"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?"

Children of Men effectively use the forms & conventions of film openings. It used credits & titles at the start of the sequence. It also shows the company “STRIKE” & Hit & Run productions. Also, because the Universal Studios sequence is shown at the beginning we instantly assume that it is probably a Blockbuster film & that it will be very good because Universal Studios have a reputation for making good films & having a large budget. It also has a very slow pace. At the end of the opening sequence the film title appears dramatically. There is a strong enigma in the film opening because we find ourselves asking many questions & wondering what is going on, e.g. why has the café been blown up? Why is there so much emphasis on the youngest person dying? Why is it so dark? What did the man pour in his drink? This then makes us want to watch the rest of the film which is very effective.

From just the opening sequence of the film, we already make assumptions of what the film is going to be like. We expect it to be quite a dull, sad, chaotic film due to the bleak colours & explosion in the first few minutes. We are told at the beginning of the film that are in London on the 16^th November 2027 but we could probably guess that already due to the mise-en-scene. We can see red buses on the street but they look futuristic due to the moving adverts on the side of them. We also see a lot of Police Officers in uniform which instantly allows us to distinguish that we are in London. There are a lot of tall buildings with St Pauls in the background. We also enter the film in a café which is quite British. All these things make it clear that we are in London even if we missed the title telling us.

The lighting & colour are very dark & dull. The street looks dirty, dusty & rundown & there are motorised passenger bikes which makes it look like a third world country. The lighting is natural because it is day time but it still looks very dull outside & there are no bright colours that stand out anywhere. This is effective as it creates a mood & allows us to figure out the genre quite quickly. The people we see in the café also look very miserable & are all dressed in dull, dark work clothes. The use of dark colours & dull lighting set the mood of the film & makes us curious because we want to know what happened to London & why everyone seems so depressed.

We are introduced to one main character in the opening sequence because he is being focused on. The first shot consists of a variety of people in a café watching a news report; there are also quite a lot of Police Men too. The news report is about the death of the youngest boy on the planet & it is emphasised several times that he was the youngest child, this gives us clues about the rest of the film. We also hear a women crying due to the death of this boy so it is clear that his death is a very big deal & it upsets people. We are aware of the main character because he is focused on from the start. He enters the café & shows little interest towards the news report & orders a drink, the camera then follows him out of the shop & allows us to see him pouring some kind of alcoholic beverage into his drink. This creates enigma as we want to know who he is, why he is not interested in the news report & why he is pouring alcohol into his drink.

The pace of this opening sequence is very slow as it only consists of two cuts throughout. The movement of the camera is more important than the pace because they use a handheld camera to follow the main character out of the shop which pans to follow him. This gives the effect that we are spying on him to find out what he is doing & it almost feels like we are in the film. It starts with a mid-shot so we can see his face & then changes to a long shot so we can see the explosion when it happens as well as him & his reaction to it. At the end of the sequence after the explosion we see a women walk out of the café holding her arm which has been blown off. We are shown this so we can see the seriousness of the explosion & it also creates enigma.

After the titles, there is a sound bridge over a black screen; we can hear sound before the picture appears. It is a voice over of a news report. This is effective as it makes us listen intently to what is going on & shows the importance of what is being said because they really want us to listen. The news report gives us information about what is going on in the world which makes the world sound like it is in chaos. This adds enigma because we want to know why. The main story on the news report is about the youngest boy on the planet being murdered. The reporter repeats this several times so we defiantly know what’s going on in case we missed it the first time. This shows that this information is very important. The sequence consists mostly of diegetic sound from the television, people & cars but there is also non-diegetic sad music. The sound of the explosion & of screaming people has been enhanced so it is louder & so it is more shocking. It makes us jump because it is so unexpected.

Our personal response as an audience is positive as the conventions of this opening is very effective. We want to ask many questions as we have been given unexplained information which we want to know. Due to there being a lot of enigma, this makes the opening sequence very successful because as an audience we are very intrigued & we want to watch more to find out what is going on. I found the sequence quite interesting as it keeps the same colour scheme & lighting throughout, even outside. London looks very dark & everyone seems miserable, we want to know what has happened. Despite the pace of the sequence being quite slow, it was still interesting due to the use of the handheld camera following the main character. Also, because the film is set in the future, we want to carry on watching so we can see what London is like & what the world has become.