Trailers and Openings

Film trailers and openings have factors which differentiate them. For our coursework we have to create a 2 minute film opening and must be able to understand what makes a film opening a film opening.

Film Trailers

Film trailers give information on a film in order to entice its audience to go and watch it at the cinema. This can involve giving away a lot of the narrative through various clips that show particular highlights of the film. These often clearly depict the genre of the film with different conventions in order to appeal to the audience. Film trailers include titles but most of the time they only show key actors, producers and directors, with the institution logos shown at the start to give the audience a first impression. The title of the film is often shown at the very end of the trailer alongside a tag line and release date.



The Hunger Games Trailer (2012)

Within this film trailer, lots of fast cuts are used showing various clips in a non-consecutive manner to show highlights from the movie and capture the audience's attention. Narration and audio overlays are used to give information on the movie's plot line without giving away too much. Main characters are shown as well as important events also to appeal to the audience and at the very end the movie's title is shown alongside a release date with other details.

Film Opening

Film openings, on the other hand, are quite different.Generally they are a lot slower paced than trailers as film openings give an introduction of place, historical period, mood and tone as well as introduce characters. Film openings can often include indications of genre and theme, which helps to set up the theme and gives the audience expectations for the rest of the film. The opening of a film may also include particular mise-en-scene or aspects which are significant in the plot line or later on in the film. Film openings also use titles which give details of the cast, crew and institutions in a particular order, but doesn't list everyone as the full titles go in the credits at the end of the film.



Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

This film opening, in comparison to the film trailer, is a lot slower paced. There is an obvious indication of place and historical period from the start through the use of shots and text. It clearly sets the scene and shows its genre through conventions such as the spaceship and laser gun sounds. Only a few main characters are introduced and the plot is not made entirely clear as the film starts partway through an event- this makes the viewer question what is happening and makes them carry on watching.



As an overall brief differentiation between openings and trailers, film openings are designed to set the start of the movie, intrigue the viewer and make them question what is to happen, whereas film trailers appeal to audiences to get them to watch the movie as well as be aware of certain aspects of the narrative and the actors involved.