Enigmas

Who is this man?
What is in the rapping?
Why is he throwing it in the lake?
Why is he in a foreign country?
Who is this man?
Why is he holding them hostage?
What is it time for?
Why are they running?
Why is he playing chess?
Why is he staring at him?
Why are they hugging?
Who is on the phone and why does he have 3 phones?
How can he talk english?

Sherlock, CSI, Luther Comparison Diagram

Institutions

To fully understand television crime drama, you should understand that industry behind the programmes. Producing and broadcasting a television crime drama is a highly technical process that requires a vast array of resources and equipment. Programmes have to be written, filmed, edited and involve hundreds of people in the production process.
For this reason, broadcasting has tended to be done by large media corporations who have those resources. Let's look at some of the major television institutions and their contribution to crime drama.

Dirk Gently - Series 1 - Episode 1

Villain: The villain was not seen until the end of the episode although the villain was not justified and was not imprisoned by the police. The criminal was found as he threatened Dirk Gently (the investigator) as he became paranoid of him accidentally following him using Zen navigation. He then threatened to kill the investigators and confessed to them about two murders by telling them the way he saw the story although he judged it wrong.

Hero:  The hero in this crime drama is definitely an anti hero as once he finds the dead body at the scene he takes money from the victim’s wallet and then doesn’t call the police. This also tells us about his company he works for which is a detective agency, so like Sherlock he also doesn’t work for the police. During the investigation he obtained a valuable piece of software which put him at risk during the episode and ended up with it being stolen by a secret agent. He also accidentally found the killer at the end of the episode by following a car in a idea he calls Zen navigation where you follow someone who looks like they know where they are going, during this trip he followed without realising the murderer of the crime.

Victim:  There were two victims in the end who were both killed by the same person. The first victim was killed also due to paranoia of the victim hiring the detective agency for another completely unrelated job that the killer did not know about.

Set Pieces:

Multiple suspects: There were multiple suspects in the investigation and there was also multiple investigations going on at the same times, which were strangely all linked in together.

Crime scene investigation: At the crime scene the investigators looked at things about the victims in order to learn more about the victim as a person to help lead them to who their killer was, rather than look for murder weapons and clues from the crime scene.

Eponymous: The show is eponymous as it is named after the main character.

Restrictive narrative: The villain was not revealed until the end of the episode and we only knew as much as the police did at the time.

Exam Tips

Pre-release materials - 14th May
Exam - 14th June
TAKE INTO EXAM:
- Coloured  Pencils
- Fine Liners
- Ruler
Practical tasks you could get in the exam:
- make a DVD COVER,
- a FRONT COVER 
- LISTING MAG
- MAGAZINE COVER
- WEBSITE HOMEPAGE (keep in mind)
- STORYBOARD
etc, etc.. It will not JUST require you to write huge essays.

* TIP: Make sure to also add sketches and diagrams - spider diagrams/ bullet points
YOU WILL NEED:
- Depth Knowledge of 3 crime dramas
- You need to mention 3 at least in the exam, e.g. Luther, CSI, Sherlock 
- Use own independent dramas that you have researched/watched yourself

Make sure to use a variety of each show
American - Heraitio - Perfect cop
Fantasy - Sherlock
Gritty - Luther - anti hero
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- A-A* NEED WILL NEED AT LEAST TWO THEORIES.
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Uses and Grafitications 

Reasons why we like media
- information
- for escapist environment
- entertainment
- personal identity
- personal relationships

Propps Character Theory -
The theory of each different kind of role a character is:
Hero, Villian, Princess, Donar. 
Barthes -
The theory that every narrative has an enigma = something to be solved, a puzzle. An enigma is very clever and important for a crime drama.

Tudorov Narrative Theory -
The theory that all narratives follow 3 different parts:
1- equilibrium - normality
2- disruption - problems
3- resolution
Levi Straus -
The theory that all narratives revolve around opposites that conflict one another. 
Good vs Evil
Law vs Criminal
Lies vs truth
Good vs bad

Hypodermic needle theory -An early theory that suggests we are injected
with ideas that we believe to be true.
BINARY OPPOSITES
...OR involve crime dramas you have personally watched e.g 'technology of CSI: Miami vs stupidity of the criminal', or 'Luther is on both sides of Levi Straus' argument as he is both Good and Bad.'
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-Detailed knowledge of characters.
3 Characters with a lot of information about each
e.g Luther - complicated character, thinks he's above the law. He has a warped view of the law and is a high risk-taker who wears his heart on his sleeve and is very emotional and aggressive. He is passionate and determined about his work and usually takes it outside of business and home with him.
- Good understandings of settings
Vegas - gambling, casino, american, desert.
Miami - glamarous, multi cultural, edge of the country.
London - rich, nice apartments, gritty
- Set pieces and iconography
e.g.
- Sirens
- Police tape
- crime scene investigation
- water on desk
Jargon - types of words the detectives use associated with crime drama e.g 'detective'
Modus Operandi (MO)
- the detective's manner of working e.g 'he uses the same pattern of stabbing the criminal 5 times' etc
Write in ROLE.
- You are writing to SELL, so you need to stay in that role and use flashy words and be enthusiastic about your drama
- You need to use REASONS for everything and support your ideas/opinions etc

NCIS

Villain: The villain was questioned multiple times before the revealing at the end of the episode. During these meetings she acted very normal and calm and acted innocent in order to hide her offense. The villain killed the victim due to jealousy of brains and plans/ blueprints worth a lot of money. The villain was a coworker of the victim and betrayed the victim by pretending to be friends with her and killed her off by poisoning the water supply. In the end the villain did end up confessing after giving up hiding as there was too much evidence against her.

Hero:  The hero in this crime drama was a perfect hero and did not bend the rules/ law throughout the episode. He was in almost every investigation scene and took part in interrogating suspects of the murder as well as investigating the crime scene, he was also the one to arrest the criminal at the end of the episode.

Victim:  Had no children, no partner or boyfriends ever, the only relative she had was her mother. The victim's was killed by getting hit by a bus at around 15mph. Late at night. When the body was found it had writing all over her body, on her skin, it was some sort of code as it was tonnes of formulas. She was recently fired from her job in which she was indulged in and recently was fired from.

Set Pieces:

-Multiple suspects: There were multiple suspects during the episode of NCIS although most of the suspects did not turn up until the end of the episode and they all had relatively reasonable motives so they did not make it too obvious who the criminal was.

-Crime scene investigation: This scene contained the typical events that occur during the crime scene investigation such as: They used cones to mark out clues and evidence, and they used police tape to clear out the area. Also they took photos of the body and clues on the body, in this case was the writing all over the body which was also looked into further in the autopsy later on in the episode.

Post watershed: The programme was broadcasted after 9 o’clock although it contained no scenes that were extremely inappropriate for children

Restrictive narrative: The villain was not revealed until the end of the episode and we only knew as much as the police did at the time.

-Nerdy Crime Investigation Squad

Settings

Settings are an important key feature for all crime dramas as without certain settings, a lot of events wouldn’t make any sense at all, for example: Luther is set in the urban area of London so it is more gritty compared to something like Sherlock which is set in the expensive part of London with amazing flats which are really expensive

Luther as a flawed Anti-Hero

Luther is a flawed Anti-Hero because we love him as a character because he is a badass and doesn't follow the rules like a rebel, but as a cop he is imperfect which makes him an anti-hero. The following things that have occurred are the pieces that make Luther an anti hero:
He left a criminal to die instead of helping him, this is against the law and Luther’s job is in jeopardy because of this as at any moment the criminal could wake up from his coma and he could lose his job

Criminal Minds

Villain: Peter, a very calm killer who planned all his killings. He had picked a selective group of people who go to meetings in order to gain advice from problems such as Alcohol, drugs, divorcing. He uses a drug to paralyze the victim’s body but keeps them alive and awake and then he takes the victim’s memoirs that they had written in order to improve on their problems, and he uses them as fake suicide notes in order to hide his murders as suicides.

Hero: There was a team of heroes and they were all perfect heroes as they abided by the law and all were friends within the job although there was no humour within the group.

Victim: Paul, he committed suicide by electrocuting himself with a toaster in his bath tub. Police think that his suicide was linked into other suicides following a fire that killed 14 children 5 other parents had committed suicide since the fire every 2 weeks. This brought the deaths up to next level due to the suspicion of murder (which we later found out was the case).

Set Pieces:

-Flashbacks: This particular crime drama did not use any flashbacks

-Montages: This Crime drama did not use montages

-Crime scene: A crime scene occurred during this crime drama but it was a very short scene, it lasted for about ten seconds and all that happened was the body was taken photos of and then the body was removed for autopsy. They used typical props in the drama such as cones and photographers although they did not have any police tape.

 -The Eureka moment: The eureka moment was used in this episode of criminal minds and happened towards the end of the episode after one small clue got them the location of the serial killer, this then linked in all the evidence that then later caught them the killer. The moment was shared between all of the members of the crime investigation team and it took place in the office which is another typical scene/place that we see commonly in crime dramas.

The Episode I watched was a restrictive narrative although we got to see who the killer was about 10 minutes before the end and before the crime was resolved which gives the viewer the insight and keeps them hooked on ‘how are they going to catch him’

Set Pieces

The Laboratory (CSI)

One of the set pieces that we always see in a crime drama is a Laboratory scene. The things that usually turn up in this scene are;

-We usually see a scientist/ investigator of some sort looking at substances or pieces of evidence from the crime scene.

-We are most likely get a clue from this scene, occasionally it is a red herring but finding DNA on evidence isn’t always enough evidence.

-Some programmes alter reality in these scenes such as CSI alters the speed in which it takes for DNA samples to be read, also they use equipment that does not exist such as a broken CD sample reader in order to ‘wow’ the audience.

-The jargon that you would most likely hear in these scenes would be “DNA, Sample, and Fibres” and also other general things that would relate to the case such as “weapon” and “body”.

The Eureka moment (Sherlock)

Another scene that is typical for crime dramas is ‘The Eureka moment’. This is the moment in which the investigator (usually the main character) turns around deep in thought and they know who the criminal is.

-We usually see a moment of complete silence with no talking or sound unless it is a sound that is building up towards when the character speaks.

-Usually the camera rotates around the character or the camera stays still and the character turns around.

-The character has a look of astonishment on their face as they have found out who the killer was.

Initial crime scene investigation (Sherlock)

This scene is where the victim of the crime scene is investigated by the investigators.
-They look around for little clues on the body and from other things such as fibres and scuff marks, etc.
-There is usually police guarding the scene and a typical prop that we see pop up is the police tape.
-

Murdoch's Mysteries Episode 1

Murdoch’s Mysteries

Villain: The criminal in the end of the episode was an unsuccessful hotel manager who ran the bar in the hotel, his motive was that he wanted all the people who came for the gold rush to come to his hotel as the other hotel manager was running him out of business. There was a second criminal in this episode and she was the wife of the man who was murdered, she hired a man to murder her husband as she was upset with him as he did not “fulfil her desires” and she quoted that she was “in a passionless marriage,” therefore she was sentenced to the noose and her punishment was to be hanged.

Hero: The hero is an ex police officer who goes by the name of Murdoch. Murdoch's Mysteries is a prime example of an eponymous TV show where the name of the programme is named after the main character. He is a crime investigator and he solves his investigations by investigating the usual items such as the victim’s body, the crime scene and the murder weapon etc. I noticed as I was watching the show that Murdoch picks up on small details such as the soil left on the murder weapon and scratches on the back of a pocket watch indicating it had belonged to someone else beforehand and had been stolen. He uses occasional sarcasm in a comedic sense although he is a perfect cop and abides strictly to the law.

Victim:  The victim was an older male shot through the heart, who had a wife but no kids. His wife had hired someone to execute him due to certain desires not being met and they had a passionless marriage. Another victim was a fairly young woman who ran a successful business as a hotel manager. She was killed by a pick axe to the head which instantly killed her.

Set Pieces:
-Flashbacks A flashback was used once the criminal was exposed in order to put the killer in the position of the murder at the crime scene and to react the murder. This was effective as we could all the clues coming together and this rounded off the episode well.
-Multiple suspects The show used multiple suspects and it was a closed narrative which kept the viewer in suspense. For example there were a couple of suspects that were all possible to be the murderers as they all had good motives such as Mrs Bryant whose motive was that the victim had stolen her dead husbands pocket watch which she kept as a memo to remember him, so it was very precious to her. Mrs Bryant was the original suspect but Murdoch managed to relieve her of her punishment and put the two criminals to rest. There were also other suspects that were not spoken too much about such as a man who was with Mrs Bryant but then disappeared at the time of the murder.

CSI: New York (Not sure what episode)

Villain: Travis Moss, was a very calm shooter, used the gun 3 times in 2 days, one shot at an officer and another at a friend’s leg, and the third killed a guy. Who had a row with his girlfriend, Crystal, who is a burlesque dancer and walked outside looking for a fight. He later attempted to kill his ex girlfriend at her work place but was stopped by the CSI and was taken to prison for murder
Hero: The hero is Mac Taylor, a citizen of New York, also a crime investigator for NY Crime Scene Investigators. He took control of the case and he did the investigating. He is a very calm investigator and when he is trying to make someone talk he does it by winding them up until they crack open and spill the answers that he's looking for.
Victim: Another victim in this episode was an older male who was killed from a bullet wound to the head when he was at his job as a stall owner, his got paid for being shot at by paintballs, and then he was taunting all the customers in order to get them to play the game, then he was taunting the villain with a gun in his pocket and then he got a gun pulled out on him and then got shot in the head.
Set Pieces:
-Flashbacks A flashback took place when the officer was being interrogated; the flashback was of the officer throwing the victim out of the bar that he works at.
The flashback was short and quick and had a quick flash transition and it just showed the victim drunk and being aggressive, and then getting thrown out of the bar.
There was also a flashback of the shooting from the officer and it was shown multiple times from different people’s sides of the story, and then in the end it was shown one final time of the actual shooting that actually happened.
-Montages There is a montage of Mac Taylor when he is having test runs of using a gun to see the trajectory of the bullet. He was also testing the weapon to see how much gun residue splattered out onto the shirt of the person standing next to the victim when he was shot. There was music playing but it was more to set the atmosphere rather than music from a band.
The victim was a young male (Pete Miller) who had been drinking earlier on that night with 2 officers of CSI , he was killed by a bullet wound straight to the heart from one of the female officers who used Sgt. Messers (one of the officers) weapon. The officer shot the man as he pulled out a gun and was about to shoot the officers.

-Mac Munter

Dexter: The fourth Season: Episode 1

Motives: Dexter was motivated to commit the murder of the criminal Benito Gomez because he let him walk from court due to him bringing the wrong notes and this made Dexter feel guilty as Benito was clearly guilty. Also after the court case, Detective Joseph Quinn who was observing Dexter and also is working on the case showed Dexter the Explicit images of the victim of Benito Gomez which created emotion for Dexter and made him feel more guilty which eventually lead to the murder of Benito Gomez.

Victim: A Criminal (Benito Gomez) who murdered a father of two and was also previously imprisoned for 5 years for beating his girlfriend. Died from a single stab wound to the chest (heart) and has no close family or friends that would notice his disappearance. Although he lives in a very busy crowded area in a trailer park with lots of children running around and lots of people able to see so Dexter planned his murder in a rundown bar that Benito goes to. His murder was rather strange in this episode as it is the Investigator that is the one who commits the murder and the criminal that is murdered

Hero (Anti Hero): Dexter plans his murder on the victim Benito Gomez very well and he takes his time to make sure he gets everything inch perfect which suggests to us that he has done the job before and knows what he is doing. When Dexter plans out the murder, he has no doubts of to whether or not he will kill him. And once the victim (Benito Gomez) is kidnapped by Dexter, he takes him to a rundown boxing ring and sets up a very carefully planned procedural death. He kills him with one stab to the chest also emphasising that he has dealt with murder before and also he hides the evidence of the crime very well and very carefully and makes sure that there is no possible way that he can be accused of the murder.

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