Codes and conventions of crime/drama genre vary depending on the cultural context of the film, but they can are likely to include ,alcohol, illegal substances, weapons, parties, raves, sex, murders, shootings, relationships, social groups, gangs and turf wars

The classic codes and conventions of crime/drama film come from American films where one of the most widely used conventions are the stereotypes and social groups the main stereotypes associated with these kind of films

I have researched in to the genre and come up with a list of conventions that I have noticed.

Characters

• A hardened male character (Charlie Croker from the Italian Job)
• Powerful men/gang (Hatchet Harry from lock stock and two smoking barrels)
• Main characters best friend, male or female. (Leonard Attwell from Harry Brown)

Setting

• Normally urban
• In a large city (London - Football Factory)
• Could take place in lots of different cities 
• A secondary country setting.

 Plot

• Usually centred around revenge (Football Factory)
• Normally quite tragic
• Underlying tones of redemption
• Cliffhangers are common

 Props

• Guns, knifes and weapons
• Drug paraphernalia (pipes, bongs)
• Drugs

 Audio

• Loud, often "underground" music, popular with youth
• By using often seen as "dirty" music can give a gritty impression

What I learnt from conducting genre research in codes and conventions

• The characters I use don't necessarily have to show there personalitys off through dialouge, as the personalitys I want them to project can easily be shown through other means such as the way they dress; the way the walk; there actions and the places they are in.

Plot overview

I only have to make the opening of a film but to keep it in context I decided to write a synopsis of a whole film and base it around that because I thought this may make the opening feel more genuine.





Will is a washed out drug dealer on track for dying young, but when he makes a mistake and finds out that the dealers he thought were his "friends" aren't as understanding as he is he realizes his life will never be the same. This film follows the grotty story of him trying to escape the world he has become so despratly tangled in, when his old "friends" hear of his plan to escape they get scared. People will do anything to stop the truth getting out.

Writing a crime/thriller opening.

At the start of the process we brainstormed ideas and after a long time decided that we would make a crime/thriller film. We picked this as we believed it played to all our strengths and also seemed very interesting to make, we would concentrate on drugs and create a film plot around them. These are the first ideas we came up with

I learned from this this what kind of film I would like to do and the kind of styles we would want to be filming in, it really got me thinking about my film and how I wanted it to be filmed.