By Tahian Ahmed

Crime Mystery(Hybrid Genre)

A hybrid genre is when two or more genres come together in one film or opening scene, for example; a film may consist of a thriller and drama genre or an action and adventure genre

Hybrid Genre Definition

Crime fiction is a genre that consists of many attributes such as murders, detectives and mysteries. The story in this genre would typically be about how a criminal has committed a crime, the police would start investigating and then an outcome of judgement where the criminal would be arrested or put to death depending on the crime and the place the crime was committed.

Crime genre films are really popular as there would always be a sub genre along with is whether it’s thriller, drama or in some cases comedy. These types of films are popular especially amongst teenagers as they can relate to it some way or another.

Crime

The setting would usually be in a city as it is shown to be a really busy place packed with citizens going on with their everyday lives. This makes crime more likely to take place as they could cover it up quickly, find suitable victims as well as having police offices located nearby to fit the storyline.

The title of the show would also play a huge part in the storyline of the film. This is because it would usually give a clue to what the story is about. For example, if we look at crime films such as Sherlock Holmes, it gives the name of the detective who’s the main character of the show.

The characters in this genre would usually include the criminals, the victims, the justice department such as the police and investigators as well as friends and family members of the victim.

Conventions of Crime

The narrative of a crime genre is that there will always be a crime to be solved and in some sort of way they would also allow the audience to also try figure it out themselves whether. In mystery crime films, the criminal may sometimes be hidden from the viewers so the main storyline is who that criminal is which will also allow the audience to find out for themselves who he/she may be.

The lighting is also really important, this is because whenever a crime is taking place or a criminal is being shown the lighting would usually be seen to dark or dimmed out.

Throughout crime films the audience will always see the same props, whichever film you’re watching these props must be included – Some sort of weapon (guns, knives etc) police cars and newspapers

Music plays a huge part in playing with the audiences feelings as plays a vital part in setting the emotion in a scene.

Conventions of Crime

Equilibrium – Ordinary life Disruption – Crime is committed Recognition – Detective/police find out about the crime Attempt to Repair - Detective tries to solve the crime New Equilibrium – Crime is solved, detective returns to normal life

Todorov’s Narrative Theory

This is a type of fiction where a detective or another profession such as a police officer would try to solve a mystery regarding a crime or unnatural events. At the same time, the film will be produced in a way that the audience also plays a role as a detective as they would also try to solve the mystery as the film goes on.

Mystery

D – Don’t I – Ignore S – Setting T – Technical I – Iconography C – Character T – Themes

Conventions of Mystery

The location of a mystery based film can range from the countryside to the big city. It all depends on what the mystery is and how the storyline goes.

The mystery involves a high rate crime then the setting would usually take place in a city as it would have access to many other locations within it such as police stations, deprived areas, hospitals, forensic labs etc.

However, these crimes could also take place in a countryside where there is less people and less intervention by public services. People would only be able to reply on what they have in their town for a certain amount of time until it became a huge issue which would have to be caught up by authorities of bigger expertise.

Setting

Close up shots are highly popular to use in mystery based films especially when showing the expression of a person’s face when discovering something unexpected.

High and low angles would also play a vital role in showing the audience when a character is either vulnerable or if they’ve got more social status or power than another character in the same scene.

A lot of the times during a fight or chase scene, scenes would cut into each other really fast as this would create tension and a case of suspense for the audience.

Technical Codes

Lighting – The lighting also has an influence in setting the scene as it would determine what may take place as well as show what kind of character an individual is. For example, the victim would usually be seen in a dark or dim lit location whereas the detectives would usually be seen in a place where it’s usually bright.

Characters – The protagonist is usually seen to be super smart as his character would be a detective whose job it is to solve the mystery of the crime. Whereas the antagonist in a mystery film would not have their identity revealed until the end of the film.

Props – The props you would usually see in mystery genre film would consist if weapons relating to the crime, detective instruments (magnifying glasses, glasses etc), police cars etc

Iconography

The majority of mystery films usually have a similar narrative structure where the criminal would commit a crime involving a high profile character. The police detective or a private detective would then be called in by another source to investigate the crime. Along the investigation the detective would witness of characters dying where the criminal will make a mistake and leave some clues. These clues will aid the detective in finding out who’s responsible for the crimes that were committed. However in this process, people will have doubts in him for his work and if he is capable of solving the mystery. By the end of the film, the criminal will always get caught and his identity would also be revealed which majority of the times is a previous character which the audience had no idea of thinking it was him.

Narrative Structure

Identifying the wrong person as a suspect Good vs Evil Mystery Justice Murder Clues

Themes