One month later my topic is progressing nicely.  I have done some additional research and have identified and obtained copies of some select highly regarded mystery novels.  These include Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None,” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “The Hounds of the Baskervilles,” and Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep.”  I have begun reading “And Then There Were None,” and have been focusing on the techniques of clue generation, development of theme and character development.  The portions I have read so far also include the beginnings of suspense generation, which I continue to analyze as I read more of the novel.  Additionally, I have read a few “Two Minute Mysteries” to help me build clue development skills, and I plan to read some “Locked Door Mysteries” to help me further develop these skills.  I have also obtained the movies “The 39 Steps” by Alfred Hitchcock, and “Citizen Kane” by Orson Welles.  I plan to watch these movies over the next week or so.  I also plan to obtain the movie “The Usual Suspects,” and a number of other films to learn about suspense techniques using sound, lighting and shadows, and character development techniques.   

So now that the project is under way, I have to decide whether I want to write the long essay, or a shorter essay together with a project/presentation.  I have already begun considering two possible projects to prepare that I believe will not only be more interesting for me to work on, but will also be more appealing to people reading my essay and reviewing my project.  The first possibility is writing a short mystery novel using all the techniques and information I learn through my research.  The second possibility is to produce a mystery film, although that will certainly be more challenging in trying to find talented actors and generating special effects.  I will be doing some additional research over the next few weeks to see what is more reasonable, based on watching some films and reading some mystery novels.  I will also reach out to my cousin who may have worked in special effects in the movie industry to find out what is possible for me to accomplish. 

Now that we’ve had a jump start on our projects, it is time to see how other people have been faring with their topics.  I was reading through Rabbi Rosen’s comments and everyone’s blogs and I noticed that Yoni Cooper was writing about a topic that I too am greatly interested in: conspiracies.  When this project was first assigned, I immediately thought of writing about conspiracies, as that is something I would enjoy researching and writing about.  If you look at my second post, you will even see that the freemasons was a topic I was considering from the beginning.  However, the two main problems I found with the idea, is that it would be difficult to research and find sources for the project, and the answers would lack definitive proofs and conclusions.  One could place to find information on some of these conspiracies is television, especially The History Channel.  They always have shows about UFOs and other conspiracies.  One suggestion I have for Yoni, so that he does not just summarize a few conspiracy theories is to show the origins, development, and growth of these theories over time.  I hope Yoni does not run into the problem of a lack of sources and I wish him luck on the rest of the project. 

In order to get this project going, I am going to need many resources.  These resources include a number of novels by various authors, and some films by famous directors of the thriller and mystery genres.  This includes people such as Agatha Christie, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who I have already begun researching.  Although Alfred Hitchcock did not mainly focus on the genre of mystery, he is important to study do to his incredible use and knowledge of suspense, and his use of mystery as a sub plot in some of his movies in order to carry the plot along.  Therefore, watching some of his movies can help me better understand the use of suspense and even some mystery.   Agathie Christie, known as the queen of crime, is one of the most important people to research and learn from.  She is a master of the mystery genre, as she is extremely creative in her plots, causing much deception and suspense throughout her novels.  One novel I am interested in is And Ten There Were None, being her most famous work, and the best-selling mystery novel ever.   Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the famed Sherlock Holmes novels, was another important mystery writer.  He showed the importance of having knowledge of crime and keenness for solving them, and also the importance of being intuitive and analytic.  He personally investigated two closed cases, which successfully led to the exoneration the accused men.  One thing I noticed that was common among all three of these people was that much of their work was influenced by or referenced their interests and things that happened in their own lives.