Trainspotting - Opening Analysis

The opening of Trainspotting is fast-paced, quick and efficient. It introduces the main characters quickly, and presents us what they are like or foreshadows what type of personalities they will have in the film. The use of camera movement is used in a weirdly satisfying way, there's never really a scene where the camera is standing completely still, or the character is standing completely still, there always has to be some sort of movement in each scene. 

One use of mise-en-scene is the use of the background colour, I've realised that whenever the baby is on camera, the background is green, which could kind of represent that the baby is innocent and has nothing to do with what the other adult characters are doing, whereas the other characters in the scene they're presented with a red background which could mirror how they're completely in control of their actions and use of drugs.

In the scene where they show Renton talking to his parents he's facing away from the camera showing that he's deep into the addiction through the use of grim dark lighting on his-self and the normal light on his parents showing that they're not addicted to anything. The use of these lightings in the background or colours in the background can reflect into the characters.

The narrative in this opening can show bits of social realism, about how society can say that drugs are bad for example when Begbie says that he will never inject that stuff into his veins whilst drinking alcohol which is just as bad, or whilst Bobby says it's bad for your health whilst smoking a cigarette, this part of the opening scene sequence can mirror the views of society and how ironic it can be.

I think the approach of this film can be appealing to the young British audience in the 1990s because it presents it in a faster pace with drugs, alcohol, banter, etc. Things like these were appealing to the younger audiences in Britain and was changing society.

The themes and issues in this film are dealt with in a weirdly seriously and humorous way, like there's few bits of banter and jokes in the scenes but the issues are very serious, for example addiction or raising babies in a bad environment.