MISE EN SCENE BRICK

By showing a close up of the boy’s eyes, this is a way of introducing his character to the audience. It is said that eyes are ‘the key to the soul’ and show emotion. Straight away we can see that he has fear in his eyes, and as an audience we want to know what this is. His glasses not only show intellect, but also suggest to us that he is maybe a bit of a geek and therefore an outsider. The lighting is dark and ‘dingy’ (de-saturated) giving us an eerie and uncomfortable feel The darkness from the tunnel represents the bad happenings that have taken place. Although there is light coming from above, this makes the characters seem as if they are now trapped in the darkness. The isolated area emphasises that the characters are alone. It shows us this is a deserted area that people do not like to visit at it is not a pleasant place. The dead girl shows us that a crime has taken place, and crime is often the centre of a Thrillers narrative. As an audience, it fills us with mystery as we want to know what’s happened. The boy is shown in almost a foetal position. This shows us he is devastated and trying to block himself from the rest of the world. As an audience, it suggests to us that he was probably close with the murdered victim. This also lets us know that he is the protagonist and not the antagonist as he is vulnerable. Ambient sound occurs here; the sound of the water running. This emphasises not only location, but that he is alone with the dead victim. At the beginning, a soundtrack is planning which is very slow and emotive. It suggests to the audience something devastating has happened and when it cuts from the title to the murder scene we are proved correct. The music helps us to feel the pain of the boy.

The victim is wearing a red skirt and shoes to represent blood and danger, which is typical of the Thriller genre. A graphic match is used to show the audience that it has gone back in time. It is also not seen to be very ‘cool’ to wear a tatty, plastic bracelet, which suggests to the audience that she was not very popular when she was alive. The bright blue colour and plastic also suggests her young age to us. This medium close up of a bit of paper falling to the floor lets the audience know that the paper has significance or contains information and makes up wonder what. The narrative will most probably revolve around what the information the note is going to give us. The shoes and jeans that he is wearing emphasises that he is an ordinary person. This is typical of a Thriller, as the protagonist is often an ordinary person who runs into danger.

Because Thrillers have a restricted narrative, there is often lack of establishing shots to set the scene. Brick does not have an establishing shot of the school, but has an establishing shot of these lockers to give us a clue that it is a school. Bells also ring giving us further clues. Even though there is light coming from above, where the boy is standing is dark. This could represent that he is in a ‘dark place’, and maybe unhappy. He is also all alone emphasising he is a loner. Once again he is alone, emphasising yet again how lonely he is as a person. This also makes the audience feel tense as we wonder if danger will come to him whilst alone, when no one can defend him. The desert place also makes us feel tense as bad things tend to happen when no one else is around. As we can also see a long distance of road, this emphasises to us there is no one even in a miles distance. We wonder whether the phone box is going to ring. When it does, we wonder who it is which fills us with suspense. By using a phone call for him to communicate with the girl on the other end, the audience are left asking themselves who she is and what she looks like. This is typical of Thrillers as they always leave us guessing.

This car drives past as the girl on the phone screams “Oh no!” which shows this is a sign of danger. It is also speeding extremely fast, which also shows us both the driver and vehicle are dangerous. The fact it is black represents danger and often death. It is seen as a negative colour. The noise also increases here to emphasises the car and characters inside are important to the narrative. We cannot see who is in the car, which fills us with suspense. This is typical of a Thriller to leaves us wondering as well as it having an element of mystery. A medium close up of this cigarette as the car drives away shows that the driver was not a particularly pleasant person as a cigarette is seen as a dirty, unpleasant thing. A cigarette is also associated with death.