In the opening frames, the studio and opening credits begin with no sound. This seems like a very deliberate way to get the audience to concentrate on the dialogue to follow. This is supporting of how the dialogue starts with a black screen and only the opening titles, with little visuals to distract from the information being said. This technique of 'sound bridging' overlaps the audio from one shot over the video of another shot.
The narrative construction in the opening news report leaves the audience with unanswered questions by instantly bringing them into current action. Almost like one of many book opening styles, the narrative gives the audience an abrupt awareness of the setting without the need of any detiled introduction. The news report also in a way acts as an establising shot as it sets the scene of the film. From it we learn that the film is set in distopia, where there are no more children. This is very key information for the rest of the film.
The coffee shop also clearly represents the current climate and setting of the film. The people are a random selection going about there every day buisness so it is a fair reflection of the form of people at the time. They are all dressed in very muted colours, and the lighting (filtered?) looks a slight blue / grey making the scene feel very mundane and rough. It is made clear that it is a coffee shop from the denotation in the scene. Coffee cups and branding from the shop are very visible in the coposition. It is a medium shot to include such details.
The introduction of the main character moving through the crowd of people is timed perfectly to allow the audience a little time to get a feel of the current sitation. For a brief period there is not much visual action so the audience can focus on the report; but to break this, the main character is introduced. He is clearly portrayed as the main character from how he is the most animated in the shot. He is also the first and only person to speak in the whole opening besides the news report.
When he leaves the coffee shop the camera follows using stedicam to persue him from the perspective of another person. Although quite insignificant, the movement of the camera can be interpreted as supporting the current climate, being unstable and heptic. The following, very key establishing shots, tell the audience where the film is set. As the protragonist walks left the camera pans right to show a long busy london highstreet. The vehicles look slightly futuristic although the city is clearly portrayed as distopia by the smog and dull colour and atmosphere. There are also bikes to sugest that the city has in a way gone back in time, similar to the underdevelopment of china and asian countries.
The camera then pans back to the right to catch up with the potragonist mimicing a head turn. Here we can see him stop, and add what can be assumed to be alcohol, to his coffee. This action shows that times are hard and that he may need the drink to get through the day. The camera then passes the potragonist and swings back to face him in preparation to show the explosion soon to follow.
After the explosion the camera angle rushes towards the impact area as if a person trying to help and see what had happened. The ringing sound could be interpreted as screaming or noise in the ears of the perspective camera. This 1st person narrative makes the audience feel very apart of the action and film and allows them to personally attach to characters and events conveying emotion very effectively.
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