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Brick Plot

Brick is an American film written and directed by Rian Johnson. The film's narrative centers around a hardboiled detective story that takes place in suburbia, while all of the main characters are high school students.

Brick, Johnson's directorial debut, won the Special Jury Prize for Originality of Vision at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated at the Independent Spirit Award 2006 for the John Cassavetes Award (best film production with a budget under USD 500,000). Focus Features distributed the film, which opened in the United States on March 31st, 2006 in New York and Los Angeles.

Brendan Frye (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a student in a San Clemente, California high school. Unlike most outsiders, he is in the know of the intricacies of the "upper crust" of druggie socialites, but chooses to live outside them until he gets a terrified phone call from his ex-girlfriend, Emily (Emilie de Ravin). She tearfully tells him that "she didn't know that the brick was bad" and that "the Pin's on it now", and implores him to help her. Shortly after, she disappears. Brendan takes it upon himself to find her and make sure she's OK, enlisting the aid of fellow loner The Brain (Matt O'Leary) to shake things up, while also keeping the assistant vice-principal of his school (Richard Roundtree) somewhat informed of what's going on. His intrusion into the tightly knit circle of high school cliques brings him into the lives of several people, including sophisticate Laura (Nora Zehetner), prolifically violent Tug (Noah Fleiss), stoner Dode (Noah Segan), seductive Kara (Meagan Good), jock Brad (Brian J. White) and drug baron The Pin (Lukas Haas). The Pin is pivotal in Brendan's pursuit of the truth about Emily's fate.

Rian Johnson wrote the first draft of Brick in 1997 after graduating from USC film school a year earlier. It was originally inspired by the works of Dashiell Hammett, an author known for his work writing hardboiled detective novels. Before Johnson became familiar with Hammett's work, he was an avid fan of the 1990 film Miller's Crossing by the Coen Brothers (who, in turn, cited Hammett as one of their influences for Miller's Crossing). Johnson, already a fan of film noir in general, enjoyed Hammett's style, calling it a "pure dose" of the hardboiled detective genre. The decision to give the Brick narrative the twist of a suburban high school setting was to apply the film noir genre to a fresh set of visual cues.

After the screenplay was completed, Johnson, with the aid of good friend and cinemtographer Steve Yedlin, tried hard to get it into the hands of anyone in the film business willing to read it. After attempting to get the project funded by a number of production companies over a period of six years, they decided that the easiest and safest route to take would be to fund and shoot the film themselves. By shooting the film independently, Johnson would have complete control over achieving the delicate tone required to successfully translate Brick from script to screen.

Over the years, Johnson had come in contact with various individuals that were willing to work on the film, including casting director Shannon Makhanian, producers Mark G. Mathis and Ram Bergman and various actors. After acquiring about $475,000 for the film's budget, Brick finally began production in 2003.

The film was shot in Johnson's hometown of San Clemente, California on 35 mm film stock. Much of the film takes place at San Clemente High School, the same high school that Johnson attended.

The original score to Brick was composed by Rian Johnson's cousin, Nathan Johnson, with additional support and music from The Cinematic Underground. The score harkens back to the style, feel and overall texture of noir films. It features traditional instruments such as the piano, trumpet, and violin, but it also contains unique and invented instruments such as the wine-o-phone, metallophone, tack pianos, filing cabinets, and kitchen utensils, all recorded with one microphone on a battered-up PowerBook.

Because Nathan Johnson was in England during most of the production process, the score was composed almost entirely over Apple iChat, with Rian Johnson playing clips of the movie to Nathan Johnson, who would then score them. The two later met in New York to mix the soundtrack.

The soundtrack CD of the movie was released on March 12, 2006 by Lakeshore Records. In addition to Johnson's score, it contains songs by The Velvet Underground, Anton Karas and Kay Armen as well as the big band version of "Frankie and Johnny" performed by Bunny Berigan and a full unedited performance of "The sun whose rays are all ablaze" by Nora Zehetner.

Many of the special effects in the film are practical and in-camera effects. Early in the film, for example, there is a scene in which Emilie de Ravin is walking toward the camera out of a tunnel as a garbage bag floats downstream and engulfs the camera, transitioning over Joseph Gordon-Levitt back in his character's bedroom. To achieve this, the desired effect was filmed in reverse order. The garbage bag began over the camera and was pulled away during filming, as Emilie de Ravin walked backwards into the tunnel. This footage would then cut to a scene where a garbage bag was simply pulled over Joseph Gordon-Levitt's head.

The majority of the film's effects were cheaply and efficiently produced by using similarly simple methods. Slowly filming a car driving in reverse, then playing the footage backwards at a higher speed gives the illusion of a car quickly approaching as the camera darts in front of it stylishly. Clever fades give the impression of time changes while quick jump cuts add tension to a scene in which the protagonist wakes up after passing out.

Certain edits were also introduced to the film to time footage to different dialogue, adding certain information and leaving other information out completely. These edits are noticeable, as the actors mouths are not always moving in sync with their dialogue.

One particular special effect (in which Emilie de Ravin's character floated toward camera) implemented use of a green screen, but it was edited out of the film far before its completion.

Brick premiered in the United States on March 31, 2006 in select theaters. It opened to United Kingdom audiences on May 12, 2006 on a limited number of screens. The film grossed $2.07 million in the US box office and a total of $3.35 million worldwide.

DVD release
The Region 1 DVD release of Brick originally became available on August 8, 2006 as part of the Focus Features Spotlight Series. Special features include:

A selection of deleted and extended scenes with introductions by director Rian Johnson
Audition footage featuring Nora Zehetner and Noah Segan
Feature audio commentary with Rian Johnson, Nora Zehetner, Noah Segen, producer Ram Bergman, production designer Jodie Tillen and costume designer Michele Posch.
The Region 2 DVD was released on September 18, 2006.

Virgin Atlantic has featured a version of the film on its flights to and from the United Kingdom.

Brick was released to mostly positive criticism. It received a 78% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie ranked number 35 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movie.