbia is about Kale Brecht, after being on house arrest, he starts to spy on the neighbours. When he suspects that the man across the road is actually a murderer with the help of two friends they want to find the truth. The film, set over a number of days and nights is dimly lit. When the action during the day is happening, either the curtains are drawn or the lights are off and this creates a sense of mystery. At night, the biggest action happens and this leads to creating almost a horror like atmosphere where anything could happen. The director has changed the saturation of the colours to highlight all the darker shades and this therefore adds to the tension.
Another convention that is seen in some crime drama’s is the use of dysfunctional characters. Although a lot of the time, the criminal is not of sound mind and that their killing is sometimes a revenge effort, a killer or suspicious character that identifies with all the classic horror of the 60’s and 70’s accompanies films such as Disturbia and Identity. When they are in shot, they give away apprehensive looks and gestures, which sometimes gives the audience clues as to their point in the film. They tend to creep around when no is looking and usually creep up on someone from behind.
Another type of crime blockbuster is the action thriller. Modern examples of these are The Sentinel, Die Hard and Shooter. The difference in these is that the majority of the time they are set around institutions such as the FBI and CIA. Also, they are full of action involving guns and explosives. The reason these fall into the crime genre is because most of the time they start with a killing or conspiracy to kill. Shooter’s main point is when the president is almost assassinated and the movie then revolves around the point of finding who committed the crime.
Television shows/serials such as Spooks and Britz base their foundation on agencies such as MI5 & MI6. They deal with public affairs and therefore they base their stories around items such as terrorism and collision of cultures. When crimes are committed, agents must solve the crime and bring whomever to justice. Spooks, for example, is made up of a team. It is a drama and as well the crime, the drama aspect of starting feel emotionally attached to characters and wanting to fight for their cause is just as important. They usually deal with current affairs and involve a great number of the population the culture that the show is aimed at. Sometimes the writer is trying to put a point across and change the view of the audience.
Fast pacing, frequent action, and resourceful heroes who are usually against better-equipped villains characterize thrillers. Devices used in the film, television and novel are suspense, red herrings and cliffhangers. Thrillers usually overlap with mystery but are discriminated by the structure of their plots. The thriller can end in two different ways, when the mystery climaxes and is solved and the hero defeats the villain. The second way, usually seen in film noir and tragedy, is the compromised hero killed in the process. Crime thrillers focus on the criminal rather than the policeman and central topics include murders, robbers, chases, shootouts and double crosses. An example of the crime thriller is The Inside Man, which follows the group of bank robbers. The majority of the film is seen through the eyes of either the criminal or the victim.
The different types of detective that can seen in crime drama range from the amateur (Marple, Murder, she Wrote), private (Holmes, Poirot), police (Morse) and forensic (CSI, Kay Scarpetta). The serial killer genre has films like Zodiac, The Silence of the Lambs and Sweeney Todd, which sees some of the killers, become big in popular culture.
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