Children of Men

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJivXSErhB8

The opening of Children of Men is not like most movie openings. Whereas most, if not all, movies have different cameras angles and different shots, Children of men is mostly just one long continuous take.

[0:09 and 0:22]

Children of men film opening first starts of with a sound bridge from a black shot to a medium shot of many people in a small shop, looking at the news. We hear the voice over of the news lady in the first shot as she is talking about the death of ‘baby Diego Ricardo’, ‘the youngest person on the planet’. Then after we are shown the medium shot of the people on the shop and judging from all their facial expressions, they all look shocked and horrified from what they have just heard. As we hear the background voice of the news presenters, we see a man walk into the shop and ask for a coffee. From if attitude and facial expressions, it suggests that is doesn’t have a care in the world about the death of the youngest person in the world. As he’s ordering his coffee, we hear that Diego Ricardo was born in 2009. This is very unusual that the news is talking about the death of the youngest person when you’d expect someone new to be born every couple of seconds. This unusual news suggests that the world in the film is very different, so the genre of the film might be a thriller or a science-fiction.

[0:40]

Eye line match was used in this shot as the guy who order his coffee looked up to quick see the news, we are shots a close up shot of the TV and an image of baby Diego Ricardo. From this shot, the audience can also recognise that the film if set in 2027 as it says ‘2009 – 2027’ on the TV. We can also hear the non-diegetic orchestra music in the background. This soundtrack makes the scene emotional and also makes the audience feel sad for Ricardo. In this shot we can also hear the ambient sound of people weeping in the background is adds to the sadness.

[0:59 and 1:04]

After the man receives his coffee, he then walks out and the camera follows him from behind. As he walks out of the door, we see a red bus drive past and we can instantly tell that it is set in London due to the iconic red London buses. In the long shot on the right, we can also see that it is set in London, 16^th November 2027. In the same shot we can also see a Chinook in the background. This is unusual because Chinooks are associated with the military and you wouldn’t expect them to be flying around in London. The character that is followed by the camera could be a significant person in the film because he already has the most screen time in the opening. As he’s walking down the street, we can see that London in 2027 looks a bit run down and dirty. There are piles of bin bags lying around and the roads seem very dusty and dirty. Within this shot we can also hear the diegetic sound of the cars, buses and motorcycles driving past and through mise-en-scène, we can see the lighting in the opening is quite dark and gloomy. This type of lighting connoted to a thriller type of genre.

[1:19 and 1:29]

Here we can see a long shot of him pulling out a small bottle from his coat and pours its contents in his coffee. The shape of the small bottle suggests that it is alcohol and it could imply that the character is an alcoholic.  The camera moves past him while keeping him in shot, and then there is bid explosion from the shop that he just came out of. We can hear the loud diegetic sound of the explosion

[1:37]

After the big explosion, the camera moves forward to get a better shot of the explosion. As the camera gets closer, a human figure appears out of the dust from the explosion. We can make out that is person who is holding a severed arm. After the sound of the loud diegetic explosion, we hear a loud eerie ring and a lot of screaming in the background.