'Brick' analysis

Brick (Johnson, 2005, US)

At the start of the opening sequence the music starts of really loud, there is a cowbell which sounds like an alarm with the sound of running water playing at the same time. This makes the audience alert as well as makes them calm, it also completely contrasts the fact that someone has died. There is a sound bridge in the scene where the school bell rings in one scene and carries on ringing in to the next scene, it makes the sequence play more smoothly and seem naturalistic. In the mise en scene they focus on specific aspects of each character, with the girl, they focus on her bright blue bracelets and her blonde hair, we know this as they do a close up of her hand in the stream of water with her blue bracelets on her wrist. With the boy, they focus on his brown shoes and his round glasses. These characteristics of each character make the audience try and figure something out about each character, for example, the girl is perceived to be quite popular with her wavy blonde hair, where as the boy is made out to be a bit of an awkward child with his round glasses and turned up trouser legs, the sequence suggests that the couple are aware of each other but don't really talk to each other. The director purposely holds back information from the audience to try and make the audience figure out what each character looks like. The editing in the sequence is slow paced as the boy sits there and just watches the girl lie in the stream with the water running through part of her hair. The pace then changes when the school bell rings and there is the hustle and bustle of everyday school life. There is a crab shot along the ledge of his feet, they also use a graphic match as the bracelets are in one place in one shot and are in around the same place in the next shot. In the cinematography they have used a wide shot of the area where the girl has laying and the boy is crouching. The director has done this so you can see what the girl looks like and how awkward the boy looks. They have also tracked in on important objects such as the girls; hair, feet, hand and braclets and the boys; glasses, feet, rolled up trousers and hair. They have done this to make the audience wonder who had killed the girl. They have used a pull focus when using an extreme close up on the boys eyes/ glasses. The director has done this to suggest that the boy was in some sort of a shocked daze and was coming back to reality as the camera was focusing. The extreme close up of the boy may suggest that the director, is again, hiding things from the audience as he has his hands blocking most of his nose and mouth from the audience.