This is a conventional film-noir establishing shot; there is dim, dark lighting and a mysterious sillouete. There is an enigma as to who this strange figure is and it causes the audience to pose questions.

In this shot, there are several conventions of the detective genre, however, the main and most important one is the desk that the detective is sat at. This is a key prop in almost all detective films as it is usually where the detective gets assigned his job, and the story unfolds.

Another convention of the detective film genre is that the usually detective smokes cigars/cigarettes. We chose to add this since it adds a sense of authenticity to our film opening.