Trainspotting Film Distributor

Trainspotting was distributed in 1996 by Polygram Filmed Entertainment.

PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was a film studio, founded in 1980,and sold to Universal Pictures in 1998. Among its most successful films were Four Weddings And A Funeral , Dead Man Walking, Fargo, Trainspotting  and Notting Hill.

Trainspotting Analysis

I am going to analyse the British Film 'Trainspotting' as the opening of this film I find very entertaining and interesting. The effects used throughout is something I definitely want to take inspiration from for my own project.




Trainspotting is an independent British drama film directed by Danny Boyle. Trainspotting was released in 1996, adapted from Irvine Welsh’s first novel “Trainspotting” due to the directors perception of Scotland’s social, economic and political troubles going out of control in the 1990′s and this shows how British film uses very realistic scenarios and places to get the point across.

We begin the opening sequence with a black background with the writing- Channel four films presents. 

The opening of this film is very fast paced.There is immediately a running scene, showing signs of panic. It gives the impression that the people are in some sort of trouble and are running away, avoiding being caught. The low point of view shot focusing on their feet highlights the idea that they are in a rush.

The camera then switches to medium close up shot of Marks face and this gives a facial expression of someone out of breath. This also shows the audience that they are running away fast. hi facial expression also shows that he may be panicking. The clothes that the characters are dressed in are very informal and scruffy. This represents their social status of being low working class. The scenery also shows this as they are running along a street in a city full of shops and building construction. As they run there is rubbish all over the pavement which also supports he idea of low class living.

Throughout the opening the character wears unwashed clothes, this definitely has a reflection the lifestyle he has. It immediately shows that he does not look after self properly and gives idea about the rest of the film.This also is shown by the other characters.

Throughout the opening, the music played over the top is very fast paced which adds to the effect of the running scene. The song Lust for life by Iggy Pop adds to the rush of adrenaline that is created at the very beginning, there isn't a moment where the pace slows down in the opening and this is as the quickness of the tempo from music gives the idea to the audience that something major might be about to take place.

Right at the beginning of the opening, there is a voice over by the main character and continues throughout the entire opening sequence. This indicates straight away that he is the main character in the film. Emphasising his importance in the film. The majority of the shots are focused on him which also shows his importance

This medium shot of Renton smoking a spliff immediately shows us that he is a drug user and also explains why they were running at the beginning giving the impression that they tenf to be in trouble often. The room he is stood in looks rough and very poor. The walls have damp on and the wallpaper is old and ruined, which also shows that he and his friends live in a very low poor class of life. His appearance also shows this, his clothes look old and unwashed and he looks very washed out, due to all the drug intake.

This wide shot of the entire room he is in, emphasizes the poverty he lives in. The floorboards are old looking and dirty. The appearance of the room represents the characters personality and that he doesn't care. 

The appearance of both sides is completely different. Renton  and his friends aren;t dressed appropriately for playing football. Dressed in ordinary clothes, and trainers. However the opponents are dressed in football strips and football boots. This may represent the idea that they cannot afford football strips and boots due to the lack of money. The way that they are stood shows they aren't taking it seriously compared to the opponents.

The freezeframe of 'Sick Boy' shows quite an angry shot of him. Giving the impression that his personality may be similar. His name isn't very appealing, which also may be why.

This particular scene also shows him and his friends personality, as they are messing around while the other team are being deadly serious about football.

This shot of the character Spud of him coming across as quiet a simple character. He isn't very bright and the shot of him struggling to defend the goal shows this.

The name Spud also describes him as a person and how he is dumb and quite stupid. The idea that he is wearing his underpants also represents this.

Here is a mid shot of some girls who look as if they are the girlfriends of the men. They are shouting which makes them look quite common. They all look quite young aged. One of them is smoking and the other is carrying a baby which doesn't come across quite well to others and gives an impression of working class life.

This low angle shot of the behinds of the characters highlights the clothes they have on and the idea that they are quite rough looking. It also shows the audience that the are about to be hit by the ball.

Here in these two shots we see Renton get hit in the head with the football then the shot switches to him falling back taking a draw from a spliff. This gives the audience the idea that the feeling of both is exactly the same. It shows that he is addicted to the feeling.

During all of these shots it shows the main character falling at different places doing different things. When Renton gets hit by the ball, the scene switches to him falling backwards by getting hit by the ball, and falling backwards when he is smoking a cigarette. This is a very clever switch. The reason why this happens is because the football scene is representing his fall. The scenes emerge within each other and immediately he slams the ground on both scenes, representing his lifestyle immediately.

Social Realism

Social Realism, an international art movement, refers to the work of painters, printmakers, photographers and filmmakers who draw attention to the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and who are critical of the social structures that maintain these conditions. While the movement's artistic styles vary from nation to nation, it almost always utilizes a form of descriptive or critical realism.^[

Early British cinema used the common social interaction found in the literary works of Charles Dickens and Thomas Hardy. One of the first British films to emphasize realism's value as a social protest was James Williamson's A Reservist Before the War, and After the War in 1902. The film memorialized Boer War serviceman coming back home to unemployment. Repressive censorship during 1945-54 prevented British films from more radical social positions.

After World War I, the British middle-class generally responded to realism and restraint in cinema while the working-class generally favored Hollywood genre movies. Thus realism carried connotations of education and high seriousness. These social and aesthetic distinctions have become running themes; Social Realism is now associated with the arthouse auteur, while mainstream Hollywood films are shown at the multiplex.
Producer Michael Balcon revived this distinction in the 1940s, referring to the British industry's rivalry with Hollywood in terms of "realism and tinsel." Balcon, the head of Ealing Studios, became a key figure in the emergence of a national cinema characterized by stoicism and verisimilitude. "Combining the objective temper and aesthetics of the documentary movement with the stars and resources of studio filmmaking, 1940s British cinema made a stirring appeal to a mass audience," noted critic Richard Armstrong.
Social Realism in cinema was reflecting Britain's transforming wartime society. Women were working alongside men in the military and its munitions factories, challenging pre-assigned gender roles. Rationing, air raids and unprecedented state intervention in the life of the individual encouraged a more social philosophy and worldview. Social realist films of the era include Target for Tonight (1941), In Which We Serve (1942), Millions Like Us (1943), and This Happy Breed (1944). Historian Roger Manvell wrote, "As the cinemas [closed initially because of the fear of air raids] reopened, the public flooded in, searching for relief from hard work, companionship, release from tension, emotional indulgence and, where they could find them, some reaffirmation of the values of humanity."
In the postwar period, films like Passport to Pimlico (1949), The Blue Lamp (1949), and The Titfield Thunderbolt (1952) reiterated gentle patrician values, creating a tension between the camaraderie of the war years and the burgeoning consumer society.^[
A British New Wave movement emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. British auteurs like Karel Reisz, Tony Richardson, and John Schlesinger brought wide shots and plain speaking to stories of ordinary Britons negotiating postwar social structures. British New Wave films include Room at the Top (1958), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), and A Kind of Loving (1962). Relaxation of censorship enabled film makers to portray issues such as prostitution, abortion, homosexuality, and alienation. Characters included factory workers, office underlings, dissatisfied wives, pregnant girlfriends, runaways, the marginalized, the poor, and the depressed. "The New Wave protagonist was usually a working-class male without bearings in a society in which traditional industries and the cultures that went with them were in decline."

My Chosen Genre for my Film

For my chosen genre/style of film, I have taken a liking for British Cinema. The idea of the British film industry is that they use self representation and explore different aspects of life within Britain. British films include and normally focus on a certain class, such as the working class background. Trainspotting for example, is set in working class Scotland.

The following films I have chosen to watch and consider analysing are:

• Trainspotting
• Snatch
• Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels
• 24 hour party people
• Control
• Submarine
• This Is England

Examples of Comedy

Groundhog Day - A grumpy weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again.

Happy Gilmore - A reject hockey player takes up golf in order to save his grandmother’s house.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Examples of Horror

A Nightmare on Elm Street - Freddy Krueger, an evil being from another world, stalks a group of teenagers and kills them through their dreams.

 

Saw - Two men are held hostage by a psychopath, who is set on teaching his victims the value of life by putting them into demented life or death games.

Friday the 13th - While trying to re-open a summer camp, a group of camp counselors are mysteriously murdered by a machete swinging slasher.

Examples of Thriller

The Great Escape - A large group of POW’s plan an escape from a German camp in World War II.

The Silence of the Lambs - An FBI agent develops a relationship with the notorious serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lector, in order to gain Lector’s assistance in the hunt for another serial killer.

North By Northwest - Mistaken for a government agent by foreign spies, an advertising agent travels cross-country trying to survive.