textual analysis: Brick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The three main settings in the opening title sequence are a Sewer, a school and a phone booth on a street. The school and the street is an ordinary place that is found in every town and city. This is typical of the thriller genre as thrillers are usually shot in ordinary places. The sewer is typical of the thriller genre as it’s a place that is away from people, this shows that it is hard to escape and that no one can hear what’s going on, therefore being isolated area of an urban setting which is another typical thriller convention.

 

The setting contributes to the representation of the character/s. This is because it shows the surroundings of the character/s. For example, in Brick the second location is a school/college, this shows that the main character is an ordinary person that you would find in every town/city. This is another thriller convention as everything is ordinary but there are extraordinary events taking place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lighting used in Brick is different for each scene, for example in some scenes is quite dark, like in the very first scene where the character is mourning the death of the girl, this is used to create atmosphere as it gives a mysterious tone to what’s happening and creates questions for the audience. However in the scene where the character is in the phone box the lighting is quite bright. In all scenes natural lighting is used.

 

Main colours throughout the Opening title sequence vary. For the characters clothes they are quite bright and innocent colours, such as blue, white and grey. However, the car that drives past when Brendan is in the phone booth is black. This shouts out danger as the colour black represents death or fear. This automatically tells the audience that the car is significant and has the theme danger around it.

With the costume/appearance of the characters you can connote many things about them, such as their social class or how much money they have etc. Brendan, in the OTS is wearing black school shoes, jeans, a grey hoodie, glasses, and a watch with black curly hair.  The girl in the film is wearing a long white jumper, brown heeled shoes, brown dress, and a blue wristband with long blonde hair.

 

The clothes that the characters are wearing connotes that they are both average everyday people that you would walk past without them sticking out. This is typical of the thriller genre as it continues the theme of ordinary people within the film. You can also connote that they are both quite low down in the school social class, they are either clearly not the jocks or the cheerleaders as they are wearing average clothes. The final thing that you can tell is that they both don’t have a lot of money as their clothes are again average.

 

The actors performance displays to the audience what the actors are feeling and reacting to certain information. Throughout the OTS Brendan seems worried and confused as to what’s happening and the scene where the girl is dead he looks extremely upset with the outcome, but with the way he is sitting it portrays anger and revenge inside him. The girl‘s voice in the OTS seemed really terrified and dreading something. This is typical of the thriller genre as there is someone in distress and the audience don’t know what’s happening.

 

This tells us about the characters social class, it tells us that they are normal people, with a flaw, which got them into the trouble they are in. They’re performance also tells us about the personality of the characters. It shows that they are nice average people, but they may have done something wrong to get into a mess.

 

Certain shots that are used are extreme close ups (example; Brendan’s face) establishing shot (example; sewer with dead girl) extreme wide shot (example; after Brendan read the note) and POV (example; Brendan looking around for girl after phone call) these are typical of the thriller genre as they all either show the surroundings or the characters reaction.

 

Brick uses unconventional camera shots as it is a neo noir, the establishing shot comes after the close ups and that creates an uneasy affect within the audience. Also the extreme wide shot is an unconventional shot for thrillers as you can’t really see Brendan's reaction. These are unconventional as the extreme wide shot isn’t typical and the establishing shot, that comes after the close ups, are mixed up. This makes the audience feel uneasy as they don’t know what’s happening.

 

 

 

 

The only angle used in the OTS of brick is a Canted angle/ Dutch tilt of the extreme wide shot of Brendan’s reaction. The two movements used in the OTS of brick are pans and trackers. An example of the pan is the cigarette on floor that gets flicked out of the car when Brendan is in the phone booth, its pans from the phone booth to the cigarette to Brendan’s feet. For example of the tracking movement is when the camera tracks along the sewer floor to Brendan.

 

Brick uses another unconventional aspect of the thriller genre by using a canted angle/ Dutch tilt; this is used to make the audience feel on edge. No other unconventional angles are used within the OTS of brick. Brick uses these two camera movements to establish and explain to the audience the certain situations that are happening. For example, the track shows Brendan in the sewer and you can clearly see his emotions, then when it cuts to the dead girl some information is revealed to the audience.

 

The editing is slow paced to start with as Brendan is in a mournful state, however, as the OTS progresses the cutting gets gradually faster as the action gets faster. An example of this is when he is in the phone box and the car drives past, everything is fast paced and there are many shots of the car. This is to show danger to the audience.

 

Graphic match is used with the dead girls arm (with the blue wristband) when it cuts to a different time with the same girl and the same wristband putting a note in a locker; this is an example of continuity editing.