Children Of Men Opening - Analysis

Children Of Men Opening

Hi again fellow bloggers and viewers! Today, I was watched the Children of men's opening.

I knew exactly who the protagonist is during the first scenes. Simply because he's the only one moving in the first scene when the crowd was watching the TV; he's doing something different. This caught my eye instantly. However, I wasn't sure that he was the protagonist yet. Then, I saw the camera follow the man, I was sure he was the protagonist. He looks as if he isn't happy about life and the situation in general.

The location of the opening is clearly set in an abandoned, under-cared state. There was rubbish everywhere and there was the diegetic sound, suggesting that there was a 1000-day war in Seattle. We know that the location the protagonist is in is London because of the text. What's strange about the location is that the only pieces of high-tech technology are the buses and the TVs. There are helicopters and blimps in the sky and everything has to be watched.

The questions I asked and the enigmas were:

- Why is the world aging very quickly

- Why does everyone care all of a sudden

- Who is the protagonist and why doesn't he care

During the entirety of the opening, there was very little editing; there were only 2 cuts. The 2 cuts helped us as viewers get the feel of the movie and it keeps us wanting to know more; an element of the unknown.

Se7en Location Settings and Stuff

Se7en Location and Settings

Hello again viewers! I am back with another analysis of for my blog and this time it is an analysis on the settings of the opening of Se7en.

For the first scenes, when we see Sommerset and Mills walking together, the urban area they are in seems polluted and "noisy". It looks very aggressive and suggests violence, as you can see that most of the civilians simply walk by a dead body and if they're  used to this type of event. This gives the audience the picture of some places in the real world, as the world right now in some places is filled with violence and crime.

As for the second scene set in Sommerset's room, I felt that he had a very classy and high-classed house. There's alot of furniture around that seems to be of high value, and old/antique items as well as intellectual items, like a small library with a vast collection of books. Something else I noticed was that he lives alone, and because the house is located at that particular area, he had possession of a flip-knife, which seems reasonable as he may need it for protection.

Is Se7en a Thriller?

Is Seven a Thriller?

I have applied the conventions of Thrillers we identified to the 1995 David Fincher film Se7en.

Created with Padlet

Thriller Sub-genre

Sub-genres: Thrillers

Narrative:

In a thriller, there tends to be a secret that needs to be revealed, or a mystery that needs to be solved (e.g. a murder); an enigma of some sort. Another generic thriller convention would be how it builds up suspense, in which peaks (climaxes) towards the end of the movie, and is then solved/sorted by the end of the film, in most cases.

Technical Aspects:

The use of sounds in Thrillers can create different atmospheres throughout the movie and is usually used to create tension. The combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound can create a strong sense of tension. For example music getting louder and footsteps getting louder. Jumpscares are also used to create Thrillers by creating physical response from the viewers and to make a sudden change in images.

Audience Response:

All of the above is then combined to give an effective audience response such as the audience feeling fear, anger, confusion, absence of knowledge, hesitation and uncertainty, typical responses towards a thriller.

Differences:

The difference between these and action films and supernatural and horror films are that, action films have very little story and there are excuses to use Action set pieces. Horror usually uses Gore,blood and jump-scares without exposing much information to the viewers, and supernaturals lack mystery and manipulation of information.

Conventions:

• Jump Cuts
• Protagonists and Antagonists share the same features (e.g. Mills/Doe/Somerset)
• Mysterious secret Antagonist
• Sound building up tension and releasing tension (Non-diegetic)
• Location with bad living standards
• Many many enigmas
• Dark, damp, places
• Unpredictable
• Intricate detailed Plot/ story-line