English Podcast - Back on Baker Street

The podcast discusses the famous text "A Study in Scarlet" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and its adaptations. It explores how technology is used in the BBC series Sherlock and the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. In the BBC series, technology is used to solve crimes and appeal to a contemporary audience. The reveal of information is different in both adaptations, with the BBC series providing insight into Sherlock's mind, while the film keeps the audience guessing. The use of technology behind the scenes, such as special effects, enhances the appeal of both adaptations. Hello, and welcome back to Back on Baker Street, the podcast covering all crime-related matters surrounding Sherlock Holmes. I'm your host, Lockie Williams. I'm joined today by fellow crime enthusiast and good friend, Kel Wilson. Today's point of interest surrounds the great Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his famous text, A Study in Scarlet. This text embarks two of the most famous detectives in literature, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson. Sherlock Holmes has been one of the most well-renowned characters in the world for quite some time now. He has starred in countless books, TV shows, movies, and plays. He's a character that has been reinterpreted and recreated time and time again over a number of years, each time with a new and different meaning. This constant adaption over time ultimately makes Sherlock a poem first, a character that has been reused or altered but still bears visible traces of its earlier form. Today, we will also be discussing how this great text has been altered and changed to appeal to contemporary audiences over time. Adaptations that we will be diving deeper into include the well-known BBC series Sherlock, produced by in 2010, in addition to the 2009 Sherlock Holmes films, starring the eminent Robert Downey Jr. We will focus on the use of technology throughout these two different adaptations, discussing both the use of technology within the scene and the technology in the form of editing and special effects added to the post-production, such as slow-mo, cross-cutting, and cross-dissolve. Now before we get into some questions, Kel, what is a contemporary audience, and what do they expect? A contemporary audience is a modern audience, whether it be a viewer, reader, or responder. Modern-day audiences have expectations which are dictated by the present-day society, and these expectations surround the delivery of information. In the current world, I think it is the great expectation of the normal society that information is delivered quickly, and has certainly been mirrored in not only the BBC Sherlock series, but also in the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. We have a few questions sent in from listeners here. Our first question is, how has the use of technology been used in the BBC Sherlock series, and how does it compare to the Sherlock Holmes film? Yeah, really good question there. Technology plays a volatile role in the production of the BBC Sherlock series, however not so much in the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. In the BBC Sherlock representation of technology, such as mobile phones, laptops, security cameras, emails, text messages, GPS, contribute to solving crimes and speeding up the plot, which as we discussed before, appeals to a contemporary audience as it complies with the society norms surrounding information being delivered quickly. This can be compared to the very little impact of technology in the 2009 Sherlock film, with a Victorian setting compared to the BBC Sherlock, which was in the 21st century London. The importance of technology in the BBC Sherlock series is most evident in episode 1, a study in pink during the press conference scene. It is used to show the audience a mysterious god-like presence who is overseeing Detective Lestrade's media briefing. The scene has dark moody lighting to highlight the deadly seriousness of the occasion. An eye-level camera moves through the attending journalists, sometimes passing behind the head of one of them and blocking out the view of Lestrade as he addresses the media about the murder-suicides. This shows the viewer that he is out of his depth and needs assistance. The combined use of sound effects and supertitles to communicate Sherlock's interference in this scene with the tolling of RONG simultaneously on all the devices indicates from the outset that technology will be represented in an interactive and innovative way, and sets the tone for the rest of the series. Expectations are high, and I think it's fair to say that the BBC series delivers on these expectations. Our next question is, what does the effect of reveal of information have on the audience? The reveal of information throughout both the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film and the 2010 BBC Sherlock series are extremely different to each other. It's important to remind everyone that revealing clues to the audience is one of the most important conventions of crime fiction. In the BBC Sherlock series, we get an insight into Sherlock's mind as he solves crimes and puts together pieces of the puzzle that lead to him solving crimes. This is different to the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film, where we don't get to find out things when Sherlock does. This makes it hard to keep up with what is happening in the plot. For this reason, I think it could be argued that the 2009 Sherlock film doesn't really comply with the genre conventions. With its gracious fighting scenes and romantic storyline, it rather fits the mould of an action film. With that being said, you can understand the thought process behind both methods throughout the reveal of information. You can see the reason the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film presented the information in this way. I believe the thinking behind this method would be the element of mystery to keep the audience engaged. The fact that the viewer never knows Sherlock's next move adds to the element of surprise that makes the audience wonder what will happen next when watching the film. It also adds that extra bit of surprise when all the information is revealed and all the dots are finally connected. In contrast to the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film, the BBC Sherlock series provides an insightful viewing allowing the audience to get a gauge of what Sherlock is thinking. This approach to the revealing of information is evident in the first episode, A Stubby in Pink, where Sherlock is inspecting a body of one of the murder suicides. Supertiles are used to show the viewer what Sherlock is thinking throughout his inspection of the body. The use of supertiles keeps the audience engaged as it makes the viewer feel like they are solving the crime with Sherlock. This captivates the audience because they are gathering all the information surrounding the case but don't actually know what the outcome will be, ultimately keeping the audience engaged with the episode. Last question for today Kel, how does technology behind the scenes appeal to contemporary audiences in both the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film and the BBC Sherlock series? The use of technology behind the scenes plays a huge role in making both the BBC Sherlock series and the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film. Both creators have gone all out in the post-production adding special effects in order to appeal to the contemporary audiences. This is evident in the fighting scenes of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film when these scenes are being presented in slo-mo. Director Guy Ritchie is famous for his gracious fight scenes and the film delivers a full 15 minutes of them. The slo-mo fighting scenes in the 2009 film are the only scenes where we actually get an insight into Sherlock's mind rather than when we most need it when he is solving crimes. And I think this proves that the director was not really concerned with the genre of conventions but rather more interested in producing a Hollywood blockbuster which is understandable when you have the likes of someone like Robert Downey Jr as your main character of Sherlock. Comparatively the use of techniques like cross-dissolve and cross-cutting in the BBC Sherlock series really help the series to comply with crime fiction conventions. Particularly in episode 3 where in one scene cross-cutting is used to show Sherlock to the right of the frame on a phone, a ticking clock in the middle of the frame and the victim with a bomb strapped to their torso on the phone to the left of the frame. Using closer we can see that both characters are distressed and time is running out. The left of the scene dissolves to show the police using tracking to try and locate the victim but Sherlock remains in a close up to the right of the frame. This all happens in less than a minute and makes for mesmerising television. It conveys a lot of action in minimal time and the action is central to the narratives. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Back on Baker Street. I hope you guys have taken something away from this episode. If you have any questions surrounding today's episode please don't hesitate to reach out and send a message on our socials or website. Also a massive thanks to Kel for making the time and joining us today. Catch you next time guys. See ya.