Children of Men Essay - Chronological Order

Children of Men starts with sound and no picture. That instantly speaks to you (no pun intended), letting you know this is key information, this is the back drop of the movie, this is setting the scene, this is foreshadowing any possible outcome. The sound starts around the end of the credits to further capture the viewers attention instead of letting them look at the commonly renown boring credits. This is a good technique as it veers attention to the screen and lets the viewer know the movie has started and something is about to happen. All movie stereotypes aside, this is done for the pure purposes of capturing the viewers attention and giving them a background of the movie; where it is, what time it is, what's going on at the moment. From the beginning of the news broadcast you can instantly tell it's dire times, also due to the accents you can tell it's Britain and/or England in such turmoil. After the main bulletin a picture is now present to put emphasis on importance of that headline and show everyone's reactions. Lighting wise it's quite dimly let and follows the rather gloomy weather outside. There is no main focus of lighting present just sufficient lighting for everything in the scene to be seen. This is a a technique used to let the viewer think it's just an ordinary day, as if everything before this main headline was fine, despite obviously hearing the unusual bulletin of a country under siege. The news left everyone horrified and this is shown via their facial expressions. Everyone present is attentive to the news and shocked, they are all facing to the top right of the screen instantly letting the viewer know there is some type of monitor displaying this news. Surroundings are ironically turquoise edging more towards green, being ironic as green and turquoise is normally seen as a quite serene colour that reflects tranquillity. However the colour and words relating to food around the wall infer they are in a cafe, even before the protagonist has ordered his hot drink. Costume wise everyone is in pretty dull colours, and looks as if they are dressed very professionally, this further tells that it is in a major city in England (The iconic police uniform gives away it's London) and in a cafe (maybe before, lunch or after work). The fact that the whole colour scheme for costume in this scene is grey let's you know it's of dull times, or maybe it was supposed to be a normal day until a spanner was thrown in the works by hearing what is on the News. The fact that the movie was released in 2006, and the man that was the youngest person on the Earth before the event was born in 2009 shows the movie has an apocalyptic feel. The news specifically zoom in on that date to speak to the viewers. After the showing of the news, the attention is again directed towards the person you would think is the main character of the film, being that he is in the centre and the only 'normal' person in the scene. He grabs his coffee and walks away as if nothing happened, these actions speak to you in that you think this is a careless man who has sobered to the hard times of life in 2027. I say he is normal in that everyone is mourning a loss over a man they obviously didn't know, some are crying others are looking terrified as if something really bad happened. The fact that mourning his loss is the normal thing to do instantly lets the viewer know this is of importance and a foreshadowing possibly of death later on or this is what the whole movie shall be about. Music wise for that particular moment is really setting the rather sombre seen as the violin reflects due to a violin's connotations: Romance, patient, death, sorrow. The music is selected to give the viewer a pause to soak in this death and really understand what has just happened. The main character (who's name has not been introduced to us) walks outside the cafe with the camera following him at a steady pace as if it's a POV. This puts focus on this character and signifies an ending to that particular scene.

After the main character walks out you get the whole futuristic technology of broadcasts onto buildings and different means of travel etc. There is a subtitle saying the date and whereabouts of the scene, for any viewers that haven't quite picked up on what's happening, or maybe for those viewers that have been hustling and bustling around seats in the cinema. Scenery wise the place is dirty and gives a pathetic fallacy feel, and the fact it's obviously the financial district if London puts emphasis on the change of time and how now London is squaller, leaving you with questions such as: maybe changes have led the UK to no longer be a leading country? Why does London look like this? What caused this? What's really going on? etc. This mere technique of scenery captivates the viewers mind in being more interested and thinking harder about what's actually about to happen in the rest of the movie. To further more hit home with the whole desperate times feel of the movie the main character pulls out a bottle of alcohol, drinking during the day instantly makes the viewer think either there is something particularly wrong with the character or maybe it's just too much to live in London during this era. After this the attention is no longer put on the main character as he is set to the side, however having him at the front of the screen letting the viewer know he is still a man of importance. The camera then rotates to see the middle of the screen, where the character has just come from. Attention is now put on a couple that have just met, due to movie stereotypes the viewer knows this is a foreshadowing for something bad as in this genre there is no way a love can end in anything good. Barely a second after a bomb goes off, given away by the explosion and the eery sound of ringing letting the viewer feel as if they are there and acting as a clue to what's just happened. This is a perfect second step to the opening scene as just after the mourning of a somewhat tragedy another happens as a bomb goes off. This strengthens and answers the questions revolving around what is normal in London at this time, being of course constant tragedy and nothing real to look forward to. The bomb epitomises this by acting as finality and foreshadowing at the same time. Shortly following screaming to put emphasis on the event taken place and letting you know there has been causalities and injures. The sound is a start and then the literal seeing of a female carrying her own arm confirms the suspicions deaths and injuries. After the opening scene ends with the Children of Men title.