Trainspotting Opening

The opening scene in the film Trainspotting really grips the audience. The music at the start of the film, along with the runnning shows the film is fast paced. The main characters voices over the action, and tells of how he didnt "Chose life" like everyone else. As he is runnnig away from the two men (who we have no idea who they are, or why they are chasing him) his voice over gives use a brief introduction to him and how he veiws the world. The scene is also set in the opening, its set in scotland (as you can tell from the accent). Characters are introduced briefly in this opening too. Whilst they are playing football the camera pauses on each character displaying their name, this is done because there are a lot of important characters in the film. We also find out the main theme behind the film in the opening, Heroine.

The camera angles relaly make the audience ask questions in the opening. The two shot of renton and spud running along the street, away from two men starts the questions. We ask who the men are, why are they chasing them. But because we know the characters take drugs we can assume things about them even though we dont know for sure. Its quite possible that they were caught stealing to pay for drugs. Back at the house the long shots of the characters show the house is unclean and dirty. The close up and medium shots on the characters shows that they appear to enjoy taking drugs. But at the end of the opening Renton gets up and says he wont be doing it anymore. This is then followed by him voicing over again saying "Of course i would havwe another hit, after all, I had work to do". This final line really grips the audience and makes you want to see how he devolps as a character, and how the story will progress.