StyleStyleMedia Language

StyleStyle• Style is about the look and sound of the

programme, the feel of it. The way the camera moves, scenes are staged and cut, the mood of the music and the dialogue. All these things give the programme its unique style.

• Setting can play a part in style.

A drama set on the city A drama set on the city streets might use the streets might use the

following:following:• shaky hand-held camera

work to copy the movement of people walking or running in the streets, giving a documentary feel

• fast editing• slick dialogue using street

jargon• urgent, contemporary music• grey colours and dark

lighting to reflect the grim city life.

• Two good examples would be Hill Street Blues and Homicide: Life on the Streets

A rural drama could A rural drama could have:have:

• panning shots to show the beauty of the landscape and pretty rural locations

• slow editing• rich colours and warm

lighting• polite dialogue of the

middle-class village dwellers

• scored with orchestral music.

• Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple BBC drama is an excellent example.

Mise-en-sceneMise-en-scene• If you were to pause or freeze frame a crime

drama you should be able to pick out the ingredients that are typical of any crime drama. By looking at this, you will be analysing the mise-en-scene. This is a French term meaning, ‘placing on stage’. It refers to everything you can see in a frozen moment of moving image.

How do you know this How do you know this is a crime drama?is a crime drama?

There are always cluesThere are always clues• Setting• Costumes• Objects• Lighting• Space• Figures

• Try to look at the photograph carefully on the previous slide – what do you notice about the elements above?

MusicMusic• Something you cannot analyse in freezing a

frame is sound. Music plays a very important role in creating the programme’s character, e.g. Heartbeat had a 1960s setting and soundtrack. The Who’s music is used for the CSI franchise and the lyrics give an insight into the themes of the programme, such as the fight between good and evil, e.g. ‘Who are you?’ and ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’; both echo the heroes’ quest for the truth.

RealismRealism• Realism is also an important part of the genre’s

theme of truth. Popular TV shows which are documentaries include real footage of police activity, such as America’s Most Wanted, Traffic Cops and Police, Camera, Action!

• TV crime dramas want a sense of authenticity so that the viewer believes the action, so the storylines may be based on real people, e.g. the main character in Silent Witness was based on a real forensic pathologist known to the show’s creator. In The Wire, the dialogue is so close to the real street language of Baltimore, viewers sometimes need subtitles to understand the discussions!

Special effectsSpecial effects• Special effects can also create realism. As the

crime drama genre has progressed, the use of SFX and make-up has become increasingly important. From realistic injuries of victims to the almost horror film gore of CSI autopsies, crime dramas try to give an authentic view of the results of murder and bodily harm.

• Law and Order has a more gentle approach and it seems to focus on the dialogue, character and story. Although CSI and Law and Order are different, they both use glamour to draw the viewer in.

ThemesThemes• A theme is an idea we think about when we

watch a story. All crime dramas deal with one basic theme and that is:

good v evilYou could also call this:

right v wrongor

order v disorderThese are the binary oppositions Levi Strauss

wrote about in his theories and opposition creates conflict, conflict creates drama.

Themes continuedThemes continued• We expect the police to be on the side of good

and right, the criminals on the side of evil and wrong. In Criminal Minds, for example, the heroes are clearly the FBI profilers and their enemy is always the criminal whose mind they are examining. The main message most crime dramas want to send us is: good should always triumph over evil.

• When we receive a message from a TV show, we are given a way of looking at the world. Another word for this is ideology.

Moral ambiguityMoral ambiguity• Sometimes the lines are blurred – Detective Vic

Mackey in The Shield always crosses over and it is difficult to know if he is as bad as the criminals he chases.

• This is known as moral ambiguity.

• Once we have become involved in the detectives lives, other themes appear. These are built around opposites and conflict:

freedom v societythe individual v the institution

career v family

Sub-genres and Sub-genres and hybridshybrids

• TV crime drama covers a lot of different programmes. Sometimes the police officers are the main characters, sometimes it’s a private detective, a forensic scientist or even a criminal. The different types of crime dramas are called sub-genres and hybrids.

Sub-genresSub-genres• A sub-genre is another category within a genre.• Police procedural, e.g. The Billm NYPD Blue & Southland• Police detective, e.g. Inspector Morse, Lewis, A Touch of

Frost, Zen and Columbo.• Private detectives, e.g. The Rockford Files • Legal, e.g. Law and Order and Criminal Justice.• Medical/Forensics, e.g. CSI, Quincy, M.E & Silent Witness• Military, e.g. NCIS and JAG• Cosy mysteries, e.g. Miss Marple, Hetty Wainthrop

Investigates, Rosemary and Thyme and Murder She Wrote

HybridHybrid• Sometimes, crime drama are mixed with other types of

shows, these are known as hybrids or crossovers.• Thriller/Action-adventure, e.g. 24• Hospital/medical, e.g. Diagnosis Murder• Horror, e.g. Dexter• Ghost, e.g. Medium• Costume drama, e.g. Agatha Christie’s Poirot• Science Fiction, e.g. X-Files and Ashes to Ashes• Soap opera, e.g. The Bill• Psychological, e.g. The Mentalist and Wire in the Blood• Comedy, e.g. The Thin Blue Line, Psych, Monk and The

Detectives• Musical, e.g. Cop Rock• Post-modern, e.g. Twin Peaks and The Singing Detective.