Children of Men essay

How effectively does the opening sequence from ‘Children of Men’ (2006) use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?

‘Children of Men’ is a 2006 American science fiction film co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It was adapted from P. D. James's 1992 novel The Children of Men. The film stars Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Pam Ferris, Claire-Hope Ashitey, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Michael Caine.

The film is set In 2027 and about the world becoming chaotic as humans can no longer give birth. A former activist (Clive Owen) agrees to help transport a pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea, where her child's birth may help scientists save the future of humankind.

The intro uses many forms and conventions of the cinematic world.

Firstly camera movement begins at a high angle on the coffee shop, filled with civilians watching the news the angle emphasis the emotion as it shows they are overpowered and scared. The shot covers the whole shop as you can see the worried expression on each and every one of them. Through the group a character (Clive Owen) barges through and the camera slightly tracks him, this signifies he is a possible main character. The camera cuts to the T.V to show that it is the news they are watching and then back to the crowd, this is the only cut in the opening sequences, this is because the scene is at a slow pace and not a great deal is happening and we it allows to focus on the words more so we can understand some of the story. Once he has bought a coffee the camera follows him out this fully gives us the information that he is a main character. From out the shop the camera pans right, this establishes the setting, we now understand that we are in London with the double decker bus. We follow the character again (Clive Owen), this time the angle is at a person height. He stops and the camera pans round the back of him, so it is facing the other way. There is an explosion and the camera tracks in back to the shop, the camera is jolting as if someone is running to show the effect it has had.

Throughout the opening scene there is not a great deal of editing, the camera only ever cuts twice. The use of the lack of cutting is so our concentration is not taken away from the news, because the news gives us a vital insight to the movies plot.

The opening starts with silence, this gives a quite eerie atmosphere to movie in general. After the Title credits we are left with a pitch black screen, then after a few seconds an off screen diegetic sound enter, it is a news bulletin. The words and story are very serious such as ‘illegal immigrants’. Then we are told about the main story about the killing of the youngest person, this is very peculiar story. The noise then becomes on screen diegetic as we are introduced to the first scene. We see people sad because of the story, we are told he is 18. This is strange. A non diegetic sound is introduced, it is a violin playing this enhances the sadness of the story. From the coffee shop we follow out to London city were diegetic is frequently used, we hear cars, beeps and yells. We know that we are in a main city. The sound is at its climax when the explosion goes off, this is very loud and unexpected. From the explosion we are left with a ringing noise, this is an effect which emphasis the atmosphere and creates realism.

The cinematography in the this film intro is genius and i really enjoy the theme they had around it. Firstly the colour and lighting is with distinctive, the colour is very dull and is flowing throughout it gives a clear image of how they think London will look and is very believable, everything is grey and concrete and smoke everywhere. The main props used in this sequence are the T.V, the coffee, the whiskey. These props tell us a lot of what character is like and what movie is about, the whiskey tells us that Clive Owen could maybe be a drinking and maybe depressed.