RESEARCH / PLANNING: ENIGMA, SUSPENSE & JEOPARDY

(Use this as a model for your post)
I have identified certain shot types, camera movements, visual and sound codes that I find inspiring. In the caption to each shot I explain why I have drawn attention to it.

From Inspector Montalbano: A wide, high angle shot that functions as an establishing shot conveys the location, crime and personnel quickly to the audience.

From Lewis: A high angle shot positions two detectives moving rapidly through a crime scene and talking rapidly on the phone. The audience can share their haste and sense of urgency; the mise-en-scene of the grand surroundings is established effortlessly.

Smoke moves across the screen during the title sequence of Silent Witness, creating mystery and secrecy by half obscuring the letters. The graphics suggest what might be seen through a microscope slide, in keeping with the forensics of crime detection.

RESEARCH: SCOOPIT!

(Use this as a model for your post)
Here is my ScoopIt! where I am collecting the crime drama that I plan to investigate. ScoopIt! is an online curating tool that collates my research (like a magazine) as well as offering useful interactive features (offering suggestions that I might like to 'scoop'.) Sign up HERE. 

An example of a ScoopIt! on TV crime drama HERE

Class: My example is thriller codes and conventions: yours be film & TV crime

RESEARCH: GENRE CONVENTIONS

(This post models for you what we started in today's lesson and what you need to develop for prep. It will help Georgina and Andrew who area absent today. You will make 2 posts: this one which develops into a ScoopIt! and a second which shows screen grabs of effective work that you find inspirational.)

In order to research genre conventions for the type of film opening that I am planning, I looked at clips from similar productions. I identified visual and sound codes that I would like to use myself.

Group 1
Last lesson, I planned the outline treatment for a crime drama involving a realistic British scenario with a young college student who works part-time on the fish counter of a high street supermarket and who witnesses a stabbing as he leaves work.

I need to familiarize myself with the crime genre as I do not watch much of it; my first port of call was the internet to see what other people watched, as boxed sets are very popular. I found that this is a huge genre ranging from genteel investigators like Poirot and Miss Marple to hard-hitting productions like The Wire and Taggart.

Boxed sets of crime drama reveal the wide range of crime drama

Now, I list some of the productions of British, European and American film and TV crime drama that I intend to investigate. I will create a ScoopIt! page to collate my research.

Sherlock
Inspector Morse BBC

Lewis BBC (sequel)
Endeavour BBC (prequel)
Jonathan Creek
Murder She Wrote
Inspector Poirot
Waking The Dead
The Midsomer Murders
Inspector Montalbano
Young Montalbano (prequel)
Zen BBC
The Inspector Linley Mysteries
Taggart
Wallender
Silent Witness 
Trial and Retribution 

Group 2
Last lesson, I planned the outline treatment for a psychological drama involving a young woman who becomes mentally unstable when she discovers that she cannot have children. The drama unfolds as she becomes obsessively devoted to dolls that resemble babies.

I need to familiarize myself with the psychological genre as I do not watch much of it; my first port of call was the internet to see what other people watched, as boxed sets are very popular. I found that this is a huge genre ranging from ... productions like