Sherlock Holmes prep

The genre on this film is a hybrid genre - historical. suspense & jeopardy and action & adventure. It is set in Victorian London which defines it is a historical genre, and the fact that Holmes and Watson were seen fighting shows us that it also contains the action & adventure genre.
The film created the spectacle of the world of Victorian London in 1891 through its location shots of various period buildings, cobbled streets, and the shot of St.Pauls Cathedral anchors the location as London. The city is lit by gas light, men are dressed in bowler hats and coats.

The murky lighting is a restricted palette of shades of dark grey and blue. 

The effect of this is to create a sinister underworld and a sense of jeopardy which fits the genre of suspense & jeopardy and action & adventure.

 

In the first 3 minutes we see a carriage speeding down a road, with men holding guns inside. To add to the suspense, we see Holmes running seperately through the street. This makes the viewers think about questions such as is Holmes running seperately because he wants to get to the target place earlier than those men, and why is he so desperate to get to that place etc.

There are a lot of tracking shots and point of view shots used in the opening scene. Also, in some of the action scenes, the camera is handheld instead of using a tripod, which creates an immersive feeling to the movie. 

CGI and slow motion is used in the opening scene as well to run the montage of shots which allow us to be in on Holmes' sequence of thoughts.

An underground chamber seems to be the set for a ritual killing, we see a stereotypical villain and heroin presented. 

We encounter people dressed in period clothes such as the villain is wearing a black cape, torturing the heroine as he casts a spell on her. The young, beautiful heroin is wearing an innocent white dress as she lies in front of the villain.
Some characters were clearly dangerous thugs, which was clear from the mise-en-scene. The cape that the villain was wearing and the sharp teeth in his mouth marks him as an evil, cruel and dangerous man. The lighting was dark and was only lit by blue/green fire, which is a stereotypical scene that creates suspense and tension.