Children Of Men opening scene analysis

                          

  Children Of Men opening scene analysis

The clip starts off with a slightly high angle shot of a group of men and women all watching the news, with silence from them all and their facial expressions which is worry and shock as people have their mouths slightly open or sadness in their eyes, you can tell something disastrous has happened. In the mis-en scene you can see that they are all in a coffee shop with the sandwiches behind them and coffee types written on the walls. You also see the TV which is effective as the audience are let in on what they can see. The majority of men are wearing suits looking like they are business men going to work connoting that this may be a popular, modern city. From this we can suggest that something major is about to happen. The diegetic sound is a lady talking from the news as the characters and audience take it in what has happened together. You also hear the buses and cars drive past in the background, the big red bus connotes that this setting is in London. We then see a man walking through the crowd to get to the till, the audience are drawn to him as he is the main focus of the camera. 

The next shot is a close up of the TV where we are shown that the youngest person has died 2009-2027. This adds enigmas as it would make you 18 which isn't the youngest age. This also gives a twist on the movie. The man then collects his coffee and the camera follows him walking out, from this we can connote that he is a main character. As the camera takes us outside we see the surroundings of big screens, buildings and busy roads full of noisy cars and buses in a medium shot. The camera movements are slow and pans instead of different types of up paced shots. We can suggest that this has taken us into the future as it looks more like New York. Writing then appears telling us it is in London in 2027. The camera starts to follow the man again and the weather looks gloomy due to the pollution and smoke of the vehicles. The man stops and we see him pour alcohol into his coffee, connoting he is an alcoholic. The camera, straight on rotates around him so we see him from the other side. We see people in the background greeting each other and everything is normal. All of a sudden a bomb explosion comes out from the coffee shop and people dive to the floor. Alarms of cars and screams are added. As the man jumps back in a hurry we see people blown away by the explosion. Smoke appears and the camera zooms in on the explosion. In a medium shot we see a dark shadow of a woman walking out from the shop in the smoke holding her own arm. This is effective as it leaves the audience in horror and it suddenly switches to the title.