Title sequence VS trailer

I have chosen to base my comparison on "The Dark Knight" as it was easily one of the most popular and most anticipated pictures of 2008.

The trailer begins with a black screen, it slowly fades into a shot of batman on his motorcycle, as we hear the non-diegetic dialogue, coming from the Joker. This continues, and we begin to notice that the shots of batman are cut quite abruptly suggesting that he is mysterious, as we already know his identity is anonymous. This element of mystery is also enhanced by the music, which seems to cue the shots. The rhythm to the trailer is an ominous bass-drop between the Jokers dialogue. Soon after the dialogue we see the Joker for the first time in an incredibly short shot, and this is where the trailer becomes more lively. A series of shots showing destruction and explosions then occur over the sound of the Jokers sinister laugh, this creates an uneasy atmosphere for the audience, as we develop a fear of this intense character. We then see the Joker sitting in his cell twiddling his thumbs, and the camera slowly pans up towards his face, which reinforces my earlier point about the mystery of the characters. At this point the two main characters have been introduced, and the antagonist and protagonist have immediately been established. Then we are displayed shots of the Joker scheming, and shots of Batman hunting down the Joker, until we see them meet at the concluding shot of the trailer. This is the most Poignant, memorable moment in the trailer, as we see these two mysterious powerful characters meet, and then the shot is cut short to leave the audience pondering who will prevail. This trailer serves its purpose extremely effectively through this element of mystery.




The opening sequence also creates this strong sense of mystery, as all the characters are masked, and so we are debating which masked villain is the Joker, until he reveals himself about 5 minutes into the film. The opening sequence is used to express just how powerful and dominant the Jokers character is, this leaves the audience feeling tense and anxious as we know our protagonist has a hell of a ride ahead of him. So both the trailer and opening sequence serve different purposes ... the trailer to excite the audience, and leave them anticipating what will happen, and the opening sequence ... to introduce the antagonist and create tension and leave the audience pondering if our protagonist is strong enough to defeat this extraordinary character.

Brief

For media studies this year in AS, we have been assigned coursework to create an opening sequence for a fictional film, in whatever genre we decide is best, it is to be no longer than two minutes. We will be working in groups of 3 and 4 to create our pieces. This coursework is worth a large amount of the course and is really important.

Grace Potton, Nicole Benyon, Jamie Watts - Preliminary Task