Neo-Noir

2. Neo-Noir • Brick is a thriller, sub-genre Neo-noir. Typical things to find in a Neo-noir thriller: • Characters are conflicted anti-heroes • Low key lighting • Unusual camera placements • Modern themes including identity crisis, memory issues and subjectivity.

3. Setting • The opening title sequence to brick is set in three different locations an entrance to a sewer, a school and a phone box. • The entrance to the sewer known to be a cold, dark, dirty, dingy place where people would not usually choose to go, this makes a sewer a good place for doing something you don’t want people seeing or hiding something. • The school- Thrillers use a location such a school because it makes it unexpected, people will associate a school with safety so having a thriller based at a school can make the viewer feel uneasy. • The phone box- Even though the phone box is on the side of a road, the location seems isolated on the outskirts of an urban housing estate, this helps make characters seem vulnerable and makes the viewer uneasy.

4. Props The note: This gives the film a sense of mystery and leaves • the viewer wondering who and why they left the note. • note: Telephone box- Use of a telephone box leaves the other • persons identity kept secret leaving the audience guessing who • the other character is, again this is giving the film a sense of • mystery. • The Car- This car is a muscle car , these cars are often • associated with young men who have earned themselves a lot of • money, the fact it is black makes us think this is not a good person

5. Props The cigarette: Cigarettes are normally associated with the bad characters so this clip gives us another clue that the character driving this car is going to be some sort of villain.

6. Costume • Bracelets: These bracelets give us information on this character such as the fact its a young female. • Glasses: Glasses can inform us that a character is clever also characters with glasses are not normally sporty or popular in films. • Brown leather shoes- shows an un-sporty character but a character that is well dressed and smart. • These items are items that ordinary people would wear but this film is going to put them in an extraordinary situation which is typical of a thriller film.

7. Lighting • The sewer scene used quite blue but dark light which reflects on the mood of scene, it ensures that the viewer knows that something is wrong and the characters feelings are reflected by the lighting. • The lighting in the school location is lighter but still quite yellowish grey • The lighting in this film is blue, cold, greyish and de-saturated this is typical of a thriller film as it shows that this film is not a happy film. It also gives the viewer the idea that something horrible has happened/will happen.

8. Camera Shots • Use of extreme close up to show a characters emotions for example in Brick they have used this extreme close up to show that the boy is upset. • Brick also uses close ups to show small parts of a characters body in this case it uses close up to reveal parts of a dead young girl. • After using close ups and extreme close ups we then see an establishing shot , this is to let the viewer know where the close ups and Extreme close ups were taking place, Thrillers will often use establishing shots after other type of shots because this gives the film a sense of mystery.