Children of Men Essay

How effectively does the opening sequence from 'Children of Men' use the forms and conventions of film openings? What is your personal response as a member of the audience?

To start, the opening sequence starts with a voice over which you can tell is from a news report. The blank screen makes you pay more attention to what is being said as what it is telling you, is very important to the film.  Then as you would expect from a film you get the credits come up while the news report is still going on. Normally you would expect the credits to come up before the voice over starts, by doing this the audience would already be hooked into the film. The main character is introduced almost straight away which again is quite normal. You can tell he is going to be a main character as he stands out by not really listening to the news and also because he is the only person you would recognise because he is a well know actor.

Another thing that fits the conventions of film openings is that it establishes the location and when it was set. It does this in many ways. It sets the location by the news reporters having English accents and also a caption tell the audience it is set in London. It is also obvious that it is set slightly after the present day even before the caption as there are moving images on the buses and on bill boards and the pedal bikes have motors. So when the caption tells the audience it is set in 2027 it just clarifies it.

The last main conventions showed in this opening is sequence, is that is creates enigma. It does this by firstly in the news report as the audience wonders how a boy of 18 is the youngest man in the world and also when the explosion goes of, your mind if full of a list of questions which makes you want to watch on. Then after this explosion, the title of the film comes up and then the audience knows the film is really about to start.

When I watched the opening sequence of this film in my head I didn't stop asking questions. This is a good way to catch an audience because even no I really want to watch the rest of the film because I want my questions answered. I liked the fact that the sad music plays while the news is on and you can’t really tell if it is diagetic or non diagetic sound. When the camera pans around London it made me think what about how London looks now and wonder how London will turn out to be in 10-20 years and will it turn out anything like the film portrayed it. Overall think this is a very good opening sequence as I am sure anyone who watches it will want to watch the rest of the film as I did.