‘BRICK’ – Opening Title Sequence Analysis

1. ‘BRICK’ – Opening Title Sequence Analysis

2. MISE-EN-SCENE • LOCATIONS: • Sewer gate: • It is a grubby, dirty looking place with overgrown plants. This feeling that no one cares accompanies the dead body. • It is very wet, making the viewer think of rain, and how it’s associated with misery and unhappiness. • School locker: • The school is a cleaner environment, but still a fairly bland one. This represents the bore that many consider school to be. • Side of the road/phone box: • Again this is a fairly plain setting, to represent the normal life before Brendon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) received the letter from Emily. • LIGHTING: • The lighting in the sewer is very dull, dark and also blue. It’s a very unhappy scene, and the lighting reflects this, blue being associated with ‘feeling blue’ or being upset, and the darkness reflecting the ugliness and despair of the situation, as if a light daren’t be shined on it. • The lighting appears to be coming from above the sewer. These connotations of light above and darkness below represents the idea of heaven and hell, and as Brendon and the body are in ‘hell’, maybe they have done something wrong. • At the school lockers it’s a much brighter scene, as it’s out in the open with the sun shining. This represents the ‘calm before the storm’ so to speak. This is the same with the phone box setting.

3. PROPS: • Emily’s bracelet: • It is seemingly rubber or plastic, making it seem childlike. This represents the image that these characters are still very young. • Triangularly folded note: • This creates a strange contrast, as there has clearly been more precision than is regular to create this note, and all it reads is ‘12:30 Sarmentoso & Del Rio’. • It drops on the floor, almost representing that it has no life, echoing the dead body that we have just seen. • Phone box: • It looks slightly out of place. The setting is basically road, hills and a phone box, making a strange image. • When holding the phone itself, Brendon loosely grips and hangs the microphone around his chin. This shows a lack of confidence, maybe a shyness in that he’s scared to talk. This might be his fatal flaw, that most Thriller protagonists have.

4. SOUND • NON-DIEGETIC: • There is a song playing, which almost sounds Western-like, with the use of minor chords and slow strums to evoke sadness and discomfort. At this point the dead body is shown, so we know to feel sad. • When Emily says ‘it’s good to see you’ on the phone, Brendon looks around confused, and there is some music in the background playing to represent him trying to figure it out, and working his brain. It also makes this event seem more important, and the viewer begins to question where she is. • High pitched string instruments are increasing in dynamics in the background as the car is shortly about to drive past, creating suspense and tension. DIEGETIC: • At the end of the opening song, a school bell fades in, ringing, and then stops leaving ambient noise from around the school, to set the scene. This is also done to bring the scene to reality. This works in thrillers as it makes the setting more realistic and makes the viewer believe that the events could easily happen to them. • The noise of Brendon’s locker opening is amplified, as it is out of the frame so the viewer needs to be aware that it is happening. This is an example of pleonastic sound. • Of course there is the dialogue between Brendon and Emily, which is quite sparse and awkward. This creates an effect of discomfort, suggesting something is wrong, but leaving the viewer puzzled as to what it is, a very common feature of thrillers. • The car driving past is very loud – this is used to emphasize the importance of the car. This is used in other thrillers, such as the OTS for ‘Collateral’, when Tom Cruise drops his briefcase, and there is a close-up of it, and a very amplified version of the sound. This helps forward the plot, but also sometimes misleads viewers from the plot (eg. The bag in ‘Strangers on a Train’)

5. PERFORMANCE • APPEARANCE/COSTUME: • Brendon: • He wears round glasses, which are often considered ‘nerdy’, so it is assumed that he’s not one of the ‘jocks’ or popular kids. • He has overgrown, non-groomed hair, showing that he doesn’t value his appearance very highly. His jeans are rolled up, showing that they don’t properly fit. Which backs this up again. • He is generally dressed casually, and not looking to impress people. • Emily: • We only see Emily’s arm, and her legs when she’s dead, however she’s wearing a long beige skirt and smart shoes, giving the impression that she’s not a popular cheerleader type, but just an average girl. • She has blonde hair, a stereotypical trait for the ‘damsel in distress’ character.

6. PROPS CONT.: • Phone box: • It looks slightly out of place. The setting is basically road, hills and a phone box, making a strange image. • When holding the phone itself, Brendon loosely grips and hangs the microphone around his chin. This shows a lack of confidence, maybe a shyness in that he’s scared to talk. This might be his fatal flaw, that most Thriller protagonists have. • ACTOR’S PERFORMANCE: • Joseph Gordon-Levitt: • Gordon-Levitt walks very awkwardly, and slouched in this role. Hands in his pocket, and barely animating his face at all, he makes Brendon seem like the average moody teenager. • When he walks towards the ringing phone, he almost seems fed up, sighing as he dumps his hands into his jacket pockets. • The only time he seems animated, is when Emily appears to be in danger, as the car drives past. He then hurries out of the phone box in what almost looks like a futile attempt of confronting the car. This represents the drive, that all good protagonists need, to protect ‘the princess’ (in terms of Propp’s stock characters). • In the first scene, although not making any changes to his facial expression, Gordon-Levitt displays Brendon as being scared, shook up and shocked. He is sat in an almost foetal position, which is an instinct reaction for protecting yourself. This represents one of the film’s possible USPs; that Brendon isn’t the standard all-out macho hero such as James Bond (007 franchise), or Bryan Mills (Taken).

7. CINEMATOGRAPHY • CAMERA SHOTS/ANGLES/EDITING TECHNIQUES: • Graphic Match: • This helps the viewer link two things together, with one piece of imagery. The ‘Brick’ OTS uses this with Emily’s bracelet, when she’s lying dead, and also when she’s placing the note in Brendon’s locker. It is also used here as a narrative device, to let the viewer know that the film has now gone back in time, as she’s alive in the next shot. • Close-ups: • The viewer is given close ups of • Brendon’s face to show his emotions at • seeing the dead body. This makes the scene • even more sad, as there have clearly been • two people affected by this.

8. CAMERA SHOTS/ANGLES/EDITING TECHNIQUES CONT.: • Establishing shot (but not at the start of the scene): • There is an establishing shot used to set the scene here, but it doesn’t dive straight in with it. We see Brendon’s feet, then his clearly distraught eyes, and wonder what’s happened. Then we see the establishing shot. This is done to create a sense of mystery. • Point of View (POV): • When Emily tells Brendon, on the phone, ‘it’s good to see you Brendon’, a POV shot is used to show him looking for her. This reflects and emphasizes a frantic anxiety that Brendon develops as soon as he thinks he’s being watched.