'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 personal response as a member of the audience?

The opening sequence from ‘Children of Men’ use’s effective form and conventions of film opening sequences. I will be discussing these forms and conventions and how effective they are towards me as a member of the audience.

‘Children of Men’ doesn’t use credits during the opening sequence of the film, and the title doesn’t show until the end of the first scene / opening sequence. It shows the production logo’s and distribution logos during the first opening sequence of the film, when a black screen is shown and diegetic sound is being heard which are the news readers reading out the minor stories before the headline story, this creates tension for the audience as they don’t know what to expect for the opening sequence of the film. The start of the opening sequence, the audience can clearly see that it is a ‘Universal Studio’s’ film which clearly shows to the audience that it is a well-made film due to the company that have made it. This is a typical convention of a film opening as ALL film openings have the company’s logo before the opening sequence of the film has started, this shows the prepares the audience to how good the film is going to be depending on the film company.

The beginning of the film goes straight from a black screen to showing a crowd of people in a coffee shop, staring at the television screen, this is to show the peoples interest in the news. The reason for this being is for the audience to hear that the youngest boy on earth, who is 18 years old, has died and to show how important and dramatic it is, they have put filmed the people watching the news to show their reaction and emotion. The people’s emotions show that they are taking the news that they have just heard seriously and that they are stunned by it. The news could be giving away the type of genre of the film which is dramatic, adventurous and mysterious.

The main protagonist of the film walks into the coffee shop and the camera stays in the same position 14 seconds after the news has been announced (and is still on) and the people in the coffee shop have been shown. This is to show that he is a powerful character as he has made a later entrance into the shot than all the other characters. They have used a well-known actor for the main protagonist, Clive Owen. They have used Owen for the main character of the film to attract another type of audience, as well as drama / adventure / mystery genre lovers, the reason for doing this is so that the director, Alfonso Cuarón has attracted a wider range of audience to make the film well-known. We know that Owen will be the main protagonist / one of the main protagonists’ as a tracking shot is used to follow him out of the coffee shop, and to show his next move. This is another main convention of an opening sequence of a film as many films show a well-known and well-loved actor in the first scene of a film. If a film does not do this, then their aim is to surprise the audience later on in the film with well-known actors which attract the audience.

As the camera follows Owen out of the shop, it shows 4 policemen, this is also to show the audience what type of genre the film is, and to what could possibly be expected during the film. Writing shows up at the bottom left hand corner of the screen which reads “London, 16^th November 2027”, which shows the audience where the film is set which is way in the future. This explains just a bit why the youngest person on the planet is 18 due to it being set in the future, but it still confuses the audience as to why the youngest person on the planet is just 18. It shows that it is set in the future due to the moving advertisements on buildings and buses, the fact that the youngest person on the planet was 18 years old, the new vehicles shown and the gloomy and dark lighting used which shows the pollution and the darkness of the film.

The ending of the opening sequence shows Owen on a wide shot, which also shows what’s going on behind him in the background. All of a sudden, the coffee shop that he has just been in explodes with a massive explosion. A convention of adventure and drama genres of films for opening sequences sometimes takes an un-expected turn at the end of the open sequence. This is done for the audience’s reaction and to keep the audience watching for the rest of the film. After the coffee shop explodes, a female walks out of the shop screaming, looking in a wrecked state, holding something. The camera is hand held, and has been hand-held throughout the whole of the opening sequence to create a more suspicious vibe, the camera runs up to the female, but stops for another wide shot to show the scene and the whole mise-en-scene. A very tense white noise is going off at the same time which also adds to the suspicion of the shot. The opening sequence ends on the title sequence ‘Children of Men’ to which is on a black background and in white, bold, capitalised writing in the middle of the screen. The reason for the bold and capitalised white writing is to make the title stand out so that the audience will remember the name of the film.

My personal response as a member of the audience is that it thought it was a very intense opening sequence of a film. I haven’t seen anything like this one before, especially set in the future with all different advertisements and different news stories going around. The way Universal have set the film up I believe was very good. The opening of it when it was a black screen and you could just hear a person talking about what is going on in the world caught my attention as they mentioned things that were likely to happen in the future, and things that were not likely to happen in the future. Also the way Universal didn’t use their sound introduction when introducing ‘Universal Studio’s’ at the very beginning got me wondering why they hadn’t used their sound that they use for all their films. I believe they have done this to make the first diegetic sound of the film important so that the audience could remember that it started like the way it did with the news reader, and not the actual Universal sound. They have shown the audience that what has just happened is very big news, they have done this by saying ‘The main headline’ and have got actors to be watching the news at the same time to enhance the importance of the death crisis which has just occurred. When it shows Owen grabbing a drink and walking out of the shop not really paying attention to what has happened and what has got the world talking, it has made myself and the audience wonder why he didn’t stop like everyone else and watches the news, and has made us suspicious as to why he did this.

The bit that got me was when the coffee shop exploded, to which I did not expect that at all which made me jump the first time I watched it. This had made me confused as to what was going on, especially when the girl walks out of the shop alive, where as everyone else has either died or fallen to the ground pretty much immediately. In my own personal opinion, this bit was by far one of the best shots of an opening sequence as it makes me want to watch the film all the way through. This particular bit would keep the audience grabbed onto their seats with excitement and confusion to what is going to happen next.

To conclude, ‘Children of Men’ use many opening sequences of films forms and conventions throughout the opening sequence, but not all of them, this is to keep the audience watching and on the edge of their seat as they don’t know what to expect next throughout the opening sequence / film.