Children Of Men - opening sequence

In the opening sequence for Children Of men we first hear the voice of a news reporter, reading the news, with no image, only a black screen, this is effective as it makes the viewer pay attention to what the news reporter is saying. As the news is still being read the camera cuts to the image of a group of people standing in a coffee shop, all of the people have a look of despair on their faces and they all look upset and shocked. The camera shot is at a high angle, as if the viewer is watching the people from the point of view of the television, we then see a man (possibly the main character) coming in through the crowd, we also see him looking at the television, the camera then cuts to a shot of the TV. The TV shows images of the news that is being shown. the TV shows BCC which shows the viewers that the film is not made in a time that they live in and it is in fact in the future as the TV also shows an image of 'baby Diego' who was born in 2009 (3 years after this film was made) and died in 2027, which would be present day for the people watching the news. Also the shown emphasis on how he was the 'youngest person on the planet' gives the viewer an indication on what the rest of the film might be about. Music starts to play in the background as an image of baby diego plays on the screen, this gives the viewers a sense of emotion as it makes them feel the sadness the people would be feeling and also it makes then feel a sense of mourning as the youngest person on the planet has died. Also in the background you can hear people crying which also shows how upset they are. The man then walks out of the coffee shop and the camera follows him , this gives the viewer a sense of them following the man out of the shop, this makes them feel involved.Before leaving the shop we see another TV screen with 'baby Diego's' image still playing on it, this keeps a hold onto the sad and mournful atmosphere this scene has created. The man and the camera are then outside of the shop, and the viewer gets to see what the surroundings are like, we see a dull, very boring looking place, it also looks like a dirty place as we see bin bags sitting on the pavement in a heap. we also see huge billboards with moving images on them which suggest that the movie is set in a different time period to the one the viewers are in, the date is then shown: it is the 16th of November 2027, so the viewers now know that the movie is set in the future. On the roads we see cars and vehicles that look old, this place doesn't look like it is set in the future at all. This makes the viewer think about how their idea of the future and the movie's idea of the future is very different or perhaps even the same. The camera then follows the man along the pavement until the man stands still and looks around. The camera rotates around to go onto the other side of the man so the viewers are now facing the side they had been before. As the camera is rotating it gives the viewer a chance to really take in all of the surroundings and see the things that are the same like the red buses and the things that are different like the moving advertises on the buses. We then hear a loud unexpected explosion, this makes the viewer jump and be suddenly aware as the quiet, people chatter noise that was going on in the background before, suddenly changed into this loud almost deafening sound. Also this gets the viewers attention as when this explosion happened they were probably still taking in the surroundings and waiting for something else to happens, but the explosion would have been somewhat unexpected.