Trailers and films differ in length, narrative structure, and editing techniques. Trailers are typically 2.5 minutes while films are around 2 hours. Trailers use snippets from the beginning, middle, and end of a film to intrigue audiences about the plot without revealing too much. Their nonlinear editing jumps around and combines various shots and sounds to generate suspense. In contrast, films have a linear narrative. The overall goal of a trailer is to promote and market the full film by enticing viewers, while films aim to entertain audiences.

1. FILM VS TRAILER
E L L I E B O R G

2. LENGTH
• The length of a film compared to a trailer is very different.
• Usually, films last for 2 hours, whereas trailers last 2.5 minutes
• The purpose of a trailers is to give the audiences a hint of what the film will be like, this
helps them to decide whether they will be interested in watching it or not.

3. NARRATIVE
• Some aspects of the narrative are similar in trailers and films.
• The trailer of a film usually shows snippets of scenes from the beginning, middle and
towards the end to give the audience an indication of the plot, but not enough for
them to understand what happens. This point of this is to make them feel intrigued
and make them want to watch the full movie in order to see what happens.

4. EDITING
• The editing is very different in a trailer compared to the movie.
• A film uses linear editing where everything happens in order, whereas a trailer uses
montage editing where sections are moved around and jumbled up so they are not in
the order of how the events occurred.
• In trailers, it is possible to build up layers of footage, for example, a soundtrack,
voiceover, and footage can be used at once.
• The shots are often cut at a faster pace in trailers as the length is shorter, also this is
done so not too much detail is given away from what happens in the film.
• Different types of transitions are used between shots to give different effects, for
example, fades would be used to indicate a slower paced film whereas a wipe would
give a different effect.

5. TITLES
• Trailers use titles to add more detail, and show who produced, directed, starred and
played a role in the construction of the movie. They are also used to show
recommendations and reviews from other sources in order to promote the film.
• Trailers are placed evenly throughout trailers, whereas they only happen at the
beginning and end of a film.
• There are more people involved in making a film, therefore there are more titles
displayed.

6. SOUND
• Soundtracks are often used in trailers which are not used in films to add suspense and
tension to the trailer.
• In trailers, voice over narration is usually used on top of footage to give the audience a
better understanding of the narrative. Usually, the voice-over is taken from dialogue
from the actual scene in the movie, and is layered on top of footage from different
sections of the film.
• Generally, more sound effects are used in trailers.

7. GOAL
• The goal of a trailer is to promote the film, intrigue the audience and make them want
to purchase and watch the whole film.
• The goal of a film is to entertain people.