Conventions in Mystery Genre
Crime or puzzle: Pretty much every mystery media text has some type of crime or puzzle that is being solved, not only by the characters in the media text, but the viewer/reader as well. Some examples are murder, theft, kidnapping, or disappearance.
Investigation: The key element to a mystery is the investigation process. The protagonist and viewer/reader follows clues, interviews, suspects, and gathers evidence to eventually solve the puzzle.
Red herring: A red herring is used in mystery to mislead and divert the characters and media consumer attention. This can help create suspense if done in a certain way and can add complexity to the plot.
Detective protagonist: The protagonist of a mystery is often a detective or a character that acts as a detective such as Jessica Fletcher in Murder, She Wrote. The protagonist is usually intelligent, observant, and persistent.
Suspense: The building and maintaining of suspense is very important in mystery media texts. This is usually done by withholding information on the investigation, plot twists, and keeping the answer until the very end of the media text. Thriller or horror being added as a sub-genre can also create a much more suspenseful feeling to the text.
Knowing the conventions of the mystery genre, will allow me to be able to incorporate them in some eay with my own mystery movie.
Comments
Post a Comment