Children of Men
 

I'm sure this forum will be divided 50/50 for this one.
-One half being the half who hasn't heard of it/seen it.
-And the other who has seen it, loved it, and I beat them to making this thread.

I saw this movie in theaters when it first came out and I didn't know what to expect. I was invited from a friend and of course my first impression was disappointment because the last thing two things he invited me to were Epic Movie and Stomp the Yard.

So I went into the theater expecting to leave it with disgust, boy was I wrong.

The cinematography in this is absolutely groundbreaking. Alfonso Cuaron, the director, wanted to utilize the element of real time to make his view into the future more realistic. So what he has is like 10 minute long action scenes that are, that's right, ALL ONE SHOT.

This movie is really amazing, and was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscars. It got beaten by Pan's Labyrinth, I think.

It's hard to explain this movie without telling you all the amazing steadicam shots, but just GO SEE IT NOW. It's stunning.

Here is a making of feature.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A55xTYXMpI

And here is a little preview of the amazing continuous shots from these movies. This one is great, although this clip doesn't show the entire shot.
WARNING CONTAINS SMALL SPOILER!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAxUbCnnGKM

SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris,

You might want to check out this thread started on October of last year:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...t=Children+Men

Mike

I thought it was all right, but I expected much better. Cinematographically it was fine but the writing lacked conviction, in my opinion. It left little impression on me. Nothing to ponder.

Stunning it is, but there are no Steadicam shots. Most of the film is handheld.

Oh really? I could have sworn I heard "steadicam" in that "making of" feature.

And sorry about making another thread, I'll use the search button next time. ;)

Just watched the feature, which was well worth it because it had plenty of shots of the utterly fantastic Doggicam car rig. The scene in the car absolutely blew me away when I first saw it, but I assumed it involved a lot of CGI--I was doubly blown away when I learned that most of it was shot practically.

No mention of Steadicam in there. The story that I heard is that Chivo (the DP) was pushing it to Alfonso Cuaron who was insisting that handheld be used instead--ultimately Alfonso won out and I believe there are no major Steadicam shots in the film (might be a little one here or there). The handheld work by operator George Richmond was world-class.

I think this film proved that beautiful footage alone doesn't make a good movie. It looked great, but I just didn't feel connected to the story at all.