Children of Men Essay

Children of Men, released in 2006, directed by Alfonso Cuaron and featuring Julianne Moore and Clive Owen, is set in London in 2027, where the human race can no longer procreate. The opening shows the changes in the world, helping to establish and help the audience understand what is going on in this time on Planet Earth. 


Even from the beginning of the opening sequence, the audience are able to hear news reporters reading out news headlines that inform the audience on  what's happened in recent years, setting the scene for the rest of the film, in just the first few seconds. These voices are heard whilst there is nothing visual on the screen, the screen is black, which also makes it easier for the audience to concentrate on what is being said. 
The last news headline we hear, as the shot changes into a shot of what appears to be a cafe, is one about the youngest child in the world being killed, just aged eighteen. This is very confusing to the audience as it begins to make them ask questions, such as why the youngest person is only eighteen and why so many people have crammed into a small cafe to watch this one news story. 


Clive Owens character, Theo Faron, is seen entering the cafe, pushing past the crowds, drawing the audiences attention to him, which makes him considered to be a main character in this film. This is made more definite when the camera moves forward to follow Theo out of the cafe and into the street.
Out on the street, the differences that 2027 holds compared to modern day London are more apparent, helping to set the scene of the film even more so that the scene in the cafe with the news. 
The whole mood of the scene is dark and miserable, with lots of pollution and no real, natural light around. There isn't much colour present except for a few dull blue colours and some red in posters and the typical red London buses, the rest is dark greys and blacks. Along with this is the familiar city sounds of car engines and horns that the audience can relate to if they've ever been to a large city or watched other films or television programmes featuring a large city. The camera continues to follow Clive Owens character outside and pans round him to face back the way the character had just come from. This then means the camera can see the explosion from the cafe and using a point of view shot, runs back towards the explosion to show the chaos that has ensued after the explosion with other characters also running around in terror and confusion. 
The explosion is the last thing to be seen in the opening sequence, so this adds more questions to the audiences minds, making them want to watch more of the film. 


There is also only ever two cuts throughout the opening sequence, keeping the audiences attention where the director has intended and they cannot get confused, if there is more than one shot being focused on, which here there is not. 
Most of the sound is non-diegetic and builds up the suspense of the opening sequence and is cut short as the explosion goes off, expressing the impact of it in the audiences mind. 


Personally, i was instantly hooked to the film, asking all the questions i believe were encoded into this sequence by the writers and director. I want to watch the rest of the film to know what's going to happen and why the explosion had taken place in the first place.