In the opening sequence of ‘Murder City’, we are firstly shown a stylised city in a cartoon-like impression. This stylised, pixellated city gives us the impression that it is modern and different from the rest. The main characters are shown first. They are striding along in a very purposeful way; the names of these actors appear beside them. The striding makes them seem important and at the same time, smart. As they move along, animation takes place behind them. Unlike ‘The Bill’, these police officers are not in uniform. Again, this gives the impression that they are modern people; it tells the audience that this story is different from the rest; the police department is unlike any other.
Next, a car is shown diving into water; it has been drawn very realistically. The audience is then introduced to two new characters but the names of the first two actors remains on screen. This could be another way of implying their importance in the show.
Consecutively, a silhouette of a man with a woman in front of him is shown; the woman is holding the man’s tie. This could be possible gesture of either violence or intimation. It conveys that they are like any other people.
Throughout different sections of the sequence, we are shown different symbols of danger – a knife, a skull, a revolver and an explosion. This gives a notion of how the work of the police can be extremely dangerous and is highly demanding.
The viewers are given the name of the programme – “‘Murder City’” – from the point of view (P.O.V) of a car boot as the characters we have met so far, open it. The font is Sans Serif; it gives a simple implication of the phrase it portrays.
The graphics of ‘Murder City’ are faster and more intense than those of ‘The Bill’. ‘The Bill’ uses colour and theme to get across to the audience, the main objectives of the police. But ‘Murder City’ uses symbols and characters to get across to the audience, the dangers involved in a police department. However, this is done with more style – in portraying the characters and the city. In adventures of the same kind, more action and style is involved in implying it in ‘Murder City’.
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INTRODUCTION OF CHARACTERS– In ‘The Bill’, the chief introduction of characters happens during the flashback of the previous episode. During this, extreme close-ups are taken and the camera focuses on each individual for a short time; this helps the viewer in absorbing the character, their emotions and feelings about the situation they are in.
The main characteristics of the police are made known during the credits. Police characters are shown to be running or striding; they are purposeful and conscientious.
Then again, in ‘Murder City’ we meet and get to know more characters than just the police during the opening sequence. In the first episode, the first person we see is a Gothic girl standing at her bedroom window. We assume she is Gothic because of her appearance and clothes, which are black; we are also then given a view of the girl’s room. The room is shown to contain skulls, bones and similar Gothic objects that alert the viewer of the girl’s personality and temperament.
Besides the girl, we meet two other characters subsequently and they are assumed to be her parents since they all live in the same house and address each other with a specific tone. We also learn the name of the Gothic girl to be ‘Grace’. A much stronger connection is then established between the different characters and their relative situations. As the audience get a vision of a sign on Grace’s bedroom door saying “DO NOT DISTURB EVER”, many parents would sympathise with Grace’s parents because of the immense generation gap between them and their daughter.
From inside Grace’s bedroom, we travel just outside the house where her parents are leaving for some place. Grace’s father refers to his daughter as ‘Mortitia’; this is intertextuality, when a character of ‘Murder City’ refers another of its characters to one of Addams Family. This reference is important to the viewer as it gives them information on the kind of person Grace is; those who have seen Addams Family will be able to make a link between the two characters.
From outside, we again shift to the P.O.V of Grace who gazes at her parents leaving. As the camera fixes slowly upon her and the music gets louder, the audience can tell that something is about to happen; Grace is an important part of the crime that will take place.
The police characters in ‘Murder City’ are also introduced with the credits. Although the police are portrayed to be important and hard working, they are also shown to be stylish and good-looking. The two main characters walk with long strides; their expressions tell that they are busy people with lots of work to do. The men wear suits and ties and the ladies are just as much cosmopolitans as them, dressed in formal suits. They all are smart and chic and work as a team. This makes the audience feel more attracted towards what they watch, they know that the police looks good – they are smart and intelligent people, and this interests the viewers in their jobs as well.
As the opening sequence ends, the characters gaze at something beyond the audience; their eyes & expressions intense they search and questions what they are looking at. These expressions on their face imply what their jobs are like, they are suspicious and curious, and they want to get to the bottom of whatever arouses their distrust.
‘The Bill’ portrays the department of Police much more realistically than ‘Murder City’. The audience reacts vicariously to what it sees in the characters of ‘The Bill’ because the people are more ordinary and more like them.
On the other hand, the audience is bound to be animated by the storyline of ‘Murder City’ and wish to have a job as is shown in the serial. They will want to look fashionable and classy and be appreciated for doing absolute hard work and being dedicated to their jobs.
Hence, the different characters of the different programmes are basically instigating different emotions in their target audiences. While ‘The Bill’ tries to make its viewers feel at home with its characters, ‘Murder City’ picks up on the aspirations and imaginations of an equivalent audience.
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CAMERA WORK/SPECIAL EFFECTS (SFX) – Apart from the camera work observed in the opening sequence of ‘The Bill’, we see close ups of the characters that picks out their anticipation and emotions. The opening sequence of ‘The Bill’ uses Montage editing; it is a visual collage that puts together very small clips to have a different effect on the overall editing. This results in a colourful and bold end product that creates an atmosphere.
The camera work of ‘Murder City’ is much more detailed because the opening sequence consists of the first part of the story. The very first shot is a long shot; the camera gives us a panoramic view of a region of London. An aerial shot that gives us a leisurely pan over the treetops; it is a warm and pleasant view of a sunny afternoon. Then a quick zoom takes place that shows us into Grace’s room - a possible helicopter or crane shot. This immediate switch will make the audience understand that they have been shown into a region of importance.
As we zoom into Grace’s room, there is soft focus on her face compared to the dark surroundings. This is an indication that the audience’s focus should be more on her room than on her at that moment. We see Grace on the left side of the frame for some more time and then cut from her room to another part of the house; the mise en scene goes from dark to bright. The darkness of Grace’s room is a symbol of gloom and pessimism. The switch in mise en scene to a lighter area gives an implication of that place being safer and more cheerful.
Consecutively, we shift outside the house and again get an aerial view of the surroundings. As Grace’s parents leave the house, the scene slowly fades to black out, as a suggestion that the events of the afternoon have ended.
We see the house from outside again, at night, which builds up some dramatic tension because the audience knows that Grace is home alone. The camera is hand-held; it shakes and moves as the scrutiny gets close to the house; we are seeing through the eyes of a mystery person outside who watches Grace moving from room to room.
As the camera gets closer in the same fashion, the tension among the audience is built up seeing that Grace is being watched; only the audience knows of the mystery person outside. As Grace gasps, it is evident that she has seen something frightening. The subsequent cut to black out indicates that something has happened, but at the same time, the viewer accepts that that is all they will get to see of it.
During the credits, the camera work is pixellated; this is to make the audience concentrate more on the features and emotions of the characters than on their looks as a whole. It creates an unreal effect that goes with the pixellated images and rapid storyline of the sequence. This also keeps the viewers from being abstracted from the main storyline.
Therefore, ‘The Bill’ and ‘Murder City’ use two completely different types of camera work. ‘The Bill’ uses regular, uncomplicated camera work in concentrating on the characters. ‘Murder City’ gives equal importance to the surroundings and characters. They give more complex structure to their editing and concentrate on minute details.
In this way, ‘The Bill’ and ‘Murder City’ represent the police in their own exclusive ways. ‘The Bill’ tries to be as realistic as possible in portraying its characters. ‘Murder City’ focuses as much on the narrative.
In my opinion, ‘The Bill’ basically tries to make its audience feel themselves to be of similar lives and problems, and so, play a direct role in the story. ‘Murder City’ grasps the viewer to its mysteries and makes them feel the thrill of watching a crime investigation.
A Treatment and Proposal for my TV Cop Show
In this part of my coursework, I plan to look at the different techniques and ideas involved in creating a TV cop show. I will craft an outline of a cop show of my own; I shall produce specific characters that will be established in particular setting. I shall also conspire the fundamental storyline for the first six episodes of the show and storyboard the opening title sequence of my series along with its evaluation.
I intend to name my police show “Death in veil”. It will be scheduled for 7.3o p.m. on Fridays, for 45 minutes.
This show is to be targeted at people between the ages 15-30. I plan to use the essential procedures in order to attract this audience. My show will involve a lot of action and adventure and may give the audience an insight into issues occurring in the world today – such as conflicts within the younger generation (ideal for the teenage section of my audience) and other issues like sexism, racism etc. which I intend to interest my viewers in. I also aim to thrill the audience in watching the work of the police, to feel that it is a job full of excitement – I want my audience to be almost directly involved in what they watch.
The main characters of my cop show are two unmarried female friends – Esha and Tara. Esha has just graduated and it is her first job in the British Police. Although she has finished her education, she still has a lot to learn so as to understand the role of a police officer completely. Thus, she is often treated just as a student and an inexperienced officer. Esha is very determined to remove this kind of prejudice from the minds of people. This sometimes makes her act too fast, without thinking much, which is unsuitable for a police officer.
Tara is a bit older than Esha and of a higher position in the police force. She is about to become part of a detective agency and due to this, a lot of the cases she handles are held under examination. Due to her earlier entry in the police, Tara is bit more sensible and never takes a step without thinking twice.
Esha and Tara are very close friends. They love adventure and always wish to have fun in the job they do, but they never forget their duties as police officers. Their fun-loving nature can make some of their colleagues and clients prejudiced about the quality of their work, which causes high concern in them because of their determination to get a very far in their careers. The viewers see the police through their different positions and thought-tracks : a police officer under exam conditions and a restless young “student” officer, indomitably set on making a good impression.
I have chosen these characters so that it suits the age of my target audience. The fun-loving nature of Esha and Tara shows that not all is serious in the Department of Police. The viewers should think of Esha and Tara as police officers with an attitude, they are hard working, good-looking and intelligent.
“Death in Veil” is set in London. Murders are the crimes mostly witnessed, but the audience is also shown smaller cases like thefts, drugs, burglaries and kidnappings. Crimes like kidnappings and thefts, and some murders are witnessed in the sophisticated heart of London, in hotels and grand buildings. Offences involving drugs and other similar cases will be witnessed in the dirty and dark mysterious back-streets of London. The audience will mostly see murders being committed in the houses of ordinary, middle-classed people in the quieter, calmer housing areas of London.
I propose to portray my police characters in a way so that my target audience feels that they, too, want to be part of their work. I wish to show Esha and Tara as very determined and conscientious officers. I also wish to give them an aura of feminism; they always prove to the people around them that they are strong and smart. I want to make my audience admire the ‘capacity’ of Esha and Tara – they will be shown to work harder than their male colleagues in the force and much more than is expected of them.
Subsequently, Esha and Tara will create issues of sexism in the show. There will be people (victims, criminals, colleagues) who may underestimate their intelligence & skills and understanding. Issues of sexism may be created within the police department where males think they have been given a lower rank compared to Esha and Tara. It will be males like these who will be proved wrong with each of the girls’ successes and in turn, learn to respect their aptitude.
I shall now put forward the basic plot lines for the first six episodes of ”Death in Veil”.
The opening episode of the show involves a theft and a murder. A large group of people : writers, reporter, journalists, illustrators, artists, publishers etc. have got together for a 2-week conference in the Strand. The object of the conference is the discussion of a museum that is to be set up in the honour of a late Crime writer. One of the people present is the late writer’s publishing agent who holds the writer’s last unpublished manuscript, worth millions. During the conference, this manuscript as well as a diamond jewelry set is stolen from this lady. Later in the conference, the same lady is murdered.
In this episode, the viewers perceive the posh and sophisticated parts of London, places where most ordinary people would love to visit. I feel my audience will enjoy watching such places as they will be something unusual. Also, this case is to be very absorbing because of the many suspects; all the people attending the conference. I am of the opinion that this story will be good for the opening of a new show and will keep the viewers following the story through the first two episodes.
In the third episode of “Death in Veil”, we see one of the unruffled regions of London. The audience will witness the burning of an office run by a man, alongside his home. The office will be closed and empty on the night of its burning, but the owner’s brother, also working in the office, is killed in the fire. The man is deeply distressed by the death of his brother and the destruction of some papers very important to his business and survival. On the other hand, this man earns an enormous amount of money from insurance, through the death of his brother and the destruction of his important business documents.
The third episode of my show involves Esha getting suspended from the force for a few days for arresting a man without enough evidence. However, she is back in the fourth episode which involves the continuation of the above case. Esha works immensely hard on the mentioned case as well as on a number of drug cases; this leads to her special promotion.
In the fifth episode of “Death in Veil” I shall again introduce the middle class of society, showing a drastic crime among ordinary, simple human beings. There will be a man who wishes to read a particular book about which he asks his friend, who wishes to murder him. This friend recommends to the man a particular library to borrow the book from, but before that, he borrows it himself and coats every alternate page in the book with cyanide. He does this because, from his observation of his friend, he unearths the distinguishable trait of his to lick his index finger before turning the page of a book. This is what leads to the death of the victim.
I plan to make this episode of my show, be handled mostly by Tara as it is one of the final cases of her examination for the detective agency she wishes to join. This case helps her to pass the exam and she leaves the police force.
In conclusion, I consider that my main aim in the production of this cop show will be to keep the audience intrigued so that once they watch the beginning episode of a crime, they feel the need to watch its ending episode. And then, they deem a sense of curiosity to watch the next crime and so on. I desire my audience to be a permanent one, so that they follow all of the crimes throughout the series.
