Research for Thriller Openings - Criminal Justice - Jess D'Alvarez

Criminal Justice is an example of a thriller opening which uses the enigma code and restricted narrative many times as it raises many questions because information is kept from the audience and makes them wonder and question.

Opening Credits:

• Slow, quiet, peaceful music, violins possibly. Not usual of a thriller, yet effective music.
• Simple yet interesting typography, words merge into different words
• Music begins at start of opening sequence and then gets louder for opening credits
• Constant image of woman in background, she looks distressed. Who is she?
• I relate the music to sadness. Do they want us to feel sad for the women in the background?
• Music gets louder towards the end of the credits, this builds suspense as we think that something happens, then music carries on into shot after credits, but stops completely when woman slams door, so that we now focus on the woman and what she is doing.

Main Characters: (Do not know names)

Woman:

• Aged around late 30's, mid 40's
• Wearing plain coloured clothes, beige, grey, brown. These colours are very simple, plain and boring. This indicates that she could be non-adventurous with what she wears, shes careful.
• Looks very tired, stressed, worried, upset and we do not know why.
• In a rush? She rushes to get he coat on, where is she going? Has she done something wrong?

Man (Barrister):

• Aged around late 30's, mid 40's, possibly late 40's
• Doing his job, wearing his uniform. From the setting and his uniform we can see that he is a barrister.
• Is he related to the woman? We do not know this yet.
• Finishes job and changes into jogging suit, a hobby? keeping fit?

Enigma Code:

• This opening sequence raises many, many questions in the minds of the audience. When shown shots of the woman questions such as: - Who is she? Is she related to the barrister? Is she a victim? Why is she so upset? Why is she in a rush? Is she a protagonist or antagonist? are raised, but not answered as yet.
• Questions about the man are also raised examples are: - Is he related to the woman? Is he a protagonist? This looks likely because he is a barrister, sending someone to prison, so he would be a hero to the victims family, therefore the man in the docks could possibly be the antagonist.

Restricted Narrative:

• The opening sequence raises many questions, therefore as an audience we are not being told many things and this is an example of restricted narrative.
• We do not know who the woman is, she may be a victim, she may be a criminal. Therefore this creates intrigue for the audience and also creates suspense because we want to find out the answers to these questions.
• 'What is the character of this killing? Vicious, brutal, frenzied' The audience does not know who has been killed or whether they are related to any of the main characters in this opening sequence, which again creates intrigue as to who has been murdered.

Camerawork:

• In this opening sequence, the shots move from the woman to the man, this is not to create suspense, which would be typical of a thriller, however, this again raises the question, in the audiences mind, as to whether the two characters are related?
• The woman is not revealed straight away, there are many close ups shown of the woman, however they are only of parts of her face or body, which raises questions in the audiences minds as to who the woman is. (See pictures below)

• Low angles are used in order to make the male character seem more powerful and dominant. This is a typical stereotype of a male character and very typical of a thriller. This links in with the mans job, which is typically seen to be one of prestige and importance.
  

Iconography:

• Typical of a thriller, there is usually signs of police, blood, weapons, dark places etc, however in this opening sequence, although there is no physical evidence of, police, blood, weapons etc, the audience know that there have been police and there has been the use of weapons and blood because of the fact that we are watching the court case for a murder. Blood, weapons, police etc are linked with murders.
• The title of this thriller is 'Criminal Justice'. The word 'Criminal' suggests that there may be further crimes and therefore the audience can expect police, blood and weapons etc.

I think the narrative in this tv thriller begins as it does in order to raise questions in the audiences minds, to 'hook' them and keep them interested in watching the rest of the programme. In a way I think this comforms to the classic structure of a thriller because it creates suspense for the audience as they want to know what is going to happen next.