Analysis of Children of Men

Representation

In this opening, the centre of London is being represented. It is being represented in the future, year 2027, as a dirty, run-down and unhygienic place compared to the modern day London. This is a negative representation as it suggests that the world will continually progress into becoming more polluted and unhygienic. The scarcity of citizens, as well as the dominant tale of the opening being the youngest individual on the planet dying at the age of 18, suggests that the world is nearing an end. This is created by the large scale television broadcasts, and the pollution in the scene showing a popular street in London. An individual being highlighted here is the main character. We can tell he is the main character, and possibly the hero due to him being in the centre of the shot for the majority of his screen time. He is seen conducting a different routine to the surrounding citizens, whereby he enters the cafe purely to purchase a black coffee, whereas the other individuals are in the cafe to view the news broadcast. We then see him walking out of the cafe onto the street, using a tracking shot. This connotes the idea that he is important, and needs to be followed by others, especially us as consumers of the text.

Sound
Sound is used in this opening effectively. There is initial silence during the primary titles, before being interrupted by voices of news anchors broadcasting news of the death of the youngest individual on the planet. This silence was potentially used to focus us as an audience onto the broadcasts due to their significance and importance to the film. This is good because instead of including non-diegetic music as well, we can purely focus on the diegetic speech that is heard from the news anchors in the film.

Genre
After viewing the opening to this film, the genre of Children of Men is most likely a action/thriller hybrid. This is because the typical conventions of a drama are low lighting and seriousness. This is due to the fact dramas are typically based around real life subjects, normally with a sad or depressing chapter in the film. The typical conventions of a thriller include intensity, and bold film techniques. This is shown towards the end of the opening - before the ultimate title - where an explosion occurs in the cafe where the main character had just been. We then see a female exiting the building, severely shell shocked, covered in ash and blood, carrying her own arm. This is a very intense incident in the film, and is placed at the beginning of the feature to hook us as the audience into the film.

Audiences
After viewing the opening to this film, I believe that the audience being targeted by this film are young adults to mature adults, approximately 23-50. This is because of the high intensity of the film, as well as the drama aspect of seriousness and severity in the piece. It is most likely to be targeted at males. This is because they are more likely to be interested by explosions in films. It also has a hint of fantasy and science-fiction, whereby it is set in the future. The main ideas to attract audiences in this piece are the futuristic setting and time period, combined with the idea of an (almost) apocalyptic aspect of life, whereby the youngest person on earth is 18 years of age,

Titles

The titles used in this film highlight the institutions that produced this feature. The primary institutional logo used at the beginning of this piece is the Universal Studios intro. This is placed at the beginning of the film to allow the audience to know that this film is produced by one of the big six, and is therefore worth watching and of a high standard.