Opening vs Trailer: Shrooms

It is important to research the differences between a trailer and a film opening so that when we film and edit together our film opening it doesn't come across as a trailer. By looking closely at what both include, it becomes easier to identify what should be in our opening and what we can leave out. 

Features of the Trailer:

• The film maker's logo is shown at the beginning of the trailer. 
• Roughly 2 minutes long
• Summaries a lot of the story in short space of time
• Shows a brief introduction to most of the characters
• Shows their journey to an isolated area (camp site in the woods)
• Adds captions between scenes to draw viewer in and add to story line in short space of time
• Uses actual footage from the film
• Mostly shows the beginning half of the film, only a few scene from after this point are shown to give the viewer a reason to go and see the whole film.
• Uses lots of jump cuts to switch between different parts of the film, especially in scary parts or when the characters are in danger.
• Montage editing is used to juxtapose different parts of the film together to create meaning and connect them, it is combined with continuity editing and cross cutting to show the story progressing and what different characters experience at the same time.
• There are quite a few reaction shots of characters, but in the trailer we do not see what they are looking add, building suspense. 
• Visual effects are used at the end of the trailer.
• You have the title of the film 'Shrooms' as the only thing on screen at the end of the trailer making sure the viewer knows what the film is called so they can go and see it. 
• The words 'Coming Soon' are put at the end of the trailer (in some other trailers this could be a particular date/month/season so the viewer knows when to expect the film in theatres. 

Features of the Opening:

I decided to focus on the first two minutes of the film because that is how long our film opening should be. 

• Film maker's logo at the beginning of the film, taking up 10 - 20 seconds. 
• There are opening credits showing the film production company's name and other details such as film boards. 
• The audio starts first a few seconds before we see anything on screen. 
• There is montage editing showing the girl running through the woods and the shots of the building and rooms inside are connected.
• In the first minute we never see any body's face - we see the silhouette of the girl running through the woods, and an extreme close up of some body's hand. 
• There is a medium shot of somebody with a straw bag over their head - they are unidentifiable  it is not clear if they could be someone shown in the trailer at this point. 
• There is an extreme close up of another person's hand and the lower half of their face. The lack of eye contact isolates us from the person and again means we cannot identify them.
• Nothing directly relates to things which are shown in the trailer. All the scenes from inside the building are not shown in the trailer meaning it is completely unexpected for the viewer. At this point they cannot connect what they have seen in the trailer with what is being shown on screen in the first two minutes. 
• There is an extreme close up of one person's eye, causing a rise in fear for the viewer and worry for the girl running through the forest.
• After the initial scenes in the building there are more opening credits stating the production company.
• The film then switches to the characters seen in the trailer, they are on a plane travelling to Ireland. 
• The first two characters which are shown in the trailer are the first two character's shown in the film opening. This means the viewer will immediately recognise them.

After looking closely at both, it appears clear that we should have some kind of logo or name at the beginning stating who made the film opening. This is seen in both trailers and film openings. It is also clear that in a film opening we do not have to summarise the whole story in two minutes. We do not need to reveal lots of the story line to the viewer, just draw them in and make sure it is suitable for our genre, horror. This means using editing and a combination of diegetic and non-diegetic sound to create suspense, possible scare the viewer, and draw them in so they would want to watch the rest of the film. It is important we do not put a caption at the end of the film opening saying the name of the film and any messages such as 'Coming Soon' as these are typical features of a trailer. By sticking to these points we should have an effective film opening which cannot be confused as a trailer.