Social Realism Opening Scenes: first opinions thoughts and feelings.

I have chosen three different social realism openings to films which I am going to analyze and take notes on before going into detail on the title, lighting, characters, location and sound.

1) The first clip I am going to look at is the opening scene from Trainspotting. I haven't actually seen the film so I don't have any opinions already made on it.

Notes:

 Music - straight away
introduced to what appears to be main character straight away (also narrates) RENTON
chase scene - in trouble?
stereotypically quite rough looking, ear piercing, dirty looking clothes, shaved head
'fucking'
hit by a car - reckless
'choose..' repeated, emphasis, advising the audience
repeatedly swearing
contradictory 'choose health' while smoking
drugs, alcohol
rhetorical question. 'why would I want to do a thing like that?'
'Who needs reasons when you're got heroine?' VERY clearly a drug addict

2) The second clip I am going to look at is the opening scene from Fish Tank. Again I haven't seen the film so I don't have any opinions already made.

The clip is quite a long clip and as we have been assigned to do around a 2 minute clip I am going to focus  on the first  2:30 minutes of it as that is the main focus, to research how social realism films are usually opened. Also after the first 2 and a half minutes, the sense becomes less of an opening scene and so I feel its almost irreverent to the research I am looking at at the moment.

Notes:

Production logos-  4 (background music) quite simple
Title is shown straight away!! Plain background, background noises
Heavy breathing- unhealthy?
Main character? straight away - bad pronunciation.
view of the town, showing where it is sent
'ring me back bitch' rude, blunt
stereotypically rough or 'chavy'- strong accent, scruffy, hoop earrings, tracksuit
chucking stones - no respect for others property
lots of swearing!! (in front of children - gives the impression of not caring)

3) The final clip I am going to look at for the moment is the opening scene from Submarine. Like both of the other films I haven't seen the film so I don't have any opinions already made. I think it is better to not have seen the clips as this is also practice for my exam when I have to analyze a clip from a TV drama which I will have most likely not seen before.

Notes:

Production Logo - 2 (some with music, some without) simple
Sets scene straight away, panning across room S L O W L Y
Flickers from one to another, scene to opening credits again repeatedly
messy room, teens?
seagulls in the background noise, suggests its by the sea
narration as the camera pans on to a boy (introduces himself)
the boy looks lonely
sudden, quick zoom on boy, in time with the clock ticking
music, quite gentle or reinforces the sense on loneliness
lots of landscapes, by the sea...romantic?

These were my first thoughts on the clips which I wrote down while watching each of them through twice. Over the next few days I will be making further notes and a more detailed analysis.