Analysis of Brick

Analysis of Brick (Johnson, 2005, US)

When watching Brick the opening sequence creates a range of different meanings and follows what an opening sequence should do. It starts the story off and helps establish the genre of the film. Also it begins to introduce particular characters and the narrative without revealing everything. Brick is particularly good at making the audience intrigued and want to continue to watch. Furthermore it constantly makes the audience ask questions about everything they see. It is a very difficult but clever thing to be able to do and this is done by using the four elements which are sound, mis-en-scene, cinematography and editing.

Firstly there is sound. Sound is quite consistent throughout the opening sequence with the regular occurrence of bells ringing. Perhaps this is used to indicate a new beginning or the memory of the past. These are long drawn out bells which seem dramatic and create more of an intense atmosphere. As well as this it creates a suspicious setting where you are unsure of what’s about to happen. These bells could have also been used to give that meaning of this is the start of something to come and you need to watch on to discover exactly what it is. Whilst the titles are displayed you can hear some ambient sound. This means you can hear sound from the background of the setting which are everyday sounds that people can relate to. This is effective because it makes you feel part of the scene and creates more of a realistic setting. It proves that anyone from the surrounding area can see what has happened and nothing is hidden from the public eye. After the graphic match which I will explain later on in the analysis there is a shot in a school where the school bells are ringing. This may indicate a connection between the bells at the beginning of the sequence and the school bell because it is linking the idea together that this is the time when something is going to happen.

This opening sequence begins displaying a setting of a tunnel/ drain system perhaps the place the sewage runs through. However it is surrounded by deep high walls and this is generally indicating that nobody ever goes down there and it is really the most pleasant place people would want to be. It appears to be early in the day perhaps dawn where people are just starting to wake up and face the challenges of the day. They starting to realise what’s ahead of them and are perhaps feeling down hearted about what’s to come. The sequence displays a boy/man who’s is wearing glasses which may be demonstrating his vulnerability and weakness and then we see the girl who is wearing blue bands around her wrists, heeled shoes and is blonde but we never capture a full shot of her face, maybe it is trying to hide her identity and keep you guessing.  Additionally the title of the film appears after the first section of the sequence. This highlights a pause in the scene where it is telling you something is about to happen.

After listening to the sound and watching the sequence through once you suddenly have lots of questions that you want answers to. You want to know what is the relationship between the man and woman?, why is she dead?, where are they?, why has he found her there?, what did the note mean?, what is he feeling?, as well as many more. The film then progressively starts to give us clues to the answers but never fully reveals them. We understand that she is dead by the position of her body  on the floor and the fact that her face is in the water as well as the fact her hair is covering her face and she has little colour in her skin expressing how weak she is and that there are no signs of life. Additionally the man displays such worry linked in with guilt and that if she was alive you would realistically expect that he would help her but he isn’t; he is just observing the situation. However because he is still there it could suggest that he didn’t kill her and that she could have even fallen from the bridge. Although this then gives the assumption that she could have been pushed. This concludes that there are so many answers that we want to know but you can never know what is exactly correct.

There is a mixture of different shots used in this opening sequence one of which is a close up of the ledge the man is standing however at first you cannot tell that this is what it is. It is an ambiguous opening where we don’t know where or what it is leaving the mystery unsolved. This is a very dark shot with very low key lighting and links in with the fact that this could be a very dark film full of bad events. It is very effective in the way it is keeping the audience on edge to find out what is to come and what are they actually seeing. At first glances you notice it doesn’t look like a pleasant place and looks rather old therefore somewhere you wouldn’t want to be alone.

The next shot we see is a close up of a pair of shoes. This sounds simple but it does in fact create a lot of meaning because we then realise there is  a man involved in the scene but most importantly it makes us want to know who exactly the man is. For example what is his name, where has he come from and what is he doing there. This shot is particular clever because a similar shot is used later on in the sequence when it was in fact “three days previous”. This displays another close up of the shoes to highlight how it is the same person but it is still withholding information because we never see exactly who it is. The man also has jeans rolled up over his shoes perhaps to make sure he doesn’t get anything on them that could link him to the crime.  However there is a slight difference in these shots which are that one is low key lighting and one is high key. The reason for this could be that the first shot is low key because it expresses how something bad has happened and the darkness of the mood at that point whereas the other shot is high key because the incident hasn’t happened yet so there is no reason for the darkness to be portrayed.

Next the editing technique cross dissolve is used to change the shot from the shoes to the face. This means we finally get to see an extreme close up of his face however it is still out of focus so he is still not being revealed fully we are only getting clues on what he looks like. His hand is covering his face so we can only see small sections of it which annoys the audience because they just want to see what he looks like although they are enjoying the excitement of guessing what he looks like. Then finally there is a focus pull to reveal his whole face. The way he looks suggests that he wouldn’t have done anything wrong and looks vulnerable and perhaps “nerdy”.  On the other hand where his hand is covering his face it makes him appear quite guilty and cowardly.

 

After we see a master/long shot which is very important to allow us to discover the special relationships between the characters. It could also be seen as an establishing shot which introduces the characters and the way they work together. It highlights how seriously the man is staring at her but not moving to help her which therefore conveys how she is dead. It makes us question what is happening in the situation and want to discover more. This shot has been perfectly placed where it is in the opening sequence because it creates meaning. If this was the first shot you saw it won’t have that same feeling to it because you wouldn’t be so shocked by what you are seeing and wouldn’t feel the intensity which is projecting off of the screen. It is low key lighting which also adds to that suspicious atmosphere.

A low angle shot is used to display the man but a high angle of the girl’s body. This is to convey how he is higher up than her but also to highlight the fact that he is doing nothing and it makes the audience angry that he is just sitting there.  Most people wouldn’t just stare they would try to get help. It does however highlight how he is in shock and also worried about what is happening, maybe he could be scared for the aftermath of what’s happened.  The camera then tracks towards the male character to draw more attention to him and build intensity and the idea that he can’t take his eyes off her. This could suggest two opposite things. On one hand he could be so in love with her that he never wants to lose her and believes if he keeps staring he will be able to keep that connection. Although on the other hand he may not want to come to terms with what he has done and believes if he keeps watch of her nobody will ever find what has happened.  A shot reverse shot and eye line match is also used to reinforce these meanings.

 

A graphic match is also used to display the bands on the girl’s wrists. The first shot highlights her laying down with her arm on the floor with all the blue bands round her wrists and then we see another shot later on when we see a shot of arm at school putting the note in the locker and it has the exact same blue bands. This expresses that it is the same girl and demonstrates how there definitely must be some sort of relationships between the two characters.