Types of murder mysteries

Crime fiction: is the genre of fiction that deals with crimes mysteries, criminals and their motives. It is usually comes from mainstream fiction and other genres

Detective fiction: branches off from crime fiction in which a detective (or detectives), either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.

Legal thriller: is another sub-genre of varies genres such as thriller and crime fiction in which the main characters may consist of lawyer and there employees, detectives and occasionally police..

Hardboiled: is a literary style, commonly associated with mostly detective stories. The style was pioneered in the mid-1920s by various directors and script writers but it wasnt unitl the late 1930's that it started.

Courtroom drama: is mostly work of dramatic fiction about crime. Subtypes of legal dramas include courtroom drama and legal thrillers, and come in all forms, including novels, television shows, and films. Most crime drama focus on crime investigation and does not feature the court room.

Agatha Christie is a type of murder mystery. It is mostly an example of a courtroom drama set in the 20's as she makes novels whcih have tunred into television programs. It also has various different stories based around the same mysterious genre.

Overveiw of our film

Our film is a modern take on a murder mystery. In the first 2 minutes, a lady - Emily Saunders* is shot dead and it takes the rest of the film to unfold who is responsible. We start by seeing the mugshots of 5 possible murderer's which give us an insight as to who the murderer may be. We then follow each suspect to try and unravel the story and work out who committed the murder. This then leads to linked story lines. They all have various connections to the first murder (Emily) which even if they have a good alibi, makes them seem suspicious. Unexpected twists occur to mix things up a bit but in the end and story start to reveal themselves, eventually we find out who the murderer was. Characters other than the 5 suspects become involved and maybe the wrong people are being accused...

* - the name may change

Script 1 Draft

Scene one: (screaming, killer trying to drown the women in bath, killer silent, splashing)

Scene two: (black, gun shot, silence)

Scene three: (dead woman in the bath, silence apart from water dripping from tap)

Scene four: (outline of murderer in coridoor, walking away holding the gun, sound of footsteps)

Scene five: (panning shot of building looking up. Outside noise such as traffic etc.)

Scene six: (in detectives office, mid-shot starring at him. Only noise is radio, clock ticking?)

Scene seven: (knock at the door, radio still on in background)

Detective: Come in
Secutary Sally: I have the file on the hotel murder
Detective: Thank you Sally, does this have the suspects details in it?
Secutary Sally: It should have everything you need, Detective
Dectective: Thank you very much

(Secutary walks out of the room, closing door behind her)

Scene eight: (detective reads through the files, scatters pictures on the table around him, radio still playing in background.)

Scene nine: (mug shots of each suspect zooming out onto the filming scene)


Credits running through beginning, after shot of killer walking away, down coridoor (don't want to loose any focus by showing credits whilst murder taking place)

Initial storyboard

About murder mysteries

Mystery film is a sub-genre of a more general category crime film. One of the most importent plot elements in mystery films is suspense. This is important as it keeps the viewer drawn in and intrigued. Plotting twists are usually done through various important aspects of a mystery film such as:

• A variety of related sound tracks
• Camera angles
• Heavy shadows
• Surprising plot twists
• A strong leading character

The main character should show a strong leading role, which you may eventually relate to in some way. A leading character should consist of:

• Character development
• Uncertainty
• Elements of dramatic action
• A surprising twists

The average mystery tale is often of an ordinary variety but can have a wide range of altered story lines. A series of mystery writers can produce books based on the same sleuth character. Until at least the 1980's. Women in mystery films have often served a smaller role, occasionally providing a relationship with the main character and frequently playing the part of woman-in-peril. During WW2 murder mysteries came into style and proved a popular medium for darker, more violent stories.

The earliest mystery films reach back to the silent era. The first detective film is often seen as Sherlock Holmes. Warner Brothers were very popular when it came to mystery films and were owned many popular films, for example 'Fight Club'. The 1930s was the era of the elegant gentleman-detective who solved murders whilst in his drawing-room using his wits rather than his fists this was also quite popular during the 1940's.Since the mid-seventies, only a handful of films with private detectives have been produced.Films with female detectives have not become so popular. In the Eighties, filmmakers began to take a closer approach toward 1940s film noir reinterpreting ideas from that ear into films that todays society could also enjoy. The implied sexuality of the vintage films was enhanced and made explicit in a new wave of erotic thrillers.

Other murder mystery films:

• To kill a mocking bird (1962)
• L.A confidential (1997)
• Psycho (1960)
• Reservoir Dog's (1992)
• Anatomy of a murder

'Fight Club' opening analysis

As part of my research into producing an opening scene for a film of my own choice of genre i looked at the first five minutes of the beginning of 'Fight Club'. My chosen genre is murder mystery. Fight club is not  murder mystery but a mystery film. I really enjoy fight club and would like to add aspects into the opening scene of my film, such as: the tense edgy music.

 You then come out of inside the mans body to him perspiring with a gun held up to his mouth and his eyes straining with fear. This automatically makes you feel not only anxious but extremely curious as to what will happen next, who the person is holding the gun and why he's holding the gun. 

Camera angles

When the film begins the camera is focusing on fast moving flashing images with the names of actors in the film. It then follows onto an extreme close up of not only the man but of the gun zooming out to make a focused picture of the man in fear. After there is a close up of the mans head with the gun going further into his mouth looking more and more scared. The camera never focuses on the character holding the gun his name is only mentioned this creates a curiosity within the opening. The film zooms out slightly to a mid shot showing the room in which they are in and the surroundings but still not given us a clear idea of what could possibly be going on.

Lighting

Throughout the fast moving beginning it is very dark with slight light coming from the flashing of slights and streams of silver surrounding the actors names. Light is then produced around the face of the man making him the main focus, however light does not appear much until three minutes into the film. The slow relaxed yet anxious voice follows the light when the light starts to get brighter.

Sound

The sound throughout the opening scene is dark and gloomy. It makes the atmosphere quite tense. The music runs fast through the introduction to the film flowing fast amongst the light of the inside of the mans body. The music automatically draws you in as the sounds creates a dark scene where the narrator begins to talk. 

Camera Cuts

 Through the first 50 seconds or so of the film there is a constant flow with the camera, Yet, when the narrator starts to speak there a slow moving cuts taking you from one image to the other. However the shot from the bead of sweat leading to the point of the gun is a fast single moving transaction.

Preliminary task analysis

Overall, i was fairly pleased with my groups preliminary task. For my first attempted at using the cameras to make a short film and editing them myself on the macs i now feel comfortable using them for future projects. I found that using a tripod helped keeping the camera very steady making it easier to film without shaking hand movements. Editing the film was interesting as i got used to all the things i could use to improve my film and future films. Using different sound effects will help in the future when editing other projects as it can give you and idea on the mood, i found many sound effects of which i liked and would like to use. One problem we had whilst editing our preliminary task is that we spent to long deciding which sound effects to use and cutting unnecessary scenes. I would have liked to improve the sound effects and the ending of the short clip where it shows the credits as this did not have our names on it and i feel it went passed to quickly. I also would like to have improved my planning to develop a stronger and clearer story so that i had a better idea of how to film it and what exactly i needed to film.

Preliminary