Opening of "Children Of Men"

Children of Men

This is a very effective, exciting opening of a film as its gives aware very little detail enticing the audience to pay attention. Although we can sense that the genre is thriller/ drama through the use of sound and camera shots.

We follow one character in the opening scene; it’s obvious he is different to others as he is not affected by what’s happening on the news. We also see him pouring alcohol into his black coffee suggesting he has addiction issues, we as the audience want to know what is wrong in his life to make him do this. So already he is a very interesting but mysterious character.

First shot we see is a medium shot of a coffee shop full of middle aged people, immediately we wonder why there are no younger people. At this point in the film there is no main character in the shot as the camera doesn’t focus on anyone. People are all watching the news, and seem stunned by the news that’s being presented. We then see a tall man walk into the scene through the middle of everyone; we now have identified our main character. He seems unaffected by the news that is upsetting everyone else, this makes us wonder why. The camera then follows this man outside confirming he is our main character. We then see a long shot of London in 13 years times with new interesting inventions on the sides of building and buses, this attracts our attention to look further into the scene, the audience will even try to identify what part of London it is, this makes the audience feel like they can relate to the movie. As the camera follows the man along the road, we notice everyone is wearing black suggesting times are gloomy, rubbish bags on the side of the road and polluted air support this idea of gloominess. The camera stays on the character constantly to show his reaction to the events about to happen. As the explosion occurs the camera unsteadily runs towards a women holding her own arm this creates a huge idea of chaos and interest to the audience.

Very start of the film no sound is present; pure silence. This gives us something to wait for causing suspense. Suddenly news reporters start to talk, different new stations talking about the same topic suggesting it’s important. While in the coffee shop people start to cry therefore sad, emotional music is introduced. This makes the audience emphasise with these people. As the shot goes out the coffee shop the music stops as that part of the scene is over. Diegetic sound of engines and chatter is then presented showing the noise intensity of London in 13 years, which worries the audience. An explosion then goes off causing loud screams, glass smashing and a loud alarm which then turns into non-diegetic noise as it zooms in on the women holding her own arm which then finally cuts to the title of the film.