Preliminary Sequence

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 response as a member of the audience?”

Children of Men was released in 2006, directed and co-written by Alfonso Cuarón.  Set in London in 2027 it is an adventure, drama and mystery film. Being Produced by Universal Studios and starring Clive Owen and Michael Caine makes it an automatic must see film and most likely to be very popular with good effects as it probably had a big budget to spend. After watching the opening sequence, it leaves the audience with an enigma; why has he done that? What happens next? Who is that? Why did that happen?

During the opening sequence Alfonso Cuarón has already caught the interest of his viewers because they have asked many questions, for example; why is the youngest man eighteen years old? What was that explosion? Who is that man that we seem to be focused on? Why is he not as stunned as the other people when hearing the news? All of these questions make the audience want to watch the rest of the film.

With the youngest person in the world being eighteen years old it gives us a clue about what the film is going to be about, however we do wonder why there have not been any babies for eighteen years. This will also give the audience more of a reason to watch on because the film has a very unusual style and storyline.

We get told many times that it is set in 2027 on screen during the news broadcast and as a title on the screen. We can also tell ourselves that it is set in the future because there are moving billboards on the side of buildings, there are moving adverts on the side of buses, passenger bikes with engines and flat screen TV’s in coffee shops. This shows how technology has developed in the future and although things have changed London is still very much recognisable. We recognise London still because of a few things, they busy surroundings, and tall buildings, the accent of the newsreader, the passenger bikes, double decker buses, and police uniforms – although they are slightly different still similar and coffee cups are the same.

London does not look a very nice place in the opening sequence it looks dirty, as we can see litter and piles of rubbish bags just left on the side of the pavement, we can also see graffiti on the telephone exchange box he leans his coffee on and there is a lot pollution coming from the engines of the passenger bikes. It also looks very dangerous as there are helicopters in the sky which makes you assume it is a police helicopter, there is also a moving banner reading ‘Report Suspicious Behaviour’, also you see many people just trying to cross a very busy and dangerous road when passenger bikes with engines seem to be driving fast in and out of lanes and other cars.

A high angle shot is used when you are first brought into the coffee shop, this allows you to see everyone in there and see the reaction on their faces to the news report and also see the disgust in their eyes as the main character (Clive Owen) walks through them all at such a serious moment to buy a cup of coffee. A handheld camera is used when following him out of the coffee shop and down the street, there are two reasons this could have been used; to make the audience believe somebody is following him or to make the audience feel as if them their selves are in the film and following him. As the explosion goes off the camera also seems as if it is backing away and ducking down away from the smoke making you feel as if it is you.  

A voiceover of the news report is used at the very beginning before you see an image to introduce the audience to the scene.  A sound bridge is used at this point because a blank screen is shown and voiceover is heard and the voiceover carries on to the next scene, which is of the people in the coffee shop; that is also an example of off screen sound. On screen sound is used when the camera is focused on the TV when the news reporter is talking and when the camera is showing us the busy street and we can hear the sound of the traffic etc. Most of the sound in the opening sequence in digetic however some of it may have been edited to appear louder and more exaggerated. There is some sad music as the new reader tells listeners the exact age of Diego Ricardo (youngest person) is announced and the news reporter’s voice is slowed down and echoed out.

As the explosion goes off we also hear many screams but only woman seems to be able to escape from the smoke. What happened to the others? Are they ok?

Although only one of the main characters is introduced during the opening sequence he is focused on the whole way through which makes it clear the audience that he is going to be playing an important part throughout the rest of the film. As we follow him out of the coffee shop he put his coffee down and pours something into it from a hip flask which leads the audience to believe it is alcohol, which gives us information of his character. During the explosion rather than focusing fully on that they always had the main character in focus. That leads the audience question his part in it and whether he was to blame. Did he set it of? Does he know who did?

All of the characters including the main character are dressed in plain, dull coloured clothing. This could be because of the plot; it is about a death and set in a dirty dangerous place.

Alfonso Cuarón uses a black screen with a voice over at the beginning to catch the viewer’s attention, because it is a blank screen and the audience cannot see anything they are fully focused on what the news reporter is saying in their voiceover. This is a clever way to draw the audience in.

The production details are shown at the beginning of the sequence, this will give the audience a chance to make an opinion of the film before it has even began, for example if it was made by a big company such as Universal, they are more likely to look forward to it and think they are going to enjoy it, however if it is a company they have never heard of before they are more likely to judge that they will not like it and as the film starts have a negative attitude towards it.  No film title or cast information is given which leads me to believe it will be shown at the end of the film which is a very popular way to do it.

I think the opening sequence of ‘Children of Men’ works well as it catches the attention of the audience and has drawn them in, making them want to watch the rest of the film to find out what has happened; that is the whole purpose of a film opening. It sets the scene very well and introduces the audience to the main character and the setting – London 2027. This allows the viewer to get familiar with the surroundings before giving them too much information about the plot because they may then confuse them causing them to turn the film off and give negative reviews.