How does Alfonso Cuaron represent Britain in Children of Men?

Alfonso Cuaron is a Mexican film director, screenwriter and film producer, known for his films Children of Men and his part in the world famous Harry Potter series, directing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaba. His portrayal of life of the human race when faced with their impending doom was praised by many film critics; but how did he do this, and mainly how did he represent Britain in the year 2027?

Cuaron uses another film of the same genre to influence and develop the location of Children Of Men, A Clockwork Orange. A Clockwork Orange helped contribute to the futuristic, yet battered look of London in 2027. The director decided to portray the city as a character in itself, showing the importance of the location to the film to help tell the story, help the audience to realise that they city is London (with the use of red buses helping this theory), and to help the audience to work out what has happened to Britain, not just London, from 2006 when the film was released to 2027 when the film is based. The technique that Cuaron has used is shooting single, wide shots of the city, presenting different aspects of London. Cuaron chose to shoot some of the scenes in east London, a location which he considered to be "a place without glamour". The set locations were dressed to make them appear even more run-down, with Cuaron reporting saying that he wanted to have a ‘Mexican’ look to them, symbolizing the poverty that is in Mexico. The use of special effects was needed to complete the look of London, with footage of London streets needing to be changed. London special effects companies Double Negative and Framestore helped and worked with Cuaron from script to post production, developing effects and creating environments and shots that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

Single-shot sequences are used quite frequently in Children of Men, mainly quite lengthy and during extremely complex actions take place. The longest of these is the shot when Kee gives birth to the miracle baby lasting 199 seconds (3 minutes 19 seconds); an ambush on a country road lasting 247 seconds (4 minutes 7 seconds); and a scene in which Theo is captured by the Fishes, escapes, and runs down a street and through a building in the middle of a raging battle lasting a lengthy 454 seconds (7 minutes 34 seconds). These sequences were extremely difficult to film taking days to get ready for the shoot and taking 5 hours if they need to re-shoot; although the effect of continuity is sometimes an illusion, aided by CGI effects. The scenes are then seen as rather ‘random’, this symbolizes with the events of Britain in 2027, where people are panicking at the threat of the extinction of the human race. These events include the sudden crack down on immigration in Britain.

Print Productions

On thinking and sketching out ideas for what I could do for the print productions on all areas of the digipack (front cover, back cover, and inside) I discovered an issue with trying to link the name of the song to designs that I could do. After looking at other album covers, which I have detailed how I could adapt them into my own ideas below, I discovered that many artists have album artwork that has nothing to do with the name of the album or of any of the songs that is on the album. I have decided that I have to install this idea into my own work, with the song title 'You Don't Know' giving very limited options at which I could use.

I drew out a sketch of my first idea, with all four covers. This fits in with my video where I used stop motion by having text on paper. This time I have people, maybe the band members, holding up the pieces of paper with the information about the name of the artist, name of the song, and the information of the songs on the E.P including the length.

On the second panel I have used a question mark, the only link with the name of the song symbolizing the idea of not knowing something or asking a question. This would be inter-textual reference with the album cover of British indie band 'The XX'. They have used an bold 'X' to link with the name of their band, while symbolizes the sub-genre of their music with the dark atmosphere that music creates. The dark background makes the white bold text stand out, drawing the attention of people looking through CD racks while shopping; this makes the front cover of the their album successful. I would adapt this with my idea of the question mark, yet include some of the lyrics from the chorus. I could also use this image to go on the back of a booklet included in the digipack.

The use of a female in the music is evident throughout, and is seen as main metaphor in the song, with the male either not knowing the feelings that the female has or not knowing that the female has cheated on him. In the current mainstream music scene there is a healthy number of female artists around, for example Ellie Goulding and Florence and The Machine who are both pictured. Both females have been shown in a artistic way, fitting in with the genre of their music. Looking through the images I believe that an image of the female character would be more suited inside the digipack on the 2nd panel, with the male character maybe being on the other side on the 3rd panel. (More information about the male character in the paragraph below.)

The male character is seen as the main character in the music video, with him seen playing the guitar while a male voice sings the lyrics making the narrative structure is being told by himself. As with the female character an image could be inputted into the inside of the digipack, next to the female as stated in the previous paragraph. The image of David Vertesi on his album cover Cardiography is similar to a shot of the male character in the music video as he plays the guitar as sunlight beams down upon him. Looking at the costumes on album cover and in the music video they look very similar, while both fitting into the same genre. Again, as with the female character the album cover may not work successful with just one of the two characters from the music video used on the front. The type of photography shot that is used for David Vertesi album artwork is something that I would like recreate for my own print productions.

With the idea of using the female and male characters for the digipack in the ideas above the next idea would work with those. While the images of the female and male, separately, are inside the cover the image of both characters together could be used on the front. This would link to the music video where both characters stand opposite each other with the tree separating them. The image to the right, the album cover of White Apple Tree - Velvet Mustache, is an example of how the idea of two characters being seen together, but questioned if they are actually together, could be used. While the colours used show of the genre, similar to the genre of We Can't Dance.

Many artists use images for their digipacks that have no relevance to the album title, and are used to grab the attention of a passing shopper. For example the album cover for Everything Everything's Man Alive, image to the right, uses an image of a fox, with bright colours and static effects. I have an idea for a way of adapting this into my own idea, with an artistic photo of a cat that I have. This may be best to use as an 'Plan B', as it would be very difficult to produce, while also time consuming.

Storyboards

The Use of Stop Motion.

In my music video I used stop motion for the first play of the chorus, with the lyrics of the chorus shown in the mise-en-scene. While I was watching other music videos the other day I came across a music video which was fully based on the idea of lyrics of the song being shown along the music throughout the whole video, although was of a different genre of music to the song that used. With the song being being produced and performed by two well known artists, Rihanna and David Guetta, the music video is well funded. Instead of using still images which are then merged together, the music video uses animation and special effects. It is used very effectively with the genre of the song, which is Dance, using bright colours to represent the use of flashing lights in nightclubs, with the chorus of song being used especially with quick changes of bright colours on a black background making the audience feel like that they are actually in a pub; while the song would have heavy involvement in night clubs. The fast pace of the text symbolizes with the fast pace of the song and the busiest of nightculbs in modern society.

Equipment

Video Camera

The use of the Cannon video camera was key to making the music video, without the camera no filming could of been done. All of the footage for the music video, apart from the photos for the top motion, was captured by the video camera.

Tape

A new tape cassette was required to record and store the footage onto. The need for a new tape was to avoid the troubles of the qualitly of the new footage being poor.

Tripod

The tripod was used to stablise the camera while taking shots, while if needed the height and angle could be adjusted. The tripod was mainly used for long distance shots, although when the shot needed to be still it was used as well.

Stills Camera

The stills camera was used to take photos for location ideas around Norwich. The camera was also used for the stop motion that featured in the music during the chorus.

Analysis of the audiences of three other similar artists

The Drums

The Drums are an American indie pop band from Brooklyn, New York, forming in 2006. The members of the band stem from the short-lived band Elkland, before becoming bored with electronic music. The members of The Drums are Jonathan Pierce (vocals), Jacob Graham (guitar), Connor Hanwick (drums); while Tom Haslow currently is playing the guitar during the band’s tour after the departure of former guitarist Adam Kessler left the band a few months ago. The band is currently on the Moshi Moshi/Island in the UK.

The Drums are fairly new to the mainstream music scene breaking onto the scene in 2010, and were tipped by many music journalists as a band to watch out for. The band were one of 15 artists that were shortlisted in the BBC Sound of 2010, appearing at number 5. This list complies of the best up and coming bands of that year. They were also topped NME’s top tips for year in 2010. The band are yet to have a song in the top 40 though, with their highest entry their most known song ‘Let’s go Surfing’ at number 63. Being a new band in the limelight of the mainstream audience however they are expected to move up higher up the charts with years to come.

The Drums are far more energetic live than on record, with Jonathan Pierce and Jacob Graham’s interacting with the crowd with their now infamous dancing and theatrics on stage. While the band keep to the music side of things mainly, rarely stopping to chat in-between songs. This makes their set more easier for the crowd to continually dance to, something which the target audience are known for, while small mosh-pits are made. Mosh-pits are mainly associated with Metal or Rock bands, yet the indie audience also ‘mosh’ these are just less violent and more dance-y than other genres.

The majority of the band's audience are the youth, mainly students. They are the type to spend their time going to gigs, listening to music with their friends, and trying to find out their latest favourite band. The audience are drawn to The Drums by the similarity to bands of the old 'indie' era, bands like The Smiths and Joy Division, along with the fast beat of some of their songs.

The Pigeon Detectives

The Pigeon Detectives are an English indie band from Rothwell, West Yorkshire, forming in 2002. The members of the band are Matt Bowman (vocals), Oliver Main (guitar), Ryan Wilson (guitar), Dave Best (bass), and Jimmi Naylor (drums). The band is signed up by the independent record label Dance to the Radio, whom helped to release their debut album.

2006 was a big year for the band, touring throughout the year and playing many festivals, building up a bigger fan base and slowly getting noticed. They performed at the Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2006, where they were tagged "the band most likely to leap to the main stage in 2007" in an NME review, although the year later they did still play the NME stage. They had supported the band Dirty Pretty Things who toured around the UK in spring 2006. Then in early November 2006 they again went on the road, this time supporting the band Kaiser Chiefs on a number of occasions around Europe. By 8^th July 2007 they had released their debut album Wait For Me, which has sold up to 227,000 copies. On this date they played on the Radio 1 NME Stage in front of thousands at T in the Park with the performance being televised and shown later that day on BBC3. In September 2007, it was announced that the band had been nominated for ‘Best New Act’ at the Q Awards, but they lost out to The Enemy. They went on to perform their biggest show ever at Oxegen in 2008, the year in which their second album Emergency was released, which was beamed around Europe on the world famous music channel MTV. Up to the end of 2008 the band sold over 500,000 copies of both albums together in the UK.

The target audience of The Pigeon Detectives consists of late teens and early 20somethings, yet they don’t really have distinctive dress code that many other target audiences of indie bands do. They would fit into the dress code of not noticing the difference as they dress like many other people and stick with the current fashion trend that is hitting the high streets. The way that The Pigeon Detectives appeal to their audience is with the catchy songs which include lyrics that the audience can relate to, while they also sing along to after listening to the song a few times. The lyrics may not be anything clever which will stand out in 10 or so years, but there is a kind of universal appeal that the audience can warm to and link their personal experiences to creating a link between the band and their fans, showing that they are not too different to one another. This relates to the theory of different ‘tribes’ of people and trying to find others that are the similar to themselves to feel ‘wanted’ and not different.

Black Kids

Black Kids are an American indie pop band from Jacksonville, Florida; forming in 2006. The band consists of siblings Reggie Youngblood (lead vocals and guitar) and Ali Youngblood (keyboards), Owen Holmes (bass guitar), Kevin Snow (drums), and Dawn Watley (keyboards). They are on the record label Almost Gold Recordings in the UK, while on Columbia Records in America. They only currently have released one album, yet are writing their second album at this current time.

Black Kids first came to the attention of the music press in August 2007, in both America and the UK, after a performance at the Athens Popfest in Athens. This led to a sudden interest from the music press, including such newspapers and magazines as NME, and The Guardian. In the very same month the band released their first demo EP, Wizard of Ahhhs; which in October received a review of 8.4 out of 10. In December the band then travelled to London for a small tour. The Rolling Stone magazine labelled them as one of ten "Artists to Watch" for 2008^, as well as the band being included in the BBC Sound of 2008 shortlist. The band played the summer festival circuit the next year, in both America and the UK, including Radio 1's Big Weekend, Glastonbury Festival, and T in the Park and Camp Bestival. Black Kids were then the headline in an international tour in America and around Europe from June to November. While on tour in the UK in early 2008, the band recorded their debut album, Partie Traumatic. The album was much more successful in the UK than in America, getting to number 5 in the charts compared to in America where it only managed to get to number 127.

As with the other two artists the target audience are aged around late teens and early 20 year olds, although Black Kids may have a few more younger fans than the others with a reviewer of a live show that they did having a “excessive number of 14 year old girls running to the front barrier”. With Black Kids rise to fame happening within 9 months after they were formed they do not really have a ‘hard-core’ set of fans that have been following them for 4 or 5 years before they are slowly noticed by music critics. This means that the audience is rather ‘mainstream’, with the exception of a few of course. The band members dress with the indie geek fashion; a majority of their fans however dress, like The Pigeon Detectives, with the current fashion that has captured the ideology of the youth. The lyrics are mainly to do with girls and relationships, relating with the worries of teenagers about the other gender. While for the older members of the audience they can relate to the experiences that are expressed from the, relating with the worries of teenagers about the other gender. While for the older members of the audience they can relate to the experiences that are expressed from the lyrics with experiences of their own.

What can be learnt about appealing to audiences from the audiences of these three artists?

From all three artists I can learn that the main way to appeal to the audience by making a catchy song which the audience can sing and dance along to. While at a young age teenagers want to be accepted by their peers and use music as a way of doing this; whether it is the way the band members dress that influences the dress sense of said person or the genre of music that the artist makes, these represent how they want people to see them and making friends with others that are the same as themselves.

Target audience for the band ‘We Can’t Dance'

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