Hello again, readers! In yesterday's post, I compiled my research on the crime and mystery genres in a similar fashion to my first set of research posts where I explored comedy. Towards the end, I compared all three genres, along with the pros and cons that would come with whichever one I chose. But after a night of thinking, I have finally made my decision...
Between comedy, crime, and mystery, I want my film opening to be a mystery story. Despite having a greater fondness for comedy, I stated twice before that making a balanced film opening that uses this genre's typical conventions would be difficult, as there are a lot of factors pertaining to it. Additionally, I stated that it would be nice to get a taste of a mystery or crime plot. As for why I chose mystery over crime, I feel as though murders and heists are popular incidents that many stories within the genre usually base their plots around, and I personally feel as though I can do better.
Now that I have chosen a genre to work with, I will be conducting deeper research within the mystery genre, looking at common sub-genres and opening scenes from a few titles of the category.
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Mystery is a genre that can be broken down into many well-known subgenres, many of which have been interpreted into film. Noir is a classic sub-genre that has its focus on the protagonist, usually starring a character who has morally declined or dealt with serious emotions in the past. These films typically focus on themes of greed, corruption, and betrayal, which are effectively reflected by the grim nature of the main character and other surrounding elements. Films under this category were most common in the 1940's and 50's, with releases such as Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957).
Much like noir, hardboiled is a sub-genre which focuses on the protagonists personality, usually starring a character who has a strong sense of justice and is tough and cynical by heart. These kinds of characters are usually seen working within gritty suburban settings and are found breaking the rules for the sake of their work. The Maltese Falcon (1930) is a film adaptation of the book of the same name, following detective Sam Spade as he takes on a case involving a number of criminals and their obsession over a simple artifact.
Amateur sleuth and cozy plots are similar as in they involve the work of unprofessional or often unskilled people that on the challenge of working through a case. Murder, She Said (1961) is part of a 5-movie series featuring the fictional Miss Marple (played by Margaret Rutherford in the films) created by Agatha Christie in 1927. Miss Marple is an elderly woman who spent most of her life in a small village town but was always observant on human nature. Amateur sleuths and cozy sub-genres also appear in media targeted for younger demographics, usually starring a single or group of young protagonists, such as Scooby-Doo.
Despite these genre's popularity especially in the past, a more timeless sub-genre that makes up a majority of mystery films is the simple Whodunit?. Despite usually involving murders, a staple of the crime genre, this sub-genre involves a large cast of characters. The incident occurs when everybody is seemingly doing their own things, and come the time of discovery, the perpetrator blends themselves in to seem as innocent as possible. See How They Run (2023) is a comedic whodunit that takes place in the 1950's, where the filming of a movie adaptation of one of, coincidentally, Agatha Christie's plays is stopped after the murder of the director. The film follows Inspector Stoppard and Agent Stalker (played by Sam Rockwell and Saoirse Ronan respectively) as they investigate a number of suspects in the theatrical scene. Despite there being two protagonists in this example, there is still an array of suspects closely related to the victim.
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Now that I have a better knowledge on some of the sub-genres under the mystery umbrella, I looked into some openings of mystery films to get a good idea of what my brief should look like. Last post, I learned that one of the conventions commonly used in mystery films is opening on the prime incident that sets the entire plot in motion. I decided to first look into the opening scene of Weapons (2025), a movie that I used as an example for recent mystery films in my last post. This film follows the convention perfectly, with a child narrator describing the night when all the children of a specific classroom went missing. At the same time, this exact moment is shown with scenes of children running across the streets, almost as if they were in a sort of trance, in the middle of the night. The other opening I saw was for Shutter Island (2010) starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo. Instead of opening with the central issue and no prior explanation, this film's opening starts a non-direct explanation of the plot. Teddy Daniels and his partner Chuck Aule are about to dock on a inhospitable island housing a mental institute, the pair discuss their objective, which will be the the focus of the entire rest of the film following that point. Additionally, the captain of the ship taking the duo to the location throws unintentionally hints about the oncoming danger they will face using metaphorical phrases such as, "storm's coming".
One detail to make note of that I noticed about both of these openings is that they do not include opening credits as they play out, which I may follow in my brief.
I watched both of these clips on YouTube, and the links are cited below.
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Now that I have my genre chosen, this additional researched proved to be very insightful and has given me a clearer picture of what my final brief should look like. Watching the two openings that were different in execution shows that I may have some room to decide what specifically could be conveyed within the scene, whether it be an overview with subtle hints at what would happen later down the line or the typical incident portrayal. A look into the sub-genres also gives me some options with how I want the opening to be approached, and, if it were to include a protagonist, how would they behave or react?
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Sources used for information:
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Despite all this information, I would still like to go deeper into this genre. I think that looking into film elements would be the next best step from here. Thanks for reading and I'll see you again soon!
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