Narrative Image notes-1

"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?"

In Children of Men the director uses key methods and techniques to make sure the opening sequence is effective enough in captivating the audience. Children of Men is a science fiction film released in 2006.It stars Clive Owen and Julianne More. It's loosely based on P.D James Novel "Children of Men". It's set in 2027 London. The basic summary of the plot is every human has become infertile and there are no longer any children being born. No child has been conceived since 2009. This information is revealed in the opening sequence.

In an opening sequence the aim is give a snippet of what the bulk of the storyline will be. But they must never give too much away.  From just the very few seconds of the opening sequence we can see that the world is a dreary, morbid place at the moment. We can see also see that although its set in the future the representation of it is not so far-fetched that the audience wouldn’t be able to relate to it. For example we can see cars, coffee cups and standard police uniform. Most futuristic films feature robots and or incredibly advanced technology. So far we don’t see that in the opening sequence.  Another one of the key components directors use in the opening sequence are references throughout the scene which give the audience a clue in what will happen next.

Firstly the scene starts off with a newscaster broadcasting the news while the audience can only see a blank screen. This creates the effect of confusion. The newscaster mentions that troops are now occupying mosques and the deportation of illegal immigrants will continue. Already the tone is set as negative.  It’s important to make it explicit to the audience from the start what type of genre it is. And this is evident by having the almost “doomsday” like newscast and the dreary tone throughout. People will know it’s a thriller. Next we see Clive Owen barging past some people in the coffee shop. The colours of their attire are dull, mostly composed of greys, and black. When he asks for some coffee we can see the sign “café”. Which shows the words in the future haven’t changed that much as the similarities between culture now and in that future aren’t that far apart.

We next see a news report on the youngest person alive at the time. In this scene we can see policemen, office workers and just normal bystanders. We can here diagetic sound coming from the TV screen and non-diagetic sound which was some ambience like music.  This shows that this must be a really important even if a diverse range of people off the street all submerge into a coffee shop to hear the news. The presence of police officers makes a strong impression that there is impending danger. And that assumption is correct as the POV camera starts to follow Clive Owen out of the coffee shop. The POV follows him for a couple seconds then it slows down and focuses on the surrounding for a moment.

First Initial storyboard