crime drama

Format

All crime dramas use suspense to build up tension, this is to keep the audience on edge and wondering what’s going to happen. There is always clue to lead up to the criminal this is a way to get the audience involved with the program.  There is not normally a cliffhanger in crime dramas unless they run for a period of time. But normally they get resolved at the end of the program. The classic resolution with a crime drama is that the criminals get arrested and the family get closer for the victim.

Narrative Structure

The narrative structure of miss Marple is different to other crime drama because what she does is observes the scene and uses her common sense to determine the criminal. With Miss Marple she normally resolves the crime within a 1-hour period. The structure of the episode of Miss Marple is the same but how she progresses and reaches a conclusion with different methods in each episode.

Technical Aspects

Lighting

The lighting with the crime drama differs for example they would use low key lighting when there is a death, if they are going into an abandoned place, if one of the characters are secretive. They Use the low-key lighting so that the audience gets a feeling of the scene and for pathetic fallacy. This is when they use characteristics for inanimate objects for example an evil spirit. There is a scene in Life on Mars were Ashes dies as you can see from the image the lighting is very low key apart from the lamp which in his direction.  High key lighting in crime dramas are usually made to make the criminal feel uncomfortable, like for example when the criminal is getting interviewed for the crime that he is being accused of.

Sound

For crime drama the sound is normally non-diegetic. Non-diegetic sound is sounds that are put in on editing and not there when filming. The non-diegetic sound normally fits in with what happening on screen. For example if there is an explosion, or a car on fire.

Editing

With in Miss Marple episodes they use close up of Miss Marples face when she is distinguishing who has done it and when she knows whom the killer is. There is also a lot of cut always and long shots of the place where she is heading or the area. This is to give the feel to the audience of the place.  What I have also noticed in Miss Marple is that if there is a disturbance within the scene then the camera angle instantly changes to the action that is taking place.

Scene Structure

There are so many scene structures like when there is a murder you get the police tape and a crime scene. Police will be in uniform and especially in Poirot the characters are always upper class or middle class. And most of the time it is set in a house.