What Enigmas are Created?

In the film Children of men, the first enigma which was created was "Why are women infertile?".  Throughout the film this enigma was not answered.  When we found out that Kee is pregnant we assumed that women may be infertile again but it was not answered.  

The second enigma which was created was "Why isn't Theo affected by the death of Baby Diego".  This enigma is answered in the film as we find out that Theo once had his own son, so this suggests that maybe after the death of his son he has no feelings as someone close to his heart has died.  

When I prepare for my opening sequence I will keep in mind that the engima's created will not be answered in the opening sequence which is what Alfonso Cuaron has done in Children of Men.  Watching the opening sequence of Children of Men has helped me immensely as I now clearly understand what I will have to do to create an effective opening sequence where the plot will be set effectively.  

Children of Men - How was the equilibrium established?

Enigma code (mystery): the questions which are raised by 'clues' in the text.


In the opening ten minutes of the film Children of Men we find out that the film is sent in London 2027 and that the youngest person in the world died at age eighteen.  This suggests that women all over the the world are infertile.  We find out that many issues are taking place in London such as the refugees, as this is what we see in the news report that UK borders are closed.  The film shows London as more advanced in terms of technology.  For example on the bus the posters are moving and on buildings aswell whereas today our technology has not reached to that extent.
The protagonist of the film is Theo who is first seen as careless and not being affected by the news story about baby Diego's death.  This is clearly conveyed when he enters the coffee shop which is packed with people watching the news about the babies death, however Theo pushes to the front gets his coffee and walks out not even interested.  As soon as Theo walks out of the shop and stops to put some alcohol in his coffee, a bomb blast takes place in the coffee shop - this is where an enigma is created.  This leaves us thinking: who planted the bomb? What was the reason for it?  Well, we find out later in the film that a gang of people called 'Fishes' had a leader who was once Theo's girlfriend planted many bombs in London.  This made us as the audience think she planted the bomb, however we later realise she had nothing to do with it but the Government did. 

Children of Men

Children of men is quite an interesting film. I like the fact that the director has set the storyline in a Dystopan future, however, there are some elements that we can relate to our world such as the St. Pauls Cathedral which is shown in the opening of the film.  This made the film more interesting to watch as it wasn't fully set in a futuristic world therefore making it very original.  The protagonist/hero in this film is called Theo.  Although the directors aim was for him to be seen as a hero, he did not act very heroic throughout the film.  This is because he did not use much violence, carry a gun or any other type of weapon to defend himself.  In the beginning of the film he is seen as quite moody and depressed however towards the end of the film we see a more loving and caring side to him after he finds out Kee is pregnant.  We see him teaching Kee how to hold a baby correctly which makes it a unique selling point as the hero is not a typical hero we would sterotypically think.

Showing of Preliminary Project and Audience Feedback

Below is my Preliminary Project the Final Edit, which i showed to my fellow students who then gave me some constructive feedback which will help me when producing my real project.  





I recieved both positive and negetive feedback.  Below is a list of the feedback I was given.    


+ Good use of props i.e The map for the robbery
+ Good choice of location
+ Good range of shots
- Be careful of jump-cuts
- Ending was pointless when both characters walked out of the building
+ Clear storyline
+ Composition is good but could be improved in some areas
+ Length of the whole video is good
- Ambient sound interupted some dialogue
- The dialogue is cut in some areas


What was successful? 


The storyline was shown clearly through the dialogue.  The location chosen was good, it was empty so suited the story as characters are plotting to rob a bank.  There was a good range of shots used and the length of the whole video met the criteria.    


What will you do differently next time?


To improve, next time I will record the same shot a couple of times and from different angles so that when it comes to editting we will have a variety of shots to choose from, so my final edit will be stronger.  I will also be aware of composition so that the heads of characters are not cut off in the scene.  Finally I will use cut-on-action rather than jump-cut so that my final project will look more smooth and will flow to the next shot.  

Preliminary Project Evaluation

For our Media project we had to work in groups of three and create a scene which was 2-3 minute long.   The scene had to be based in a room with two people having a conversation.  Overall I think we got some pretty good shots however when we played the scenes back to us they had been cut off at the ends.  This was a problem when a character was speaking as their dialogue would get cut off which made our preliminary project weak as it didn't flow smoothly and looked like cut scenes had been put together.  The only solution to this was to film the scenes again but this was not able to be done because of the short amount of time we had.  However towards the end of the clip it began to flow smoothly as the filming was done from the right angles, so when the clips were put together the scene made sense and it was clear to see what the characters were doing.  I think doing a preliminary project before the real project is very helpful as you can learn from the mistakes that you create, and know not to repeat them when doing the real project.  I have learn't that when filming different shots, make sure you think about which angles you are filming from.  For example in the beginning of my scene there is a shot of Character 1 walking, then there is a shot of her sitting down.  However the angle used to film the second shot was completely different to the first. This made the scene not flow smoothly and not look very professional.  The second mistake that I should look out for when creating my real project is that one clip should be recorded a couple of times so when editting you have several shots to choose your best one from.