G321: The differences between a film trailer and a film opening

Film Trailer: Ultimately tries to sell the film

Techniques used in Film Trailers are: they give information about the film away, fades to black are often used, montage of clips from the film, shows sections of the film that will interest the audience and grab their attention and get them into the cinema to watch their film, the title of the film is at the end (voice over and actors names also), it will have a tag line and institution logos are at the start. An example of a film trailer is "Batman: The Dark Knight Rises (2012)."



Film Openings: Ultimately sets the film up for the audience

Techniques used in Film Openings are: the details of the cast, crew and institutional logos are within the film (although institutional logos are also at the start), the films title, introduction to character/character type, indication of place, indication of period set, information regarding the mood and tone, introduction to signiture theme tune, information about genre, questions that viewers may find interesting, patterns and types of editing echoed throught remainder of film and aolso mise and cinematogrophy echoed. Film openings generally establish the genre, narrative, character, atmosphere, themes, setting, sound and titles.  An example of a film opening is "Catch Me If You Can (2002)."



Lots of film openings also subconciosly tell the story of the film before you watch it so it can give some things away. For example a very known franchise "James Bond" does its opening scene like this, the best one i think for giving the story away is "Casino Royale (2006)."



These listed techinques for both Film Trailers and Film Openings are generally different, the only one i think that is the same is the institutional logos at the start but other than that they are very different to one another.