children of men

I am going to focus on two main points that happen during this clip one is the techniques that the director uses to show the audience that the film children of men. The film was made in 2006, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. This clip is about a bomb going off in a cafe in the middle of a congested London.

The scene begins with a blank screen, and some off-screen sound of newsreaders reading out the latest headlines, and then the camera starts rolling with a mid long shot of a cafe full of people in shock who are watching the latest news headlines on several televisions at once. The director first show the audience that this film is shown in the future when on the news a man had died at 18 years old and he was born in 2009. A man walks in and to show the audience he is the main character he just comes in buys his coffee and leaves whereas everybody else are stood motionless gazing at the TV. After the man collects his beverage he leaves the cafe and the camera follows him by using a handheld camera shot.

When the man leaves the cafe the camera has a pan view of London to show the viewer what damage the pollution has done to this iconic city. There is another incident that shows both the quality of the special effects and showing the film is set in the future. It shows the special effects and future by their being television screens and projections on all the buildings this is great special effects and this do not exist in real life. This also shows the viewer how important this news is to the world because it is everywhere. Also when the camera is following the unknown man, the date of “16^TH November 2027” appears in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. This shows that the film is set in the future because it was released in 2007 and the film is set in 2027.

The film shows that something has happened to the world because there are people walking round with facemasks on, there is smoke in the air and there are bin bags everywhere. The man then stops to put some sugar and into his coffee and camera is now shot looking at him from the front. There is also a bus that drives past with a moving sign on it (future). The director lures the viewer into a false sense of security and when he does this, a bomb goes off behind the man he makes this look realistic because it is shot with a handheld camera and when the bomb goes of the camera shakes and disorientates the viewer. The special effects whilst the bomb goes off are spectacular because as soon as it goes off, glass breaks everywhere including the screens on the buildings, there are many bodies thrown in numerous places, as if a real bomb has just gone off. Also all of the previously mentioned bin bags go everywhere. Then the camera watches the man’s reaction he leans against the wall and then the handheld camera does to see the damage, the camera is shaky because if this did happen the cameraman would have been shooken up by these events. As the camera stumbles toward the carnage there is smoke everywhere, broken glass everywhere and a women walks out of the cafe holding her maimed arm. The sound during the bomb going off freaks the audience out because it is realistic, there is a ringing noise as if it would be if a bomb goes off, and there would be a ringing in the spectator’s ears. There are also faint sounds in the background of the ringing noise; there are screams, cries and the sound of shattering glass. After the women walks out of the cafe he opening credits begin.