Film Trailers vs Film Openings

FILM TRAILERS VS FILM OPENINGS

What is a film trailer?

- A new production that will be shown on television or at the cinema will always have a trailer. A trailer is made up of short clips montaged from all of the different stages of the film; usually the best bits are picked out to entice the target audience. Trailers are typically 2 to 5 minutes long and sometimes a production may have more than 1 trailer, they are usually released to the public approximately 1 to 6 months prior to the films release date, this allows the target audience to keep seeing the trailer which anticipates them about the movie. Film trailers are used not only to inform the public that a new film is coming out but also to make the target audience excited to see the movie and perhaps save the date in their diary.

 

Se7en film trailer:

 

What is a film opening?

- A film opening is simply the beginning of a film, it consists of the section of the film that is before the title appears, this may be the opening credits with a song and minimal background shots or it may be the beginning of the story. For example, in each of the Scream movies someone always dies in the opening which then later relates to the story. For this type of opening, establishing shots are used to set the location of the film and introduce the main character/s or chain of events to the viewer. Both of the types of film openings are equally effective and highly dependant on the genre of the movie. The purpose of the film opening is to attract the audience and make them intrigued as to the events and outcome of the film.

 

Se7en film opening:



 

 

 Differences and similarities between trailers and openings:

• A trailer will give the audience the overall plot of the film whereas an opening will either begin the story or show a vital scene that will relate to the movie later.
• No plot twists are revealed to the audience in either a trailer or an opening.
• A film trailer will use many more camera angles, movement and framing techniques due to the fact that it is made of short clips out of the entire film, however, a film opening may only use a very small range of cinematography techniques - for example in the film Se7en the opening is made up of extreme close-ups and very limited angles paired with no camera movement.
• Film openings can sometimes be accompanied with non-diegetic parallel music and no diegetic sounds however it is common that a trailer will have lots of diegetic sounds because they want to build the tension; some music is still used in the majority of trailers.