Crime/Action Conventions

My Genre

• Our group have chosen to do a crime and action film opening. We chose to do this because its an enjoyable genre for people in our age group and these genres are also enjoyed by most people. Both these genres have many connotations.

Characters

• There are two types of characters in these genres. Action always has protagonists and antagonists and in a crime film there is always antagonists but not always a protagonist however there is usually some ones side the audience is on.

e.g. Harry Brown

Iconography

• Crime and Action films have similar sorts of iconography so its easier to plan what we need in the film opening to represent our genre. Both genres usually have props such as guns and weapons. In gangster style crime films they usually wear clothes such as hoodies etc. Also graffiti in the setting helps to establish the location of the film opening.

Trevor from ‘Kidulthood’ is a character who represents these.

Harry Brown is a film that is good at establishing the location of the film.

NarrativeTodorovConvential narratives are structured in five stages.1. Stability at the start of the film.2. Disruption of this by something

happening.3. Recognition of the disruption.4. Attempting to fix what has

happened. 5. Restoring the stability.

This structure is used in many film narratives.

• Propp• 8 character functions1. The Hero2. The Villain3. The Donor4. The Dispatcher5. The False Hero6. The Helper7. The Princess8. Her Father

Sound

• In a crime and action film the non-diegetic background music is usually either slow music to create tension or fast music when there is a combat or action scene. This is usually played behind the diegetic sound and dialogue.

• The non-diegetic music used is usually of a particular style to establish what genre of film it is.

Themes

• A theme that is used a lot in crime and action films is either one person on their own or group of friends/gang who are protagonists and usually a group of people/gang who are the antagonists. Sometimes even police officers are seen as the antagonists, even though they’re really supposed to be good, if they’re on the opposite side of the protagonists.

e.g. Attack the Block

This shows Moses who is the protagonists being arrested by Police.

As the audience are on Moses’ side they see the Police as the antagonists.

Mise en Scene

• Costume-crime and action films have different costumes. They can either involve gangsters from a working class background who wear casual clothes such as hoodies, jeans and trainers or there is also high class gangsters who wear smart, formal clothes like suits.

Kidulthood

Public Enemies

Mise en Scene

• Lighting-there is both high key lighting and low key lighting used depending on what scene it is in the film and also depending on what type of crime and action film it is.

• If it is a film that is set in the suburbs of a city it usually uses low key lighting from street lights of a night. But if it is a film based in city centres then natural lighting is used most of the time.

American Gangster

Harry Brown

Actors

• The actors in a crime and action film have different looks depending on what kind of crime and action film it is.

• They can either have a working class look to them or a smart look to them like in films such as Pulp Fiction.

Make Up

• Not much make up is used. They keep a natural look to the characters but they use blood or make up to show injuries such as scars to give the characters a more aggressive look to them.

Props

• Props in this genre of film is always weapons. Weapons show that the film is a crime or action film.

• Also things such as expensive cars and clothing that is better quality than other characters shows signs of wealth and who is the top dogs.

The character Noel Winters in Harry Brown wears clothing that is more expensive than the other characters as he is the one who is gang look up to.

Setting

• This genre of film can be set in different places. Either in a city or a city suburb depending on what type of crime film it is. If it is a film that contains crime such as robberies it is usually set in a city. If it is a film that is based on gang warfare it is usually set in city suburbs.