Sherlock Notes

These are the notes I made when watching Sherlock Season 1 Episode 1:

- The series begins with a series of shots of people in full bulletproof gear, bullets firing
- Iconography of guns and the army
- Birds eye view, medium shot of man waking up from sleep because of shock, low-key lighting
- Close up of facial expression: shocked, beads of sweat
- Breathing, shaking and crying
- Music: soft piano notes. slow

- Crutches, gun in drawer
> Feelings of unsafe or uncertainty
- Blog: Dr Watson

- Setting: Therapy
- "John, you're a soldier"
> Introduction to the first main character through his hardships - PTSD

- Title sequence: Iconic Sherlock title sequence music
- Time lapse of long shot, wide shot, high shot of busy London/ city scene, streets and road
- Landmark: Big Ben, London Eye, river, big red buses
- Quick shots of gun, blood. graffiti, eye, photo and drops of chemicals

- Establishing shot of city tops
> It is common for crime dramas to be set in busy cities, as then the crime rates are higher

- October 12:
- Phone call between man and women, office and busy train station
- Extreme close up of pills in a bottle, extreme close up of the main eating the pills
- Screechy note/ music, building up
- Cuts to long shot of man on floor, seizing, framed by window

- Voice over
- Wide angle, press conference: cameras, microphones
- "Taking his own life"

- November 26:
- Streets, raining, night time, shadows
- Extreme close up of pills in hand, close up of face crying
- Close up of newspaper, zooming out
- Headlines read "Kills himself"

- January 27:
- Zooming out of picture of 'Local MP'
- Club, party. drinks - alcohol
- Camera spinning around character, low-key lighting, no distinction of a setting
- Fades to  long shot of shipping containers
- Sound of crying, close up of lady's face, makeup running
- Close up of fingers reaching towards the vile of pills, hands shaking

- Press conference: camera shutter sound, suits, press
- Suicide, cases linked, same poison
- "Serial suicides"
> Characters and public are confused by this statement
- Text messages
- "Murder", "Serial killer", "Suicide"

- Setting: Office - paperwork, files, suits. computers

- Pan up from limping, walking stick to face
- Setting: Park - birds, benches, trees and grass
- "John! John Watson"
> Introduction back to the first character we saw
- "I got shot"

- Two shot, park bench, coffee in hands
- Shallow depth of field, blurry background focused on characters
- "Who'd want me for a flatmate"
- "You were the second person to say that to me today"
- "Who was the first"
> Cuts to black screen, character unzips bag to reveal face (upside down)

- Wide angle
- Setting: Dead body lab (cadaver lab?)
- Females costume: Lab coat - suggests she has some sort of authority. may be a doctor, scientist, something credible

- Medium shot of guy whipping something out of shot (supposedly the body)
- Music starts with a pace, matches whip action
- Facial expression and sound of whip suggest that he is hitting hard, may be even getting his anger out
- Female in background watching through a window
- "So, bad day was it?"

- Shot reverse shot, medium shot
- As Sherlock looks up at the lady he says " You wearing lipstick? You weren't wearing lipstick before" > He's confused and oblivious

- Setting: Lab - tubes, chemicals, wires, microscopes
- Medium shot
- "An old friend of mine, John Watson"

- Two shot, Sherlock in foreground on phone
- "Afghanistan or Iraq?"
- Cuts to shot of other guy, medium shot of him smiling and being smug (at Sherlock's intelligence and eye for detail without being told)

- Medium shot of Sherlock drinking coffee
> He is central, taking up most of the shot/ screen, he has power over this space, what he is saying is correct
- Camera moves back as he moves towards it

- Sherlock explaining what he knows about Watson
- Camera zooms in, music upbeat
- "The name is Sherlock Holmes, and the address is 221b Baker Street"
- Close up, winks
- Long shot, zooms out as Watson is overwhelmed by the existence of Sherlock, realisation

- Repeats establishing shot of Big Ben and the London Eye which was in the title sequence

- Close up of Sherlock Holmes written in the search box, music starts
- Fades to black

- Close up of pills on the floor, hand painted with pink nails reaching out to grab it
- Pink shoes and coat seen out of focus in the background
- Fades to black

- Sign: Baker Street
- Wide shot of London streets , traffic, cars, buses, taxis

- "Mr Holmes", "Sherlock please", shakes hands
- Costume: Sherlock - Long black collared coat, dark blue tied scarf, black trousers, black dress shoes and curly hair, Watson - Black coat, white jumper, dark blue jeans and brown shoes

- Introduction to landlord: Ms' Hudson wearing a purple long dress
- Zoom in, characters walk into building, closes door, camera lingers on the doors number and knocker

- Introduction to setting: Apartment
- Camera walks through the door frame as if you were there with them
- Quick pan from lefft to right, P.O.V of Watson, messy apartment - boxes and papers everywhere
- Patterned walls, ornaments, books

- Shot reverse shot, Watson sitting on arm chair near fireplace, left of frame on third, medium shot
- Sherlock standing, right of frame on third (rule of thirds), long shot

- Iconography: police car, siren lights of blue and red
- Lots of rule of thirds as characters talk, close up of face when they talk

- Camera follows Sherlock as he walks around the apartment
- Watson looks up at Sherlock because of the difference in height/ Sherlock looks down
- Shot reverse shot

- Shaky camera as the camera follows Sherlock onto the streets, P.O.V of Watson behind him
- Iconography: taxi, bus, streets, streetlights, night
- Slow motion/ states of scenes previously in episode (as Sherlock explains how he decoded Watson)
- Two shot, medium shot in taxi
- Reflection of lights in glass

- Iconography: police tape, police sirens, police car, police, police whole suit, white gloves

- Following detectives through the house as if you're there with them
- High angle of apartment stairs
- Worn down, dirty, faded, murky green, paint coming off, faded walls and carpets, lack of lights
> Sets scene for a crime

- Close up of women's face and hands, eyes closed, pink nail polish seen earlier on in the episode
- Pans to the door, which allows audiences to see the rest of her lying on the floor, pink coat and pink shoes
- Shaky medium shot, detectives P.O.V of body on the floor
- Low level shots, long shot with body in foreground and characters in background
- Use of close ups and text allow the audience to know what Sherlock is thinking e.g: left hand, rache, rachel, wet, dry, clean, dirty, unhappily married for 10+ years, regularly removed
- Close up of Sherlock's face and Dr Watson's face as he intensively watches

- Two shot, wide angle, low angle, zoom out
- Shot reverse shot on stairs, looking down/ looking up
- The show repeats shots e.g on the stairs

- "He's a psychopath", "Psychopaths get bored"

- Telephone boxes, zooms in, ringing as Watson walks past them
- Close ups on face, medium shot in phone boxes
- CCTV close up - hazed, grainy

- Two shot in car on Watson and female
> As Watson was told to get in the car, it is unknown who this lady is or where he is going, raising questions for audiences to ponder and think about

- Long shot of man, illuminated by car lights, silhouettes
- Shot reverse shot, medium shot
- Abandoned open space, underground
- "Tell me what he's up to", "I worry about him... constantly"
- "Who the hell are you?"
- Texts from Sherlock

- Close up, birds eye view, harsh lighting
- Eyes closed, surrounded by messy papers

- "The most dangerous man you've ever met"
- "You know what's missing?" "Her phone"

- Tracking shot, two shot, medium shot
- Walking along the streets
- Setting: cafe/ restaurant
- Framed by window

- Quick cuts, shaky shots following characters as they run across the street trying to catch the taxi
- Silhouettes, shadows, night, low-key lighting
- Quick cuts of roads names and streets signs, map, editing with overlays

- Setting: Apartment - Two shot, out of breath
- "That was the most ridiculous thing I've ever done"
- "And you invaded Afghanistan"
> Laughter, beginning of the characters bonding or getting along

- Drugs bust, police raiding through house and possessions
- Long shots of whole room and multiple characters e.g police
- "Why would she do that? Why?"
- Shot reverse shot

- Medium shot of taxi driver walking up the stairs
- Shadows cast on entire face, unknown identity
- Sounds of footsteps, slow motion, series of flashback/ vision from Sherlock
- Continuous beeping on GPS
- Footsteps getting fainter as the taxi driver exits, goes downstairs

- Bad guy: Taxi driver
> Horrors of crime dramas include how normal or realistic a crime can be. It makes the audience uneasy because it could happen in real life. That's why the equilibrium and the character are 'normal' settings - a city, the streets, in a taxi

- Symmetrical long shot of Sherlock and the taxi driver sitting opposite each other at a table, table level
- Low-key lighting, apart from one set, one line of bright white tube lights

- Close up of viles of pills
- Shadows cast on faces, hides one side of face
- Bokeh of light, streetlights reflected in taxi window

- Music becomes quicker, sounds like ticking as Watson is trying to find Sherlock
- Shaking of locked doors
- As the music is reaching it's climax, the taxi driver pulls the trigger of the gun and the music stops

- Music building suspense, loud gunshot through window shocking everyone
- No one expects that, unknown shooter

- Shouts "Moriarty"
> Raises questions who the leader is, you want to find out more

- Iconography: police sirens, police car, ambulance, police tape

- Introduction to Mycroft: Sherlock's brother, they dislike each other

- Long shots of silhouettes of Watson and Sherlock walking towards camera

- Medium shot, slow motion
- "Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson"












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