AS Media Studies

1. Conventions of Snitch
BY MATTHEW POTTER

2. Sub-genre of Snitch and the typical
conventions
 The sub-genre of Snitch would be action because there are lot of moments in our
short film we are planning where action is consistently illustrated throughout as
well as the iconography like guns and the personality of our characters
demonstrate that the sub-genre of our film is action.
 The conventions that belong to this film is the shots used that make the film flow
quickly and easily as well as the fast paced editing we will be using in the latter
stages of the film to make Snitch exciting and so the audience do not know what
is going to happen next, so there is that slight sense of uncertainty there. Also due
to this film consisting of action and crime, Snitch has taken inspiration from some
Poliziotteschi films like Contraband (1980) and Le Casse (1971)

3. Storyline of our film
 The storyline of Snitch is about two men who are called Dave and Simon are down
on their luck and have no money, so they resort to crime to get them some money
so they can have decent standard of living, however there world gets turned
upside down when a heist goes wrong and as a result, Dave and Simon have to
escape from the police that have surrounded them but even that is an impossible
task. This storyline is similar to a lot of famous crime films like Scarface (1983) and
The Italian Job (1969- the original version) making our storyline typical of a crime
film.

4. Characters
Typical characters from crime films usually have a person or many that commit a
crime either that they want to get some satisfaction from it or due to the financial
situation they are in fictionally. In Almost Human (1974) A bunch of thieves kidnap a
boy in a red hoodie from his mother's arms. This is followed by an action-packed car
chase full of breaking boxes, defacing cars, and slim getaways. The chase ends when
the kidnappers are saved by an oncoming train which blocks the police. The thief like
Giulio Sacchi (Tomas Milian) does this not because of his financial situation but due
that he wants to get some satisfaction from this as he is purely is a criminal in this
Poliziotteschi film. This one of many typical plot lines used in crime films consistently
making Almost Human a typical crime film and our film Snitch as well as it includes a
common crime plot line.

5. Settings/Locations
 Typical settings for a crime film to be set is: an office, Big house/mansion,
factories, streets, crowded cities and dark night clubs. All these settings are typical
conventions of where a crime film would be set due to how mysterious each
setting which makes it highly unlikely that anyone would have the intuitive to go
to these places due to the fear of the unknown as people will not know what is
inside in there, which makes it easier for the criminals to become undetected.

6. Cinematography
 The cinematography used varies with each shot which makes the film more
entertaining and less boring. Some angles like high angle make the victims look
vulnerable and low angle to make the criminals look powerful and have
supremacy. Also close up, extreme close up and medium close up shots show the
character’s facial expression to illustrate their personality and how dangerous or
not a character is in this instance. For example, there may be a close up of a
gangster before he is going to shot his victim which shows his character very well.

7. Editing, sound and music
 It usually starts with slow editing at the start of the film to build up tension and
then slowly build up with fast editing to make the film more dramatic and is only
done when action commences when there is some firing guns or when there is a
brawl or something dramatic that happens that comes from out of nowhere which
then the music and sounds that are on the scene are edited in to the film to make
the scene more dramatic.

8. Iconography
 The typical iconography used in crime films is usually guns and blood because
they make scene dramatic instantly due to people blood guns being associated
with crime and fear which makes the audience scared, but as a result become
more interacted and involved into the film which makes the film better as the
audience’s reaction will help a crime film get better reviews.

9. Titles
 Lots of crime films have titles that cut to the chase instantly like Scarface and
Godfather which already tell you a little bit about the context of the film which
makes the film instantly associated with crime and as a result people will already
know what to expect before they even watch the film at the cinema or online.