Brick Textual analysis 9o 9o By Joe Coquet Directed by Rian Johnson Released 7 th April 2006

Location/setting There are three main settings in the OTS, a Sewer, a school and a phone booth on a street. The school and the are typical of thriller films because they are normal, everyday places and often thrillers are set in these sorts of places. The third setting is a sewer opening, which is a urban area, yet secluded, which is also typical of the thriller genre as it is an area that isn’t very easy to access, and somewhere that a crime could happen and could go unnoticed.

Lighting The lighting differs in every scene, with the first scene at the sewer being dark with a slight blue tint to it, which could show the emotion Brendan is feeling at the time. The scenes at the school and the phone booth only use natural light, but due to the overcast weather, this makes the whole shot look grey.

Costume The costumes of the characters can really help tell the audience about them, telling us things like their social class, hobbies and other personal traits. The clothes worn by the characters show how they are everyday people, that find themselves in an extraordinary situation. The clothes the dead girl is wearing are mostly bright coloured, with a white jumper, showing her innocence and pureness.

Props There aren’t many props used in the OTS, but one that stands out is the note left in Brendan’s locker. It shows how the girl leaving it was secretive, but the hand writing on it was neat, showing how the sender of the note had been careful about writing it, telling us that the character didn’t want there to be any confusion about what the note said or what to do with it.

Actor performance The performance of the actor who plays Brendan does a good job of showing the confusion and worry he is meant to be feeling. When he is crouching over the body of the dead girl, he looks scolding at the body, showing anger and revenge. This gives the audience ideas about how the rest of the film could pan out.

Camera shots A variety of different shots are used in this OTS, such as extreme close ups, POV, establishing shot, long shot etc. All of these help paint the picture of what is going on at the beginning of the film.

Camera angles & movements There aren’t too many changes in the angle that the shots are done in, with most of them straight on, however, there are some panning shots and a tracking shot of the car when it drives past Brendan.

Editing The editing at the beginning of the OTS is slow, as it starts off at a sad part with a dead body and Brendan mourning. However, the pace picks up as there is more action going on, and climaxes when the car drives past Brendan in the phone box where it is quite fast paced.

Sound At the start of the OTS, there is music made by a strange chiming instrament, which sort of send shivers down your spine. This works because in shot there is a dead body being shown. When it cuts from the dead bod to the school, more natural sounds come in and this again shows how the film is set in a normal everyday place, which is typical of the thriller genre.