Understanding the difference between a trailer and an opening sequence

• Purpose of trailers and title sequences:

The purpose of a trailer is to persuade your audience to watch your movie, you need to get their attention and draw them in and make them want to see more and therefore encourage them to buy and watch your film. It's a bit like an advert, you are advertising your film. Whereas a title sequence is what builds the tension up before the films start and draws the audience in and has information on who had what roles in making the film.


Trailers include:

• Clips from the film.
• Mainly the best, most exciting parts.
• A voice over.
• Information (dates, actors, age rating)
• Cliffhangers, make the audience want to know what's going to happen next.
• Fast pace editing so it looks exciting.
• Soundtrack that is relevant.

Title sequences include:

• Names of who did what role in making the film.
• Main actors.
• Relevant soundtrack.
• Needs to be interesting to ensure you don't lose the audiences attention.

Seven Trailer:

Seven Title Sequence:

You can see the difference between a trailer and a title sequence form these two clips for the film Seven.