In what ways does your media product USE, DEVELOP or CHALLENGE forms and conventions of real media products?
Our opening sequence for the film “Granted” is of the crime drama genre. The opening follows many aspects of a crime drama genre and its codes and conventions. What makes our opening unique is that we have not introduced the main characters and there is no hint about the narrative. This intrigues the audience to know what this film is about, which makes them curious and want to watch the rest of the film. Film such as “Scarface” and “Casino” are from the crime drama genre and we have analysed these films and others to gain a good understanding of this genre.
‘Granted’ follows the typical themes of the crime and drama genre which are:
Death
Gang crime
Justice system – Court, Lawyers
However we incorporated a few more themes to make an interesting story which are usually themes of the drama genre. Basically we have combined the themes from looking at the two genres (crime and drama) and linking them together to relate to our narrative, but only giving some clues away.
Betrayal
Brotherhood
Guilt
The themes we have focussed on in our opening sequence are death and gang crime. This challenged the narrative as we did not want to give too much of the story away in just the opening of the film. The aspect of death has been shown through the mid shot of the police line preventing people from crossing to the other side as there has been a serious incident. This creates an enigma for the audience as they do not know what exactly has happened for the police to be there. The aspect of gang crime has been shown through the long shot of the graffiti wall and shots of a gang in a dirty alley way. We did not include all our themes in the opening as it would make our film very predictable and unsuccessful amongst the public. We challenged the themes of a crime drama genre by adding the three themes betrayal, brotherhood and guilt.
The narrative and themes are both linked as the themes make up the narrative. It follows the conventions of a real media product as we chose to keep the narrative as suspense in the opening sequence. The narrative is about two brothers who were separated at a very young age and they grew up in two very different lives. The protagonist, Trey Smith, was brought up in a more civilised environment. He has a respectful career as a C.I.D agent. Where as the antagonist, Nicholas Smith (Big Jon) was brought up living in the “ghetto” of London and grew up to be the leader of London’s most wanted gang, “The D.R.D” (Dirt Road Diggers). Trey (Tee dog) is sent on an undercover mission to the apartment of this gang and gains their trust as a member of the gang. We challenged Trey’s character as we changed his appearance to a gangster rather than staying in a smart uniform throughout the film. We then developed his character as a gangster by having that care free attitude and willing to take risks and commit crimes. He then always sends off information to the C.I.D Headquarters when one day suspicion arises with Big Jon and he finds out that Tee dog is a member of the C.I.D. We used the codes and conventions of a typical character from the crime drama genre with Big Jon as he tragically shoots Tee dog while he is asleep. He does this because his unsympathetic personality doesn’t allow him to care about anyone but himself and his own safety and is willing to kill anyone that would come in his way. The headquarters sense something is wrong when Tee dog stopped answering their calls and the SWAT team raided the apartment. The gang is then arrested and while in court as Big Jon is being sentenced he discovers that he shot is own blood brother.
We included a production company title called “A.D.A Productions” as it is essential for all films to include this at the start of the film. Production titles help identify the company it was produced by such as “Columbia Pictures”
From analysing films from the crime drama genre, such as “Scarface” by Martin Scorsese, we decided that adding statistics would give our film the serious mood we aimed to create. As the audience read the statistics in the beginning, the genre is hinted straight away as there are facts about crime. We added in statistics in the middle of the sequence as well to give the shots of the area and gang a break which created a flow for the sequence. We challenged the codes and conventions by adding in quotes from a member of the metropolitan police and a member of the “D.R.D” gang from our story. This gives the opening a more personal feel as real quotes have been used to portray how the people living in this environment feel about the area they live in. This also hints who the protagonists and antagonists may be.
To follow the codes and conventions of a crime drama opening sequence we chose to film a run down area. This is because we focused on the harsh reality of the environment many gangsters live in. For example, we have a long shot of some gangsters in an alley way, which indicates anti social behaviour and the gang members having a private meeting. This also shows gang rivalry which helps the audience understand where this film is actually set. It also gives the audience an idea of how poor the area is and there is a lot of struggle for money, and introduces the type of world our characters are living in. We developed our location by making it look more “rough” than it already was. For example in the shot with the gangsters in the alley way, we see a lot of litter on the floor. We challenged the location of our film by adding a lot more litter than there already was as we wanted to represent a really run down area of London. This is an example of cinematography.
We chose to have no dialogue or diegetic sound in our opening, as we decided to have a R&B/ Grime soundtrack during the sequence. This follows the codes and conventions of a crime drama film, and also suits the rough area shown as it consists of gangs and stereotypically, today’s youth listen to a lot of grime/ R&B and Hip Hop. The opening for the film “Scarface” also has a soundtrack which suits the busy atmosphere shown and that is the effect we wanted to create as well.
In many of the opening sequences we looked at, the credits are in separate shots, such as in “Scarface”. However, as we wanted our opening to look original we chose to roll on the credits as we see the shots of the area. By doing this it also challenges the way a typical crime drama opening would be like. The establishing shot of the area which is a pan of a railway and houses has a title of what area it is – “Barking, London” like in ‘Scarface’ the location is not only shown, but introduced where exactly in the world the place is.
For the opening sequence we chose not to include our protagonist and antagonist because we wanted the focus to be on just introducing the area and genre which enables the audience to prepare and expect certain elements, such as crime by seeing gangs. The opening of ‘Scarface’ also does this as the historical background of a place is shown which gives the audience some knowledge about important information the audience should know before continuing to watch on. Therefore as there is no introduction of the main characters, an enigmatic feel has already been created for the audience as there is a sense of curiosity to know why exactly this area is being shown in great detail.
The gang shown wore Hoodies to stereotypically represent teenage gangsters and this follows the codes and convention of what you would expect to see in a crime drama film. For example in the films “Adulthood” and “Kidulthood” we see the main costume characters are seen wearing are Hoodies and casual street wear. This connotes youth culture and what many gangsters are stereotypically seen wearing.
Everything we have shown in our shots is to do with a rough area in the “ghetto” of London, where crime starts. It is important to show this as it shows the global issue of young people getting involved in serious crimes from a young age and living as criminals as they are easily influenced by peer pressure and the environment they are living in. When we came across the alley way, it was not that dirty, but for cinematography we added more rubbish, alcohol bottles and paper around the set to make it look like a very disgusting place to be socialising. For example in opening of the film ‘Adulthood’ we see many youths raving in quite a dirty place which makes the audience think that it is illegal. Therefore we have used the same idea that the gang in our opening have trespassed and are in a private alley owned by the council. Dirty and isolated locations are typical for young people to be at as they seem to live in their own worlds and they feel captivated by constantly following rules and regulations.
Crime and drama genre films have serious narratives and often involve crime, the law and death. The characters this genre involves are criminals, police/C.I.D, teenagers, minorities, detectives etc. The setting of this genre is usually set in small towns, or large cities. The cinematography may be shown through low key lighting to suggest the “dark” side of reality of the serious crime situations. The make up and costume would be associated to the characters. For example, a teenage gangster would wear a hoody, low batty jeans and probably some jewellery as well. The dialogue would also be quite harsh, like street slang. This is because the dialogue would make it more realistic to the setting and the gangster character. The opening sequences to crime drama movies are also quite serious and full of suspense. This keeps the audience engaged and curious to know what will happen next.
Key directors and actors:
American Gangster - Ridley Scott - starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe
Goodfellas – Martin Scorsese – starring Robert De Niro , Ray Liotta,Joe Pesci,Lorraine Bracco,Paul Sorvino
Scarface – Brian De Palma - Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer
Goodfellas : Martin Scorsese
Personally the opening of Goodfellas is quite shocking. This is because I haven’t seen this movie and as I do not know what this film is about it creates a sudden shock in the beginning of the film. For example, towards the end of the opening the injured victim was shown in the boot of the car and then was killed by one of the gangsters. This was unexpected. Creating a shock in the beginning of a film is an excellent way to start off as it keeps the audience engaged and this way the audience do not know what to expect. The opening establishes key generic codes and conventions such as dialogue, props and costume. For example, the dialogue used is American slang and has a certain dialect which shows what part of America they are from. It may suggest these people are from a small part of America with a high gang and crime rate. This also adds to their “gangster” characters and as gangsters are shown committing a murder in the opening, the genre is established that it is of gangster crime genre. The props used such as the gun used to kill the person in the boot of the car also suggests this and the way the gangster’s costume looks quite smart as gangsters would. All these codes and conventions link back to the genre of the movie which meet my expectations of a typical opening sequence from this genre. It is important to show this as the audience have an idea of what to expect to see.
The clues the opening gives about the narrative are things such as the main character’s personality. The director, Scorsese, has clearly shown that the main character is the taxi driver and later on, is shown as a gangster after his dialogue that suggests being involved with a gang. We can tell he is the main character as he is the first person we see in the frame in the first shot. There is mostly diegetic sound used in the credits and opening scene, but towards the end of the opening a soundtrack is played and the title is introduced. This reflects the genre in an effective way as the soundtrack took the seriousness away from the incident which shows the audience that this is how light-heartedly gangsters take murders and robberies. I think the director chose to do this so that the audience can feel the way the main character is feeling. The title is used at the end of the opening with the same transitions as the credits but in red letters. This reflects the genre as the colour red can be associated with blood shed which is shown in the beginning of the film.
