Brick Analysis

Brick
US, 2005, Johnson.

The opening sequence to the film ‘Brick’ leaves the audience asking many questions throughout. To begin with it is intriguing because of the soundtrack starting the film off with. It feels almost like a heartbeat alongside the main western music playing. The music reverberates leaving echoes and has a very thin texture with chimes give a ghostly, solemn feel to it. If you listen closely enough, there is also the sound of running water in the background, possibly giving clues to the audience as to where this is set. This is all played during the opening credits for the cast and crew. The first shot we as an audience see it the floor that then tracks upwards to a man, gender suggested by the masculine shoes and figure, crouching yet we cannot see his face, the audience ask questions like ‘who is he?’ ‘where is he?’. There is a cut to the mans face yet still not showing us fully what he looks like. A focus pull is used in this shot, finally revealing a majority of his face to us. The characters eyes are fixated on something, making us want to know what he is looking at. We then have a match on action and master shot, showing the sewer with the dead body of a girl lying face down in the water. The only light in the shot is at the top of the frame giving a dark and dingy feel to this clip. There is also juxtaposition used; the girl is in white with blonde hair showing innocence and giving the audience a feel that she does not belong there and so something must have happened to her, this makes us think about whether the man in the frame is evil because of the fact he is the only person around the dead body. ‘Did he kill her?’ ‘whats their relationship?’. The two characters positioning, however, suggests that they do not know eachother because of the distance between them, ‘do they know eachother?’ ‘why is he there?’. There is a fast cut of the mans face, making the audience ask many questions. It then cuts to her legs, showing her smart clothing suggesting she was a clever and neat person. There is a slow track into her legs that this is an eyeline match, suggesting that this is what the man in currently concentrating on. We then cut back to him and track towards him, giving the audience a closer, intense relationship with him. It shows shot reverse shot being used also. We cut back to her face but we are not able to see it properly because of the blonde hair covering it which also is bright in contrast to the rest of her surroundings again, showing innocence and the fact that she is so out of place. The haunting music continues to play as we track even further into the male character. We are then shown the girls arm and bright blue bracelets which take centre screen, again showing the contrast in colours. The shot cuts to the bracelets again but in brighter, cheerier surroundings. Her arm is now bright white in colour again and its completely different to previous shots. This shows the change in time, also because she seems to be moving we assume we are going back in time to see her alive. She is putting something in a locker which adds to the audiences questions – ‘what is it?’ ‘why is she putting that in there?’ ‘Where is she?’. However, because there is lockers in this shot, we think that it is a school. The title appears on a solid black background in bright white, this could go alongside with the contrast of the girls bright white clothes and the dirty sewage water. As the image fades, it could show how the girls life has faded and gone. It then goes back to the lockers showing ‘two days previous’. This shows us the track back in time. As the camera slowly pans to floor level, we see the same pair of legs as the mans at the sewers going towards the locker the girl was previously at showing that it was his locker and her note to him that falls out. A long shot and master shot shows he is alone as he reads the message. We are given an eyeline match as we see from the mans point of view what her note says allowing the audience to be involved in their story. We then have a slow cut showing the meeting address of the two characters.

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