Children of Men Opening

'The world's youngest citizen has just died at 18, and humankind is facing the likelihood of its own extinction. Set in and around a dystopian London fractious with violence and warring nationalistic sects, Children of Men follows the unexpected discovery of a lone pregnant woman and the desperate journey to deliver her to safety and restore faith for a future beyond those presently on Earth.'

For the first opening, I have chosen Children of Men.
It opens with a blank screen, with a voiceover that the audience can immediately tell is a news report. This means that the audience are forced to focus on what is being said over what is happening on the screen and therefore become immediately drawn into the film.
Then instead of any action, the first bit of movement on the screen is the credits, which flash up in white text drawing eyes immediately to it as it contrasts to the black background. Once they finish, the screen goes back to black again forcing the audience to once more, simply focus on the voiceover till the audience hears 'the youngest person on the planet' when a room of people immediately appear looking very concerned, worried and upset. This doesn't change, if anything it worsens as we see Clive Owen, the main protagonist, enter the cafe they're in and also stare (after ordering a coffee), very concerned, at the television. The lighting in the scene is quite dark, none of the colours are really too bright which immediately sets the tone of the darkness of the film, telling the audience that this is a thriller. Also, the fact that the film has opened with a news story of a murder further emphasises the thriller genre. Also, as we are told that we are in 2027, the film carries a certain sci-fi theme. This is emphasised by 'Baby Deigo, the youngest person in the world' dying at 18 as this is immensly abnormal to hear as we know a baby is born somewhere every second of the day.

Then, as we see a montage of the victims life, we are able to hear people cry, in a medium camera shot of the television to show exactly what people are seeing. Also, the television is shot from a low angle which shows that the person being shown is of some influence and superiority in the minds of the people watching the news story about the baby, immediately giving the audience a sense of the 'future' of the world and reinforcing the sci-fi genre. The scene then switches to a medium tracking shot of Clive Owen leaving the cafe, as he turns around with a very sombre look on his face, and continuing with his everyday life unlike the people surrounding him who seem to be at a complete standstill. However, the audience are reminded of the situation of Baby Deigo with the shot of Clive Owen including another television still talking about his murder.

As he exits the cafe, the audience get their first glimpse of futuristic London and how bleak it is with the grey buldings and rubbish over the streets. There is also a building with a huge video of Bay Deigo running over it. There is then a long shot of  the street with Clive Owen in the centre third, ensuring that he remains what the audience focus on and the surroundings almost go unnoticed. As he stops walking to rest his coffee on an electricity box on the street, the camera tracks right up next to him, so we get a clear view of the alcohol he is adding to it and question why he is doing so.

The scene then tracks around him, so the audience is looking at a long shot, back the way he just walked as a huge explosion erupts from one of the buildings, followed by people screaming and a fire alarm. We also see a man who was thrown out of the building in the impact of the explosion into the road. This draws the audience in and makes them wonder why the explosion happened. It also makes us question whether or not Baby Deigo's murder was somehow involved as that is an image that has been pushed into our mind as it has been repetitively shown to us. We then see a woman walk out of the building that has just exploded, all the screams and alarms slowly getting quieter and quieter, holding her own arm. This is quite a haunting image and frightens the audience whilst making them want to continue to watch. The scene then changes to the title of the film 'Children of Men' in the same format as the credits had previously appeared; a black background with white writing. The simplisticness of this shot impacts on the audience quite heavily and makes them eager to watch more as the are still seeing the shot of the woman shown previously and the lack of movement in these title credits allows the viewer to not become distracted so quickly by something else, once again reinforcing the thriller genre.