Comparison of a film opening and a film trailer.

Film Trailers:
Usually within the first couple of seconds of a film trailer, the production logos will be shown e.g.: new line cinema, Dreamworks, universal studios, film 4.

This is to help the production companies out, if someone has previously watched and enjoyed another film that has been produced by New Line Cinema, then by seeing the logo come up on the trailer they may be more likely to be drawn in and watch a). the rest of the trailer and b). go and see the film.
Also, in most cases you can tell from the production company logo what type of film is going to be presented. It sets the tone for the film. For example if you see the Dreamworks logo, you will likely recognise that there will be a large budget for the film and it will be family-friendly e.g: Shrek.

The title of the film is in every film trailer, and this tells you what the film is called but more importantly it can reveal the genre of the film by the design and colour of the title.

This film title has a white background, bright font surrounded by a dotted heart. In this way you can tell that the genre of the film is more than likely a romantic comedy film.


Film opening:
Film openings need to quickly determine the genre of the film and set the tone for the rest of the film, this is achieved by accomplishing the relevant aspects of cinematography relevant to said genre.
The camera shots will each achieve a different meaning. For example, in 10 things I hate about you, the establishing shot of the college at the beginning with a present American flag allows to quickly assume that the film will be based around a group of students at the shown college. From the soundtrack that ties with the establishing shot we will then develop our assumption into a teen drama/rom-com film about the fore mentioned college students.

On the other hand, a film that opens with a close up view of a girls face with zombified make up and fake blood over her will give a very different image of what the genre is and what the film is about. This will instead give off the tone of a tense zombie horror film and put us in the action, as if the child is staring directly at us.
Following on from the idea of a zombie film, a technique that may be used (seen In the opening of 28 weeks later and zombieland) is a device called tracking. This allows the audience to follow the action as it occurs but also helps to put us into te position of  running alongside the person, trying to get away from the zombie threat. This is a close to medium shot of the person and the zombie and will often be done to show the camera moving erratically, rocking as if the running movement is happening to the cameraman.

Similarly, a pan can be used to show the chase of the survivor (similar to tracking) but this wider shot also allows some of the setting to be shown to allow us to grasp an idea of where the film is at that point in time (will include noticeably identifiable things E.g.: football marking of an American football field, a red phone box in front of white concrete buildings to show central London etc...