"No children. No future. No hope." Is the tag line for this epic Sci-fi thriller Children of Men which looks at a plausible future that creates a hook for the audience because of pollution and global warming being a daily recognisable subject that frequently is among us weather in the media or by word of mouth, so for a film to show possible realistic occurrences of pollution leaving people sterile its quite a mind taunting and overwhelming feeling which actually scary to think about.
The opening scene is plain black all we can hear is off-screen digetic sound which conveys the ideologies that we are listening to the news, we no that it is a British news programme/ station by the British accents.The scene is also created by what times are like 18years from now you are also told that it is morning and hear a man and a woman's voice. A greater sense of vermisilitude is created when you hear of the news headlines for example ones on illegal immigrants and deportation and how the army has occupied mosques and British borders are being closed. Theses issues are similar to ones 18 years away and controversial stories similar to ones that the British National Party are conveying(BNP). With these stories projecting excruciating images in to our minds which give us the feeling that our near by future is not one to be eagily anticipated, no Utopia but a Dystopia.
With alot of people are being deported ones that are "foreigners" suggests that we cause this by overly populating the UK causing mass pollution problems resulting in the infidelity of the people. You then here of a boy Diego Ricardo the youngest person on the planet and how he was stabbed at aged 18 they refer to him as "Baby Diego" even though he is 18 he still the youngest person alive, this shows the sincerity of life in 2027 and that this "Baby Diego" was born this year and that the spiralling countdown has begun which brings a greater sense of realism and fear to the audience. You are also able to recognise the simplicity of becoming a celebrity for "Baby Diego" was a celebrity because of being the youngest person in the world. With a fan stabbing him shows and confirms my theory of a Dystopia with fans resulting anti-social behaviour of this standard.
We then get visual aid to the audio which shows a crowd of people all compacted in what looks to be a coffee shop in the city with people of all sorts business men police officers this shows that nothing has actually changed however everyone in the frame is old there is no young people at all. Everybody in the shot has their eyes directly at the televison, watching their most loved symbol of hope announced dead. Everybody is silent and until Clive Owen enters the screen breaking the silence with the first dialogue after pushing through the crowded coffee place not paying any interest in whats on the tele and what seems to be a huge global shock and yet not even a flicker of an eye lid this suggest that he could play a vital character in the film. Mournful music plays the sound of violin so mellow and soft which touches the audience adds a sense of involvement in to the film.
When Clive Owen leaves the camera doesn't follow him it goes the opposite direction and shows a real overly urbanised London smothered in pollution and electronics banners going around buildings showing that they are in a state of terror still and what looks like army helicopters in the sky. The camera then begins to follow Clive Owen as he passes people on the street where recognisable shops are depictable like what looks like Dorothy Perkins and the bank Halifax everything is very grey and gloomy very ordinary day adds to its plausibility. The camera then does a what looks like a 180 degrees turn showing him putting some sort of alcohol beverage in his black coffee with St Paul's Cathedral in the background and other important buildings.
After the camera turns it turns to a couple that is being shown in the background greeting each other hugging which your not told to look directly at but nothing interesting is happening so you look at them when a bomb goes off in the cafe that Clive Owen had not long just left this is a extremely plausible (SFX) with the actors which gives us visceral response to the explosion, you hear screaming glass breaking which makes the whole shot so believable the scene ends with a women leaving the coffee shop with limbs missing screaming in distress reminds me of the photo of Kim Phuc the young Vietnamese girl who's village was attacked by chemical bombs so this i find extremely effective as that image is so recognisable and powerful that the end of this scene has a dramatic effect on myself and the audience.
