The genre of the film is a drama as the film is based on a protagonist called Renton and his friends who are heroin addicts living in an Edinburgh drug den. The opening sequence introduces the characters lives. Renton is talking on a voice over about the traditional ways of living life ‘Getting a job, A career, a nice car and dental health’ followed by him saying he choose not to do this.

The target audience of this film is obviously focussed at an 18+ adult audience. The film is heavily influence and shows scenes of drug taking. If young viewers were to see this film they could misinterpret the message that this film is glamorizing the use of drugs.

The opening plot has a voice over of Renton talking about the traditional and normal ways of living life while visually you can see Renton and his mates being chased as if to say they have committed a crime. As Renton collapses to the floor he begins to say how he didn’t choose this life. The scenes cut between Renton and his friends ‘Sick Boy’ ‘Spud’ and ‘Diane’ injecting heroin while Diane’s baby can be heard and seen crawling in the other room. The opening sequence finishes with Renton telling his supplier he wants to attempt to kick his habit but this time for good, his supplier discourages the plan.

The opening sequence for Trainspotting has minimal text on screen. The first few seconds displays ‘Channel Four Films Presents’ until the very end the title ‘Trainspotting’ comes up with a flashing stripped effected changing into a fade, then lastly normal.The opening sequence is effective as it shows the characters lives currently before the story begins and clips of what is in the film, if the opening sequence was entirely animated or full of text I don’t think viewers would understand what the film was about, especially as the title is ‘Trainspotting’.

The sound in the film opening is key to understanding the films plot. The non-diegetic sound starts with Renton’s voiceover with an up beat song playing at the same time. The song relates to the action happening in the scene.The diegetic sound is rather unnoticed in comparison to the non-diegetic sound. Sound of running can be heard, car screeching, the conversation of ‘Sick Boy’ and the others injecting each other.

The mis-en-scene starts with Renton and Spud running through what looks like a high street in Edinburgh chased by security guards. Props of random objects are dropped throughout the chase scene but the audience are unable to make out what they are, the actual robbery is not shown. Shoppers don’t seem at all too bothered or take any chance to stop in, just watching the security guards struggling to chase the boys down. As an audience, it makes you question What have they stolen, considering they are dropping the objects as they run they could be potentially have a lot of value to them, Secondly why it opens with the chase, why aren’t we allowed to know what they motive was and what they stole. I believe the reasons behind this are to create suspense, draw the audience in on them first two minutes and feed them that hook and pull them through the rest of the film.

The camera shots in the opening relate to the action in the scene. The camera is mostly a tracking shot ahead of the chase so the guards are visible in the background. The shot switches to a tracking shot facing ahead of Renton when the car pulls out. Tracking shots a further used for the scene of the football game.

The editing in the opening is very minimal. Simple cuts and transitions and to introduce the characters the shot freezes and they name is displayed bottom centre in white text. The editing is used sparingly but well done as it gives that vibe of a run down, drug culture British film.

Overall, the opening sequence of Trainspotting successfully delivers the films story in a satire theme. Showing Renton as to be fine with his current life situation talking about what he could have chosen to do in the voice over. All characters appear to have an exciting laid back life with no worries. Although the audience can understand that something will go wrong for these characters.