Children Of Men: Opening Sequence Analysis

Mise en scene:

The opening piece starts with a black blank screen accompanied by a English female news reporters voice for 6 seconds. A image of a crowd of people in a coffee shop looking up at a television appears straight away. The surrounding is very claustrophobic and makes us feel uneasy as we don't understand why a crowded group of people are looking terrified at what is being announced on the television. This has been intentionally planned for a particular effect. We as the audience can tell something serious has grabbed the characters attention judging by the depressing atmosphere combined with the distressed and tense emotions captured in this opening scene. When the man enters the shop we the audience understand that he must be a main character or one of them as he is  centered in the middle of the shot.

The colours used including the characters costumes are greys, blues and varied dark colours which creates a gloomy and chilling mood. The colours used gives us an idea what genre the film comes under.

When the man leaves the coffee shop we can tell this film is set in the future because of the flying car in the air and the vehicles look very unusual and adapted and at 1:07 it says "London, 16th November 2027" on the screen but we can guess what city the film is based in because of the red buses on the road.

Editing:

• Editing is used at the opening of the film from the blank screen  when it cuts straight to the crowded coffee shop.
• The text "London, 16th November 2027"  when the man exits the coffee shop has been put in after the scene being shot

Sound:

At the start of the film we are not given a image the screen is pitch black. A voice over of a female reporter's voice come in straight away which also us to concentrate on exactly what she is announcing as it's likely to be a piece of key information that has a lot to do with the rest of the film.

The music played at 0:35 is sad and heartbreaking when the camera focuses on the image of the baby's face on the television.

When the man leaves the coffee shop we get a buzz of car horns, bus engines passing by, motorbikes roaring so we immediantly know this scene is set in busy London. The blast is surely unexpected to us as only moments ago the street was full of people, cars and buses on route to their destinations which the camera focused on for a short while to give us the audience a understanding of the setting.

Camera:

In the coffee shop scene the shot used is called a high angle shot which gives us a birds eye view as the audience and a feeling of being superior unlike the characters. They would be seen as inferior and less powerful. I think this shot is a great way to capture the characters emotions because we can also see almost every character in the coffee shop. 

A panning movement is used to look up the right hand side of the street then back to the man who was walking in the opposite way from the camera. When the man is sorting out his coffee the camera goes behind him and stops at the other side of his face and this is how we can see his reaction to the blast along with the other pedestrians reactions and how much of an impact it made. When the blast occurs the camera run straight towards the smoke from the blast much like as if someone was recording what happened like a documentary.