OpeningEG2:Twenty Four Seven

Twenty Four Seven
(Shane Meadows, 1997)

DVD cover

Produced by: British Broadcasting Corporation, Scala Films

Distributed by: Pathe, Finnkino, [full list]

Budget: unknown.
Gross: £175k (UK)
Ratings: 6.9 (imdb)
wikipedia

The idents shown at the beginning of the film are BBC films and Scala. The directors name is presented as 'A Shane Meadows Film'. This is reflecting the auteur theory. There is only one star in the film named, which implies that he is the most important. The first thing you notice from the opening shot is that it is in black and white, this signifies the age of the film or the age that the film is meant to look.

 The film starts with an establishing shot. It is bleak and obvious from this very long first shot that it is going to be a serious drama. This first shot lasts for 30 seconds. More names start to appear after this first shot. The names stand out well against the bleak background as they are all in upper case and bold. The next shot is of the older man. This is a close up and shows the emotion and the condition that he is in better than it would from any other shot. It also helps the audience to sympathise more and feel the same emotions. 

There is then a voice over. Up to this point there had been very minimal dialogue so there was some narrative enigma as it was hard to hear if the characters had an accents may be indicating where the film is meant to be set. 

Depending on where you interpret the opening sequence ends it ends at either 4 minutes or 16 minutes. I chose to interpret the opening being 4 minutes long because after this the film gets into the main plot and the titles have finished.