Brick

The opening sequence to Brick creates a lot of questions in the audiences mind that they want answering. The title of the film creates questions even before the film begins like what relevance is the word ‘brick’ to the film. The title also does not reveal anything and references to a brick can been seen throughout the opening sequence. The title is shown in big, black and a bold font. The letters are capital which looks slightly out of place considering the event that the audience has just seen. The title of the film is shown to be quite simple and it does not give anything away or suggests what the film is about however the title is obviously important to the film as it is shown so obviously in the frame and opening sequence.

The setting is revealed slowly as it pans across and close up of some dirty and wet bricks until it reaches someone’s shoes which then fades into and extreme close up of a boys eyes showing he wears glasses and has curly hair. After that it establishes the setting of a dark tunnel in daylight but it has a lot of shadows to create a sinister feeling. This shot also reveals a shocking situation which immediately grasps the audience. A young girl is faces down dead while the boy is looking at her from a distance. This creates many questions like why is she dead? and who are they?. After a while the films cuts to what happens before this event and it is set in a school which is shown through typical connotations of an American school (lockers and a school bell).

The costumes the girl is wearing could reveal clue as to what has lead to this event. She is wearing a dress and heal which suggests that she was going to a party of some kind that she dressed up for and did not intend to get dirty or die. Her heal show signs of mud which makes the audience think about why they are and that maybe she has been running from someone. The clothes she is wearing make the audience think straight away that she is a teenager due to the plastic bracket and dress.

There is a lot of interesting camera work in the opening sequence including the extreme close up on the boys eyes which shows us that he is looking at the girl. Another interesting piece of camera work and editing is when it cut from the girls dead arm lying in water to her arm alive and moving (wearing the same clothes) two days earlier. It is interesting as her arm is in the same position in both frames and also reveals to the audience that it is the same girl and that the film started at the end.