Children of Men Opening Analysis (up to 1:39)

Narrative Function: the opening of a news broadcast is a very clever technique of setting the scene - from this it introduces that there are no young people in this movie, as Diego dies the world's youngest person at 18, and this leads the audience to question why. It also immediately sets the time of the movie, as he dies in 2027. The audience are also left to question why the cafe exploded, who the woman coming out of the blast was, and how she survived. 

Conventions Displayed: this sequence establishes everything for the rest of the movie, including characters, date, and narrative. It also uses very little dialogue, excluding the news broadcast. 

Characters Introduced: this sequence introduces 'Baby Diego', who dies at the age of 18. He is not introduced as a major character in the movie, but is a device used to show that there are no young people and that to be 18 is extremely rare. The main character is also introduced: we can tell he is the main character as the camera follows him out of the cafe, only diverting its attention for a moment to set the scene. We can also tell he is the main character as in the very first shot he is the only one moving, which draws the audience's attention to him. 


Cinematography: the sound in this is all diegetic, as even though there is music it's on the news broadcast. The music is slow and sad to commemorate Baby Diego's death, and the newsreaders' voices are low and grim. This immediately sets a negative tone to this movie, which shows things have changed for the worse. When the main character walks outside, the camera follows him, but he walks of and the camera then shows us the street, establishing the time period and the difference to the world we live in. They have done this by including elements that would not be in our time: for example, the inclusion of moving adverts suggests common technology beyond our time. The lighting and colours used are both very dark and grim, and this combined with the concept of the 'Siege' of Seattle mentioned at the start again paint a negative picture, which immediately brings a problem across that will need to be resolved over the course of the movie. The inclusion of pyrotechnics also adds to this, as a cafe full of people definitely connotes negativity and violence.