Applying Bathes and Strauss to 'Luther' and the crime drama genre
The start of the episode isn’t straightforward. I haven’t watched the series before. The man in the suit was running, I thought he was the detective chasing the criminal, who was Luther, who was dressed in black urban clothing. After the first scene I come to terms with the series that Luther was the detective. The scene sets of a branch of Bathes’ enigma codes, why is he being chased? Why doesn’t Luther help the man up and instead leave him to fall and die? These makes us want to carry on watching and find out what’s happened, why these are happening. The lightning and colours used conform to the crime drama conventions, such as mid, blue lit colours, realistic lighting, along with wearing typical detective clothing such as suits, trench coats etc. This creates a sense of authority over other people, and the dim, realistic lighting creates realism, its urban and city, its not a sunny day with unicorns. Its serious, its a drama, and most of all, its about crime. Mise en scene is important in genre series such as this crime drama, and I can say they've done it well here.
Iconography can be seen throughout, such as flashing blue lights, weapons, dark places, police cars which backs up the conventions of a crime drama. This makes the audience feel more connected to the visual content because its almost factual and realism, although the audience can often see text's like this such as escapism, perticlary men. This can be due to the main character being a man, a detective, it can put the man in his shoes, and feel like he's a detective. Throughout the episode, there can be loose ends, and lots of enigma/action codes which the spectator can solve themselves, its all linked in with the detective crime genre. Makes the spectator feel like a detective for solving something, or guessing whats next. Little do they know that the codes are in the scenes to make you think that, so after all, you aren't exactly the best detective at home.
After the establishment shot of outside the criminals home, showing the setting, police cars and police, there is then an over-shoulder shot of somebody holding a phone, they wipe the screen with their thumb, this us suggestive that they're waiting for a phone call. This causes anticipation, even when luther calls, theres still that silence and wanting to know if the girl is alive or not. This can be recognised as an action code, holding a phone, waiting, what are they waiting for?
When the criminal falls, and appears to be dead, you get a different perspective of Luther, that he isn't exactly a straight cop, but he will get away with it due to him being the main character, no witnesses, you think its all over. But within a scene in the DCI's office, you find that the criminal didn't die, and that he's in a coma. This immediately sets of
The settings are great, if i were to think about crime drama sets such as offices, i'd always think about horizontal blinds. They always seem to be in there, they're in the interrogation scene along with a single table two chairs, a tape recorder and a file, its almost symbolic, you can tell that its an interview room due to the mise en scene. The camera work, the two-shot technique for character dialogue goes between characters and separates them, they're not in the same shot to show the space between them.
The start of the episode isn’t straightforward. I haven’t watched the series before. The man in the suit was running, I thought he was the detective chasing the criminal, who was Luther, who was dressed in black urban clothing. After the first scene I come to terms with the series that Luther was the detective. The scene sets of a branch of Bathes’ enigma codes, why is he being chased? Why doesn’t Luther help the man up and instead leave him to fall and die? These makes us want to carry on watching and find out what’s happened, why these are happening. The lightning and colours used conform to the crime drama conventions, such as mid, blue lit colours, realistic lighting, along with wearing typical detective clothing such as suits, trench coats etc. This creates a sense of authority over other people, and the dim, realistic lighting creates realism, its urban and city, its not a sunny day with unicorns. Its serious, its a drama, and most of all, its about crime. Mise en scene is important in genre series such as this crime drama, and I can say they've done it well here.
Iconography can be seen throughout, such as flashing blue lights, weapons, dark places, police cars which backs up the conventions of a crime drama. This makes the audience feel more connected to the visual content because its almost factual and realism, although the audience can often see text's like this such as escapism, perticlary men. This can be due to the main character being a man, a detective, it can put the man in his shoes, and feel like he's a detective. Throughout the episode, there can be loose ends, and lots of enigma/action codes which the spectator can solve themselves, its all linked in with the detective crime genre. Makes the spectator feel like a detective for solving something, or guessing whats next. Little do they know that the codes are in the scenes to make you think that, so after all, you aren't exactly the best detective at home.
After the establishment shot of outside the criminals home, showing the setting, police cars and police, there is then an over-shoulder shot of somebody holding a phone, they wipe the screen with their thumb, this us suggestive that they're waiting for a phone call. This causes anticipation, even when luther calls, theres still that silence and wanting to know if the girl is alive or not. This can be recognised as an action code, holding a phone, waiting, what are they waiting for?
When the criminal falls, and appears to be dead, you get a different perspective of Luther, that he isn't exactly a straight cop, but he will get away with it due to him being the main character, no witnesses, you think its all over. But within a scene in the DCI's office, you find that the criminal didn't die, and that he's in a coma. This immediately sets of
The settings are great, if i were to think about crime drama sets such as offices, i'd always think about horizontal blinds. They always seem to be in there, they're in the interrogation scene along with a single table two chairs, a tape recorder and a file, its almost symbolic, you can tell that its an interview room due to the mise en scene. The camera work, the two-shot technique for character dialogue goes between characters and separates them, they're not in the same shot to show the space between them.
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