Nordic Noir + the bridge

Nordic noir is a genre of crime fiction that is written in a realistic point of view go the police force that also represents Nordic or Scandinavian countries.  The l language is deliberately monotone and is set in bleak landscapes with a dark mood to connote the genre or a scene to the audience.  It depicts a tension between cold nordic countries and the murder, misogny, rape and racism that is underlying.  It frequently features a female protagonist which extends to film and television.  It represents detectives as worn down by the cares of life and far from simply heroic giving them a more relatable and realistic feel from their character.  It represents Sweden as a highly liberal country however it shows the terrorism that the country is subject to, for eg the murder of the president back in the 70s.

The history of Scandinavian crime fiction: Nordic Noir  is best known via famous writer Stieg Larsson who was building a phenomenon crescendo for the genre.  In the last decade Swedish and Norwegian writers have transformed the murder mystery such as Nordic Noir and the girl with the dragon tattoo into a vehicle to critique contemporary Europe. Ed Mcbain realised that there was a huge unexplored territory in which crime novels could form the framework for social criticism.  This led for other writers to attempt to do the same thing in the line of crime novels and then expand into crime television series for example the bridge.

The generic conventions within this documentary is that of; the use of monotone audio visual, the use of dim or artificial lighting that connotes the dark tone of that is normally used within crime series.  There is a use of Hollywood block buster films intertwined into this genre to add a comparative factor against other crime series.  The use of classical/ soft music adds a sympathetic tone to the series..  It also portrays Scandinavia as family generous welfare states.

The bridge was created and written by Hans Rosenfeldt, a joint creative and financed product between sweden's Sveriges television and Denmark's DR, this series has  been shown in more than 100 countries.  On several occasion The Bridge failed to have sufficient viewers t one placed in SVT1's weekly top 10 programmes, due to competition from commercial broadcaster TV4 with its offering gaining over a million viewers.  The first series had been purchased for broadcasting in 134 countries worldwide which may of supplied them with revenue to created the next series.  It is also most likely that the series received funding via co-funding of external partners, remake sales and international and regional funding.  Ownership seems to be mostly with the danish and partly with the swedish as the swedish are co partners.

A brief summary of what occurred through out the series is that; in season 1- it began with a body found half way between Sweden and Denmark on the Oresund bridge linking Malmo to Copenhagen.  In series 2 ended up with Saga turning in her partner Martin for murdering the man who killed his son and season 3 episode 1, a prominent Danish gender campaigner is found murdered in Malmo, Swedish detective Saga Noren is assigned a new danish colleague to help with the investigation but their relationship does get off to a good start with emotions running high about her involvement in sending Martin to prison for murder.

A few of the television stations that broadcasted and produced the series are; SVT- Sveriges Television is the swedish national public broadcaster which is funded similar to BBC.  This is a public limited company that can be described as a quasi-autonomous non-governement organisation.  Has regional offices and a production facility in Malmo which was used in the production of the bridge.  This broadcaster is seen as being leftist liberal.  DR- Danmark's Radio is a public service broadcasting corporation, which is funded by the levying of a licence fee and is also perceived as being leftist liberal.  This station dominates the danish cultural life.

The Bridge

Within season 1; Saga is the current lead character within the series.  She is a leading female character that is surprisingly not stereotypical sexualised as most other females are, but instead is depicted as socially awkward and socially unaware, as in most scenes when dealing with certain suspects or victim's families she treats them with a lack of empathy which is  noticed especially in contrast to her male colleague who is more over friendly with those around him.  She takes up an authoritative role which in most crime drama series is seen being done by the male, this does break the usual stereotype and makes her seem even more odd and unrelateable to the audience.

Within season 3 episode 1 specifically; the opening scene is similar to that of season 1 which was forbodding, dim lighting which opens to a murder scene only this time involving that of mannequins.  The audi codes used sets the tone for the episode and gives the audience what they should expect as well as reinforces the genre, that being a crime drama.  The unrestricted narrative within the series allows for us (the audience) to make our own conclusions about who may or may not be the killer and how they did it.  As well as the use of long form narrative allows for more information to be put into each episode making it more clear to the audience what is happening and allows for character development. This series uses procedural elements, this heightens narrative interest as well as shows how the police force is run as well as how it operates.

The iconography within the series is quite expected, for example the use of offices, the uniforms which connote the characters profession as well as the props which can also elude to the different characters personalities.  The use of dim artificial lighting makes the scenes more cold and dark, which also add a drama effect to the episode.  As well as use of neutral colours makes the scenes seem more professional, especially as most scenes are that of investigating crime scenes and suspects with only brief glimpses into the personal lives of the characters.

There is a representation of a distinct difference between the swedish and the danish.  The danish being represented as more liberal and supportive in the sense of the LGBT community, also having a more mix of values of traditional and non traditional.  Meanwhile representing the swedish as politically correct, however it is questionable about the representation of the swedish as the character representing this nationality is quite abnormal personality wise.  The representation of the LGBT is also positively represented by strong characters who are portrayed as admired and outspoken as well as brave however it also shows the prejudice that they go through in an every day life however on an exaggerated scale.

Saga( the main character), as seen in the previous seasons was very "socially awkward" and unaware as well as displayed subtle or assumed social anxiety.  Within the beginning of the episode there appears to be no change within her personality, as she was still very rigid in her  social skills.  However, as time progressed through the episode she is seen attempting small talk with her new danish colleague which is outside of how she normally only has professional conversations with her colleagues and even though there was constant resistance from the colleague she still attempted whether out of disregard or oblivion, as well as in one scene, she is seen attempting to not give full disclosure of how the victim is found at the crime scene to the victim's wife so as to not hurt her feelings however badly she handled it, it is outside her character to even try.  You can also see a growth in her character as well as a sense of possible audience surrogation as she shows remorse in her turning in her past colleague not in her words but in her actions, which in most cases she never shows much emotions in general.  We also receive an insight into Saga's past as well as her family life as her mum comes to see her about her sick dad who seems critical, and reveals that her sister may of passed and how Saga handles it, which is by running away and showing OCD like behaviour to calm herself down which is in contrast to how she used initiative to save her colleague when her leg got blown off by a make shift bomb by a veteran, it showed her skills and strength in that moment which is a total contrast to how  she handled her family situation.

:)

My romance/ drama television programme is going to be filmed in west croydon high street as well as near to west croydon train station.  i am going to start filing from today to the end of this week to effectively accommodate the characters involved, in which there will be a mix of day and night time.  I will be using my three friends for this production.