Children of Men Opening- Focussing on Camerawork

The opening to this dystopian thriller is set in London in 2027, in a world were no one can get pregnant anymore, so the human race has no future.

• Sound bridge of a news report, discussing the death of the youngest person on earth
• We cut to a shot looking down on a crowd in a café, looking up towards a TV screen- shows their vulnerability and makes them appear to be smaller. Maintains that shot for the entrance of a focal character, who appears by the counter having walked through the crowd in the café.
• It cuts to a POV shot looking up at the TV with the news report- personal, emotional, we know this is big news.
• A low-speed long shot begins and follows the character out of the café into the streets of London.
• As he walks and turns left the camera pans towards the right so we can see a future London in 2027- gives us a chance to see his world, his POV.
• Camera then pans right and follows him down the street a little way behind him. Same long shot. He puts down his coffee briefly on a ledge on the street so he can put sugar in the cup. The camera dollys round him so we can see the street behind him. Still the same shot.
• A bomb goes off in the street behind him- sudden as it has all been very slow-paced up till here. In that same shot, the camera moves in to the blast, which we presume is from the café- this shows the unpredictability of this future world, moves in to the damage before the character gets to see what he luckily narrowly escaped.