Children of Men Opening Scene Sound Analysis

Children of Men is a 2006 Sci-Fi film. The audio of the opening scene sets the mood and setting of the rest of the film. The audio of the film starts before the video to make sure that you are listening because the audio is very important. I will be focusing on the dialogue, sound FX and the music of the scene.

Dialogue

The scene starts out with only dialogue as it sets the scene for the film and explains the state of the world at the time of the film.The government is, for example, deporting all immigrants, Seattle is under siege for its 3rd year and the army has taken over all mosques. There is very little dialogue in the scene. It comes only from the newsreaders on the TV and from the main character ‘Theo’ ordering a coffee. The dialogue from Theo isn’t functional but the dialogue from the newsreaders is as it sets the scene and hints to us that the human race has become infertile because they explain that the youngest person in the world at the time was 18 years old. There are also multiple people crying in the background at the news of the death. Toward the end of the scene there is a bombing which results in lots of screaming from the victims and the witnesses.

Music

There is only one piece of music in the scene and it is most likely diegetic sound stemming from the news report on the death of the world’s youngest person. It could, however, be non-diegetic and playing only for the audience to hear to set the mood of the scene. This is something it would do either way though. The music seems to get a small amount quieter the further Theo gets away from the TV and then as he gets closer to the second TV at the back of the shop he is in it seems to get louder again. The quality of the music is also not very good which could point to it coming through the speakers of the TV rather than playing in the background and therefore it being diegetic sound.

Sound FX

There are multiple sound effects in the scene. Most of the sound effects are that of the cars, buses and motorised rickshaws driving through the street that Theo is on. There is also an explosion when the coffee shop that Theo had just left is bombed toward the end of the scene which sets of a synchronous ringing of an alarm and in the ears of Theo as he was very close to the shop when It happened. The ringing is a sound bridge to the next scene where it becomes the noise of a scanner at the entrance to the building in which Theo works. The sound effects of the scene are naturalistic because they are realistic sounds that would be happening in that situation.