Children of Men: Film Opening Analysis

The lighting is quite low key. The café is quite well lit as we can make out all the characters however we have a slight green tint to the scene. By having this it connotes sadness and shows the audience that there is a lot of negativity throughout London, surrounding the death of the young boy. This has a negative effect on the text and initially sets the scene to be very downbeat. Due to this, the audience feels this negative energy and in turn, the opening scene feels very surreal and sad.

The camera work is verisimilitude. This is because as the protagonist walks into the café, the camera starts to pan and follow him. He then walks out and again, the camera follows him. This gives the us his point of view. We then get a handheld camera shot after the explosion, this again connotes verisimilitude and helps the audience become engaged as they feel as though they are in the scene. This therefore makes it feel real. The high ringing noise that we can hear in the background connotes shell shock. The different camera shots that have been used have been picked carefully to help the audience feel as though they are part of the scene and as though they are one of the people standing in the crowd. This helps the film feel realistic and real.

Camera follows protagonist through crowd.

Editing is used throughout to make the scenes mellifluous. It is continuous editing. This in turn means the scenes flow easily from one to another without being jumpy and hard to follow. Again, helping it feel verisimilitude. Throughout the opening scene, editing is quite relaxed and slow. Even when we get the handheld shots, editing remains the same. This trend continues, we then get the explosion and editing does not change here either. This is strange because it makes out everyone to be very calm, even during this sort of traumatic situation.

We have no sound in the clip until 33 seconds. Until 39 seconds, 6 seconds later we have a black screen. This means the main focus of the audience is to listen to the sound. Once the audience are engaged with the sound, it means the sound is there main priority and retains there attention. The sound is narration, from a news broadcaster. It tells us about the top stories and then instantly tells us the storyline by informing us of the death of the youngest person 'Diego Ricardo'. At 55 seconds we get our first moving image on the screen appear. Other than a small bit of dialogue from the protagonist who is buying a coffee, we have the news reporter speaking until a bit of sad non-diegetic music is introduced in the background. This helps set the tone of the opening scene and the audience get the understanding of how everyone in London is feeling at that time. These sort of choices have been made by the directors so that the audience can immediately engage with the film both emotionally and mentally. This helps them stay focused and interested.



Screen is black at 38 seconds, title appears at 39 seconds.

Mise-en-scene is used as a way to make the set feel realistic. Being set in a typical coffee shop, it is very traditional. Based on the time as well it is common to see business men and woman to buy a coffee before work to energise them for the day at work. To help suggest time we hear the news reported say 'Good Morning'. This indicates to the audience the time of day, what we then can visually see reinforces this. Location is indicated by the scenery as he walks out of the coffee shop, the stereotypical red London bus and the tall buildings that we can also see. As well as this, we get a sub title indicating the year and location. This makes it clear to the audience from the off when and where they are.

This film I think could fall under 3 main genres. These being,

• Sci-Fi
• Thriller
• Drama

I think this because the film from the beginning has certain trends and trades that these three particular genres always tend to have stereotypically. We can see iconic things that link them to this film genre.

I think that the target audience for this film is 15-21 year olds. I think this based on the fact that the film is a 15. This therefore immediately shows me they are trying to target young adults. However, I would also say it may be slightly targeted in terms of gender. I think it could be aimed at male audiences. I think this because from the opening scene I can see things that could appeal to men, for instance the 'Sci-Fi' part of things with a complex storyline behind it. Also the explosions and gore
all, stereotypically, appeal to men more than woman.

Being based in the future, the producer and director of this film could be trying to represent what they think may happen in the future. There may be a hidden meaning behind the text. Based on the clip I think this because otherwise it is a very random storyline, and to create a piece like this, there must be some sort of reasoning behind it to inspire someone to want to create it.

Set in the future, 2027.

This film was made by Universal Pictures. This would affect the films content because being a very large film company, it means they would have had access to the most up to date equipment in terms of cameras, editing and distribution techniques. All of these would have helped this film to sell and in turn win many different awards, including 'Best Cinematography'. Also being a big film company it would have meant audiences would be more appealed by the film. This is because being a large well known company, everyone expects good quality entertaining films. In turn meaning people want to go and see the film as they have high expectations.