Textual analysis of Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005)

1. Textual analysis of Brick (Rian Johnson, 2005) By Yasmin Hoque

2. Location/Setting • Sewers: • First location is set at the sewers, and is quite typical of the thriller genre as it is quite dingy and mysterious. • High School: • This is quite typical for a thriller genre. As the locations are often set in ordinary places. • The location being at a high school shows the audience that the boy character is a student. • Phone booth: • The locations contribute to the representations of the characters, as in each location, the audience always see Brendon alone, and isolated. This implies him as a loner to the audience

3. Lighting/Colour stock • The sewers: • The lighting is quite dull and dark, and has been de-saturated which creates a mysterious atmosphere and suspense for the viewers. • The lighting does fit the mood of the situation, as the boy character is obviously sad about the girl being dead, and so the lighting fits in with the boys mood. • There are different contrasts within the lighting. For example, the bangles are bright blue, and has a sharp contrast compared to the surroundings. • High school and Phone booth: • Natural lighting is used here, which tells the audience what time of day it is, which is the day time. • However, the lighting does seem quite dull, and de-saturation must have been used to create this, which creates mystery and suspense for the viewers.

4. Costume/appearance of the charactersHair/makeup/dress etc. • The character Brendon is wearing casual, plain clothing which shows the audience that his character doesn’t care about his appearance. • His glasses stereotype him as a geek as well as intelligence. This can tell the audience that he is the geek in the film, and the loner. • From the girls costume, viewers can see that she is stylish, which demonstrates that she did care about her appearance and shows that she was likely to be the ‘popular’ girl.

5. Props • The sewers: • The bangles are significant as the dark colours represents this idea of coldness, which is typical of the thriller genre. • Another prop is the black car, which seems quite negative because of the colour and does cross over the with the cigarette which shows that is must be the ‘bad guy’ in it, and tells the viewers about him. • The glasses are quite stereotypical, and stereotype Brendon as intelligent and a geek. • The note is also another prop, which creates mystery, as the audience don’t know why is says when the girl puts it into the locker.

6. Performance Body language/accent/paralanguage • One of the first shots we see of Brendon is of his eyes, which creates mystery. The audience don’t know what he is looking at, but know he is shocked. • We fully first see Brendon leaning on a wall, crouched down with his hands by his face. This shows the audience that must of known the girl • His body language also tells the audience that he is a loner, for example, when we see him walking towards the camera he has his hands in his pocket, which can show that he wants to keep to himself and presents him as a loner.

7. Camera shots/angles/movements • The first shot is a panning shot of a wall which then reaches to a close up of someone’s shoes. This shows an example of restricted narration which could be done to create mystery for the audience and get them to question what is happening. • The audience then see a ECU shot of Brendon’s eyes, which are first blurred but slowly focus. This gives a little bit of information about his character, such as he wears glasses. He is looking at something off camera, which makes the audience question what it is. Through his facial expression, the audience know that he is shocked, this creates mystery. • After the close up shots, the audience finally see an establishing shot, which gives information about the location and answers the audience’s question to what he was looking at. • There is a MCU shot of Brendon, which gives more information about him, such as his casual clothing, body language etc. • There is a MS shot of the girls legs which gives the audience information about her, such as she wears stylish clothing, which shows to the • After this shot there is a CU shot of the girls face, which reinforces that she is dead, and again gives more information about her character. • Following this shot there is a CU of the girls arm in the water, showing her blue bangles. This again can show that she was popular because of her stylish clothing and jewellery. Also, this shot is very significant, as the next shot shows the same arm with and bangles, putting a note in a locker, which shows the audience that this is a flash back because the girl is alive.

8. High school: • The first shot is a slow tilt, with someone walking towards the character, and is blurry. This creates mystery for the audience, as they don’t know who it is. • As the person come closer, it becomes more focus on the shoes. This shows to the audience that it is the same shoes as the character at the start, so they know it is the same person. • There is also an establishing shot to convey that he is in school, which tells viewers that he is a student. He also reinforces how he is alone, and there is no one else around him. • There is a close up shot P.O.V shot of the note, which answers the audiences questions. • Phone booth: • High angle shot of Brendon from behind, which zooms out as he turns around to face the camera, in reaction on the phone ringing. This makes him seem innocent, and weak character in the film, and can show that he is the protagonist in the film. • There is quick pan movement when the boy is looking outside the phone booth. This effect shows the audience that it is his P.O.V looking quickly around for the girl. • There is a MS of Brendon leaning against the phone booth inside, which lets the audience see the car coming from behind him. • Pan of the car as it drives past the phone booth, which happens quite quickly which makes the audience question what is happening.

9. Editing: • At the start of the opening sequence, simple editing is used as it cuts from Brendon to the dead girl he is looking at. • The pace is very slow, as it does now show the audience what is happening straight away, for example, close ups, zooming in and out, and making it blurry. • Match on action is used when the car is passing the phone booth, and the pace picks up. • Graphic match editing is used, when the audience see a shot of the dead girls arm in the first location, which then cuts straight to the same arm wearing the blue bangles putting a note in a locker. This shows the audience that the next scene is the past, as the girl is still alive.

10. Sound • There is first non-diegetic music, which is slow pace and includes instruments such as the guitar, which has a sad tone/mood to it. This does add to the sad, dull atmosphere which does fit in with the scene. • High school • Then there is a diegetic sound of a school bell goes off, which shows the change of the location. • Also, in the background viewers can hear students chatting, however, when there is a establish shot of Brendon, there is no one around him. This reinforces how is he isolated, and presented as the outcast. • Phone booth: • As the car comes closer, the volume increases, which is louder than usual. This effect can shock the audience, and make them wonder what is happening.