Blog Post #9 - Conventions of a Crime Film

A genre is defined as "a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.". This means that each genre has a specific set of characteristics, or conventions that they follow. For example, the conventions of a romance film include the development of a relationship throughout time,  romantic relationships, flowers, warm lighting, passion between individuals, and marriage. A few conventions of a Sci-Fi film are futuristic technology, space exploration, time travel, aliens, and alternate universes. Crime films follow this pattern, having distinct conventions of their own.


Photo from Elizabeth Nelson, mountainhouseestate.com

Crime films vary in topic, some feature the criminal of the film as the protagonist, while others, such as my project include the protagonist being the one to solve a crime. Conventions of a crime I can think of from memory include; a detective/investigator who tries to find a criminal; a murderer; police who try to find a criminal; and complex motivations. Researching on savannagilbo.com helped me to figure out more of these conventions. Some of these conventions include; a sidekick to a protagonist; a "shapeshifter character", who says one thing and does another; a victim of a crime that causes an investigation to be started; a motivation for the criminal; and clues that help an investigator to find a criminal.


From americanescaperooms.com


Taking inspiration from these conventions listed has helped me to come up with further ideas, scenes, and elements for my project. An idea inspired by these conventions is to have the killer leave behind a clue at the murder scene and have one of the detectives in my film be the main character, while the other is a sidekick, the helper to the protagonist. 

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