This is the research and development for my crime documentary project.
Research
The Attack on Wembley (2024)
1. What sub-genre of crime documentary would you categorize this as?
Sport
2. Who is the target audience?
- Football enthusiasts
- Citizens from the country the documentary originated from.
3. What typical documentary conventions were used?
- Interview clips of people related to the crime
- Real life footages (Surveillance footages, posts from social media, extracted radio diegetic sound)
- Loud, eerie, and intense diegetic sound
- Short recording of the crime scenes
4. Did this opening conform or subvert the conventions for this genre?
It conforms to the conventions as just from a 5 minute clip in the beginning, it already contains multiple conventions as listed in the pervious question, in which they opened the documentary in a similar way with other documentaries as well.
5. How does it create suspense using the following:
1. Camera: During the interviews, there were some cuts where the camera angle changed from medium shot to close up shot, giving the audiences a clearer view of the interviewees expression, in which most of them had serious looks, where one could be seen having his eyes budging or tensed up as well, leading to the audiences realizing the severity of the situation, taking into account these are coming directly from real witnesses or people involved.
2. Sound: The documentary started off with a normal non-diegetic radio broadcast played together with light diegetic music in the background, introducing the audiences of the setting and the occasion. However the diegetic music suddenly changed into one with a faster tempo, accompanied with rough diegetic sounds from the real life footages included. This gives the audiences a sense of how rapid the situation is changing from positive to negative, as if giving the audience a sudden jump of emotions or dramatic change from calmness directly to tenseness.
3. Mise-en-scene: The use of multiple surveillance screens as props where they monitored the riot happening. This gives the audience a sense of how real and serious the situation is, leaving them anticipating on what will unfold next.
4. Edit: When the situation started to change to the negative side, the cut compositions started to get shorter and shorter, changing from interview clips to real footages clips and back again to interview clips and real footages clips. This increases the pace and may increase their anxious feeling as well.
6. What parts of the opening did you find inspiring?
The way they arranged the real life footages right after the interview to show the direct correlation of what the interviewees are talking about and to give the audiences a clear image of what's happening.
Worse Roommate Ever (2022)
1. What sub-genre of crime documentary would you categorize this as?
Attempted homicide
2. Who is the target audience?
People over 16
3. What typical documentary conventions were used?
- Establishing shot of the related city in the beginning of the documentary
- Interview of the people involved or related
- Real life footages: Real pictures of the victim and the perpetrator
- Related location (house to where the crime happened)
4. Did this opening conform or subvert the conventions for this genre?
It still conformed to the conventions for this genre though it doesn't have as much as the opening duration was quite short.
5. How does it create suspense using the following:
1. Camera: There was this scene at minute 1:04 where it showed a long shot camera angle of the house's, accompanied with a slow zoom camera movement to it. This may create a heightened sense of uneasiness as it may have made the audience feel like they are physically getting closer to the house itself, taking into account that they know the idea or summary of what had happened in it.
2. Sound: There was unsettling background diegetic music playing throughout the entire opening, giving the audiences a sense of the negative atmosphere, in which this may make them feel uneasy, especially the part where the volume of this diegetic music increased whenever the house where the action took place was shown.
3. Mise-en-scene: Most of the opening was filmed under a gloomy weather or dark ominous lighting in which this is typically a semantic code of negativity or mystery, where this may leave the audiences uncertain and curious on uncovering what really happened in that house.
4. Edit: Multiple short rapid cuts with the same compositions and of pictures of different subjects or objects in which this may give the readers an unsettling or on edge feeling as they may be overwhelmed, confused, and trying to process the information or evidence they just witnessed.
6. What parts of the opening did you find inspiring?
Since the opening was quite short, they included the interview of the main person or victim right away, however the things she said were not a complete summary of what happened, there were missing major points that lead the audiences hanging in curiosity, potentially leading them to watch more to uncover them.
Lover, Stalker, Killer (2024)
1. What sub-genre of crime documentary would you categorize this as?
Murder
2. Who is the target audience?
People over 16 but may be mainly targeted towards women above 25 or women who are mothers as the victim is a mother herself, therefore they may watch to be more aware and avoid going into similar situations.
3. What typical documentary conventions were used?
- Long shot of the area the crime took place in
- Interview of the people involved or related
- Real life footages: real call recording from the victim to a 911 operator
4. Did this opening conform or subvert the conventions for this genre?
As the opening includes multiple typical documentary conventions, it conforms to the conventions for this genre.
5. How does it create suspense using the following:
1. Camera: In minute 1:22, there was a long shot camera angle where the audience can clearly see the perpetrator standing directly at the surveillance camera, however due to the fish-eye lens of the camera, it may cause a sense of disorientation towards the audience, leaving them to feeling uneasy as it looks unusual and odd.
2. Sound: Throughout the opening, a non-diegetic eerie music continuously plays in which the beat drops or it gets louder whenever there is a cut to reveal an important clip or scene. However before this, there is a gradual increase in the sound, where after the audiences have experienced one or two shocks from the sudden drop, whenever there is a gradual increase in the sound, it will create a sense of anticipation in them on what they will see next.
3. Mise-en-scene: In minute 0:18, a camera movement, tracking, was used to follow the bloody footsteps in which this may give the audiences an important piece of information regarding what the crime documentary is about. This may either leave them with the feeling of anxiousness from the sight of blood as it may give them the idea that something major happened and the anticipation on where those bloody footsteps came from and what happened that made it result to that.
4. Edit: L-cut where the voice of the interview keeps playing as the scene cuts to another different scene. This may leave the reader confused and on edge about what is happening as what the interviewee was saying wasn't really related to the different scenes played after in which the audiences will have to connect these two separate information together.
6. What parts of the opening did you find inspiring?
How the producer was able to immediately play with the audience's feelings with mainly the use of non-diegetic background sounds and the constant unusual camera angles for the perpetrator that emits a creepy sensation and leaves the audience feeling uneasy and scared at times as well.
Girl in the picture (2022)
1. What sub-genre of crime documentary would you categorize this as?
Murder
2. Who is the target audience?
People above 18 however it may also be targeted towards mothers with daughters similar in age with the victim in order to be aware of the possibilities of the crime happening to them and avoid being in a similar situation.
3. What typical documentary conventions were used?
- Establishing shot of the area the crime took place in
- Short narrative of the crime
4. Did this opening conform or subvert the conventions for this genre?
The opening quite subverts the conventions of this genre as crime documentary openings typically immediately include an interview with the people related or involved whereas this crime documentary only conforms to using an establishing shot and a short narrative of the crime.
5. How does it create suspense using the following:
1. Camera: The opening contains mostly of close-up shots of the people involved and it would only be of the back of the person, their hands, or their legs and never a clear shot of their faces. This leaves the audiences hanging with curiosity as there is a repeated missing detail in every one of those scenes in which they may keep watching in anticipation to uncover that missing detail.
2. Sound: The opening started with low eerie non-diegetic, already giving the audiences a sense of a strange and negative atmosphere. It then escalated as a non-diegetic sound of thumping were then added, slowly getting faster and louder, giving the audiences the idea that something major was about to happen in which the duration between that would leave the audience anticipating on what is about to occur soon.
3. Mise-en-scene: The first few minutes of the opening, it was shot at night and the only light source was from the headlights of the car whereas the rest was unclear to see, limiting the amount to what the audiences can see. Because of the unclearness, it may give the audiences a sense of uncertainty and fear of what may be lurking in the dark around the characters in the crime documentary.
4. Edit: Continuous editing with no dramatic cuts can allow the audiences to be more immersed in the narrative. Therefore they may feel their emotions deeper as it may feel more real to them and since what is being portrayed is something negative, they may feel heightened anxiety as the narrative flows since they anticipate what will happen next.
6. What parts of the opening did you find inspiring?
How the narrator can keep the audiences hooked despite only giving a continuous short narrative and not much visual or sound effects and in addition to that, they were still leaving some key details out in order to spike curiosity from the audiences so that they can continue to watch for their questions to be answered.
American Vandal (2018)
1. What sub-genre of crime documentary would you categorize this as?
Vandalism
2. Who is the target audience?
Students above 18 as the setting takes place at a high school and footages from witnesses that were included in the documentary are taken by other high school students as well. In addition to that, according to Netflix, this documentary is rated 18+ due to it containing sexual content and harsh language.
3. What typical documentary conventions were used?
- Establishing shot of the related location
- Interview of the people related to the crime
- Real life footages
4. Did this opening conform or subvert the conventions for this genre?
The opening conformed to the conventions for this genre as right after the establishing shot of the related location, they jumped right into an interview with the perpetrator of the crime, setting the serious mood early on, typically done in crime documentaries that starts negatively right away.
The opening conformed to the conventions for this genre
5. How does it create suspense using the following:
1. Camera:
2. Sound:
3. Mise-en-scene:
4. Edit:
6. What parts of the opening did you find inspiring?
Self-reflection
Doing this research was quite fun to me as I don't typically watch movies or series within this genre, so it was all new to me. However because it was all new to me, I had lots to capture during the research but because I was researching on only the openings of the crime documentary in which most of them followed a set of their genre conventions, it was less overwhelming for me. It was helpful to see how different crime documentaries follow their genres conventions differently. We chose to conform to a few genre conventions such as including interview clips whereas we chose to subvert to a few others such as establishing shot of the location due to not having the equipment needed to carry it out.
Development
This is the development process of our crime documentary which is written by Jasmine.
Documentary name development:
Where did Christopher go?
Notes: We were inspired by the documentary: What Jennifer did Since it was a very simple title yet evokes the curiosity of the audience. It seems to do so by using the Hermeneutic code by Barthes by raising a statement which could be questioned that the audience can’t answer unless they watch the documentary and see for themselves.
Two Weeks of Torment.
In Plain Sight.
Silent Street.
The Chase for the Unforeseen.
We ended up choosing the title: Where did Christopher go? as it is very straightforward and catchy. We really like how it hooks the audience into watching the documentary as again, it asks a question that the audience can’t answer unless they watch the documentary. Aside from that, the title itself is the question that most people would ask in the scenario that the documentary sets.
Character ideas:
Criminal
Victim
Police
Ultimately, we decided not to have a police interview on the opening because it would consume too much of the screen time for the opening. We also wanted to make sure that the focus is mainly drawn to just the criminal and the victim, so removing an extra character would help us achieve that better. Instead, we will just have interview audios playing in the background from parties that are affiliated with the victim so that it would be more of a background chatter instead of something the audience needs to focus on entirely.
Character name development:
Harper:
Harper is a name that denotes “one that plays the harp”. The harp connotes and symbolizes harmony, angels as well as a representation of life and death. Since the main idea of the concept for our documentary is the unexpected being the criminal, this name would be a great contrast to the personality and actions of the character. On the outside, Harper seems to live up to her name being known as kind and friendly. However, she is hiding a sinister part of herself as she was willing and able to kidnap someone seemingly bigger and stronger than her, contrasting the loving and soft nature of an angel.
Christopher:
Christopher is a name that denotes “bearing Christ”. Typically, this name connotes strength and reliability. Our team wants to portray the victim as someone who seems strong on the outside. By choosing this name, this could be portrayed. This will raise the question of how he got kidnapped by the audience as he may seem more superior in strength than the criminal, Harper. This aims to show that even if someone seems strong, they still can fall prey to crimes such as in this case, kidnapping.
Character development (written by Jocelyn)
We discussed the personalities of the characters together as it may help us decide what the characters would do and act like in the documentary. In some scenes of the documentary, we are also planning to record audio of other students talking about the characters so this will also help direct what the other students will say about Christopher or Harper.
Christopher:
At school: quiet kid, prefers to spend time alone, awkward, introvert, doesn’t like participating in class and gets picked on for that, has friends but doesn’t really hang out with them
At home: spends time in his room playing games, doesn’t leave his room unless it’s necessary, doesn’t really talk to his parents because they’re rarely home due to work, only comes out to go biking
Outfit: Something more suspicious or comfortable looking like a hoodie.
Harper:
At school: very cheerful, participates a lot in class (sometimes too much), always volunteers to be the leader in groups, very likable, friendly, pretty, popular, clumsy
At home: Always online so if anyone were to text her she would respond, when parents get home she always greets them, goes out a lot, always says yes to hangouts, she enjoys being in her house a lot (doing chores, texting other students, etc.)
General:
Doesn’t open up to her friends, no one knows about her fully
Too nice that it’s concerning
In the background audio, they could say something like this:
“Harper has always been such a cheerful girl, she always makes people feel included! Everyone loved her.”
“I don’t know, she was always a little too much for me, i never liked having her around but she’s nice i guess. Too nice, sometimes.”
“She’s always tripping on things and dropping things. I would have never expected her to do something so appalling, so well-planned, and thoroughly executed.”
Outfit: Something light-colored and soft looking.
Casting:
Harper:
Jasmine
Rachelle
Rachelle and I were the main candidates for Harper especially since we look quite similar to each other. To take this into our advantage, I will take over the role of “real life” Harper while she would act in the recreation scenes since the actual criminal and the recreation actor can’t be the same person.
Christopher:
Thompson
Devasya
Jocelyn (Emergency)
Originally, we felt like our decision to choose Thompson for the role of Christopher was solidified, however due to him being unavailable in such a short notice even after recording some scenes with him already, we had to switch actors. Instead, our classmate Devasya accepted the role which was great since he is also quite tall which further solidifies the image of Christopher being stronger than Harper.
Shooting Locations:
We all decided to use Jocelyn’s house to shoot the project as it has a basement as well as it being in an area that is suitable (in a quite quiet neighborhood).
Ideas:
Interviewing each party involved inside an “interview room” (just inside Jocelyn’s room).
TV live interview scene which will happen somewhere outside of Jocelyn’s house or in the garage.
