Sebastian Baron

To look at a single scene in Children of Men is difficult because the entire movie flows as part of a major work as opposed to individual scenes. The choice of camera work and lighting for the movie stays consistent throughout and really speaks for the reality that they are trying to convey in the film. There is something really powerful about creating an entire scene in one cut. The truth is most people won't initially notice what is going on but the scene conveys a sense of brutal naturalism that could not have been done in any other way. Brutal naturalism, that's what I call Children of Men. The power of that scene is that it's completely real (or as real as it gets while still being a movie). There's nowhere to hide lights, nowhere to hide wires and camera crews. Everything unfolds before your eyes as if you were there. It is almost like a dream. One of the great benefits of this process was that the actors had to act at all times because they never knew where the camera was looking. The entire scene happened. It doesn't get more organic than that. I remember the first time I watched Children of Men I felt really uncomfortable. I realized afterwards that what made me uncomfortable was how unpredictable and uncontrolled the movie felt. Watching six minute one shot sequences will make any filmmaker cringe. Alfonso Cuaron and Emmanuel Lubezki are notorious for telling stories within stories. If you watch Y Tu Mama Tambien, there are two stories going on. The one the audience paid to see, and the one that sneaks its way into every frame. It's so delicate, and yet so powerful.

priceless