Having analysed the opening sequence of the 2006 movie Children of Men I have found many key requirements of an effective opening of a film used in this very film opening. The first convention we experience from the film is a voice over which is used and from this we can tell as an audience it is a news report by the professionalism and the formal voice and language used and therefore it is a digetic sound. Also the man and woman on the voice over are providing us with information, which gives us a stronger idea that it is a news report preferably from the TV. The narrative of the voice is quite shocking as we know nothing of the film yet and suddenly we are introduced from the news report about what is going on in the world and as an audience we are taken away from this as it is very different from the world in which we currently know. By using a black screen with the voice over at the very beginning can make the audience slightly impatient as they are forced to listen to the narrative and they therefore are hearing this news which is quite opposite from the news of today so the audience then want to see the visual part of the film to see how everything looks as we know in the film it is not set in the present.
When we hear the news that the world is stunned today from the death of the youngest person alive, we are cut straight into a scene, which is set in a café with a crowd of people in the staring up towards a television. The use of having a cut after that part if the news is to show the audience that this part is what we were waiting to hear so once we are given the information that’s all we need to know so it cuts into the first scene. Also from this cut it tells us as an audience, that was the key piece of information therefore this is what the movie is about.
As the film cuts into its first scene we see a crowd of people compact together in a small café staring at the TV where the news report is given. This shows that people really are stunned at the news of the death of the youngest person on the planet. Even police officers are standing in the coffee shop watching the news, which shows they have been distracted from the death of the youngest person. From hearing that the worlds youngest person has recently died shows us that we must be set in the future as there are thousands of people born every minute so something must have happened to the world. From the news report the year of the death of the boy is given which is 2027 which therefore sets us in the future which gives us a reason why things have changed so much from today. Except as far as we can see the people’s clothing in the café are not at all different to people’s fashion of today also the design of the shop is not at all futuristic but the TV in both corners are very futuristic.
In the coffee shop scene there is a non-digetic sound used which is mournful music which is used to help the audience feel the same way the characters in the scene are feeling and the music is made to seem as if it is coming from the television but it would be very rare for music to be played on a news report unless because this is such big news to everyone they make the music an exception.
The film then introduces us to the main character Theo played by Clive Owen who comes into the café and squeezes through the crowd while they stand silently glued to the TV in shock whereas our main character walks in and buys a coffee as if everything is normal giving the TV only a glance as he is not bothered by it. As Theo enters casually walks in it begins to get us thinking why does he not seem affected from the death. When he leaves the shop the camera follows him as a handheld camera shot and this makes it seem as if we were walking right behind him following him outside.
As our character steps outside we can instantly see large red double decker buses, which is a recognised icon of London therefore it instantly sets the place where our character is, also from the busy and dirty streets we can relate it to today. Except hear everything is extremely dirty and there is very low natural lighting outside so it puts a very gloomy and dark look to the city unlike its current well lit streets and buildings and this can resemble the film being quite horrid as of the similar appearance.
Outside we can see a some aspects have also changed such as there are very large TV screens on the side of buildings which are also showing the news report and the push bikes are engine powered therefore we can see that some kinds of technology have developed but from the looks of the streets and the contents of the news report things appear as if they haven’t changed and in fact become far worse. Finally we see a bus drive past the frame which says “Instant Cash” they may have used this tech code to show possibly that people may not have much money so this advert is showing hope to people to be able get money to live as unemployment may high risen to a very high percentage by 2027.
As our character Theo begins to walk down the street we then get a better image of him as he puts his coffee to the side and sneakily pulls out a small bottle of alcohol from his pocket and pours it into his coffee. This shows that he may be an alcoholic and this could explain why he is not as taken away by the news or it could be down to him having experienced something similar to the death of the youngest person alive and is getting over it by drinking so therefore he tries not to pay much attention to the news report.
The final thing we then see is an explosion from the coffee shop, which Theo then reacts to, and jumps out of the way, an alarm then rings to show danger and a woman comes walking out of a cloud of smoke screaming with her very own arm in her hand. From this iconic horror image we believe that the film may become a lot more serious than we thought as an audience. Whereas from the previous scenes I believe the genre of the film it would have appeared to be a Drama but when we see this clip we build a sense that it may become a Disaster or Thriller movie.
