Trailers and openings are both fundamental aspects of cinematic production; however they are not to be confused. Trailers are utilised to combine a series of the most exciting/climatic elements of the full film whilst ensuring a basic plot line is conveyed. A film opening, despite being around the same length, is rather dissimilar to a trailer. This is because film openings must not be jumping around the entire film, it must simply provide an introduction - setting the scene, giving some background information, introducing an integral character etc.
In order to see what we should and shouldn't use in our opening I watched both the trailer and opening of two films related to our idea: Scream - as its a conventional slasher film - and Pretty Woman - as its a film focussed around a prostitute.
As shown through the above trailer and opening, trailers are more of an overview of a film as a whole, whereas openings are simply an introduction. Despite both beginning with the same scene of the girl answering her phone when home alone, the trailer goes on to explain the rest of the film without spoiling it for the audience. We meet fundamental characters such as Sydney and Billy, and catch glimpses of key scenes such as the 'rules to survive a horror film' scene. Conversely, the film opening sticks with the girl who's home alone and explores her conversation with the killer further - it is known that she is killed at the end of the opening before the plot moves on to Sydney and her story. The film opening, therefore, is foreboding for the challenges Sydney will have to face in order to avoid a similar outcome to the girl in the opening.
The trailer and opening to Pretty Woman both feature a lot of non-diegetic backing audio that is parallel to the onscreen happenings, however, the trailer's audio is more generic for the entire movie - the topic of discussion in a trailer - whereas the song featured in the opening, Real Wild Child by Iggy Pop, is more specific to the opening scene in which Vivian is seen climbing out of her window in order to avoid paying her rent. From the film opening, the audience can infer that Edward is incredibly rich and is seeking a prostitute to accompany him to his social events upon his 'girlfriend's refusal. The splicing together of shots of Edward driving and Vivian getting ready and leaving her home makes it clear that the pair will inevitably meet and become the central characters of the film; this type of introduction is what we were hoping to put across in our own work. The trailer, however, confirms that the pair not only meet, but get along well and fall in love. It displays snippets of scenes throughout the film to tell the story without going into detail and is broken up by flashing pink and black credit screens with white text showcasing the star-lined cast and the film's title.
From the above examples it is clear what should and should not be done in a film opening:
DO: - introduce the main themes of the film.
- build interest among the audience and give hints of what is to come.
DONT: - spoil the entire plot.
- just use snippets and break up scenes with credit screens.
-R
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