Detectives

For this module we are working in groups to produce a piece of machinima involving 2 characters and an interaction between the two, revolving around one of 3 topics:

• Exchange
• Stolen
• Surveillance

Lija who is in my group has roughly outlined our basic ideas and which route we are planning to go down HERE. She has also started some moodboards and sketches on the matter using a book I found in the library: A Pictorial History of Crime Films by Ian Cameron. I thought this would be rather useful as it references crime films and we can get a better understanding of what camera shots are used within them and look more at the way of shot composition. 

I have been looking into detectives from films around the 1950's and the film noir genre. We haven't decided whether or not we are going to go down the film noir route as of yet but it is something that could work quite effectively with the hard shadows and lighting creating striking silhouettes. As our main character is going to be a woman detective (something which was not very common) I started researching films which have included a female protagonist. In the 1930's a female detective could be outspoken and independent and evenly balance her femininity with the masculine profession of a detective. However in the 1940's the few female detectives had to give up their independence in order for them to achieve happiness which in this case was marriage. The 1930's female detectives would not have given this part of their life up easily, however in the 1940's the women seemed to do so happily.

As we are working around the 1950's era with our idea it would only be best to look into this with the female detectives of that time. By the 1950's female detectives were hardly seen as a positive thing and as previously she was deemed as a reliable authority, now however this was questioned which also led to questioning her sanity too. During this time masculinity and femininity could no long co-exist within the female detective so this led to her ultimately disappearing from the screen. This is quite an interesting subject as before reading this, we had planned on our character to be quite clumsy and her boss would never be impressed by her work. From the research we could develop her character further to hold some of the stereotypical traits of the female detectives of the 50's. This would add more to her background and could help us in develop her 'look' more.

Research into female detectives found HERE