Microanalysis of 'Brick'
Film Studies AS Micro-Analysis Coursework
An analysis of mise-en-scene and sound in the opening sequence of ‘Brick’
Within this assignment I will be giving an analysis of the mise-en-scene and sound in the opening sequence of ‘Brick’ (Johnson, USA, 2005). Mise-en-scene is a French term originating from the theatre that literally means ‘what’s put in the scene’. However in film it refers to the elements of a shot - the set, the props, the positioning of the actors, as well as the use of colour and lighting- and the way these factors are placed throughout the scene. In the opening sequence of ‘Brick’, the audience first come across Brendan looking at the dead body of his best friend (who is also the girl he loves) in the tunnel. The audience then go back a few days to Brendan at school. After opening his locker, a note from Emily falls out onto the floor with it telling him to go to the phone box on the corner of two streets. She calls him up but is very secretive about where she is. She asks Brendan for help but only tells him certain events within key words. Suddenly, a car comes screeching around the corner and Emily gets all upset, indicating to Brendan that she can also see the car.
When the audience first starts to see imagery on the screen, they can see the camera is erratic and jarring as if the camera is searching for an element to focus upon and eventually locates something or someone. It has links to the shower scene in ‘Psycho’ (Hitchcock, USA, 1960) where once Marion Crane has been killed the audience are shown the zooming out of her eye, the camera seems to simply drift around her room in a disconnected manner trying to find something else to focus on other than the dead body of the woman. It is the same in the opening shot of ‘Brick’ in the tunnel when the camera comes to land on a blurred Brendan’s face after searching across the tunnel wall and slowly focuses in to a clearer image, this arguably symbolises making sense of the situation of his
An analysis of mise-en-scene and sound in the opening sequence of ‘Brick’
Within this assignment I will be giving an analysis of the mise-en-scene and sound in the opening sequence of ‘Brick’ (Johnson, USA, 2005). Mise-en-scene is a French term originating from the theatre that literally means ‘what’s put in the scene’. However in film it refers to the elements of a shot - the set, the props, the positioning of the actors, as well as the use of colour and lighting- and the way these factors are placed throughout the scene. In the opening sequence of ‘Brick’, the audience first come across Brendan looking at the dead body of his best friend (who is also the girl he loves) in the tunnel. The audience then go back a few days to Brendan at school. After opening his locker, a note from Emily falls out onto the floor with it telling him to go to the phone box on the corner of two streets. She calls him up but is very secretive about where she is. She asks Brendan for help but only tells him certain events within key words. Suddenly, a car comes screeching around the corner and Emily gets all upset, indicating to Brendan that she can also see the car.
When the audience first starts to see imagery on the screen, they can see the camera is erratic and jarring as if the camera is searching for an element to focus upon and eventually locates something or someone. It has links to the shower scene in ‘Psycho’ (Hitchcock, USA, 1960) where once Marion Crane has been killed the audience are shown the zooming out of her eye, the camera seems to simply drift around her room in a disconnected manner trying to find something else to focus on other than the dead body of the woman. It is the same in the opening shot of ‘Brick’ in the tunnel when the camera comes to land on a blurred Brendan’s face after searching across the tunnel wall and slowly focuses in to a clearer image, this arguably symbolises making sense of the situation of his