How are camera shots and movement used in each trailer to represent the characters and the period in which the trailer is set?

Hey Bessie again!

The period drama 'Desperate Romantics''s trailer immediately attracts a young audience by the sound, the music playing over the moving images, as it is modern and makes the trailer more dramatic as the sounds builds in climax. However the camera shots make the trailer more thrilling and makes audiences want to view the programme. There is no ellipsis, it is merely four men (immediately explaining to us who the protaganists are) walking through an art gallery. The opening shot is a close up of a candle which is blown out, as the music begins, indulging the viewers immediately. A silloette of the four men appears at the dark (a long shot) revealing the time period of the drama (mid 19th Century) by their costume. The men walk confidently (and yet in slow motion) representing their calm youth, even though each painting they walk past blows up! Their attitude seems to be careful by the style of their walk, the expressions on their faces (shown to the audience by close up shots.) With the use of close ups we see the men looking to the side where each painting is blowing up as they pass them, which draws the audience to look at the explosions and to question what is happening. A combination of the paintings blowing up, the slow confident walking of the men and the loud, 'pumping' music in the background represents the rebellious style of the drama. A mixture of these things (primarily the mise en scene) attracts a young audience, because of the way the men are represented.           

The trailer for the series 'Downton Abbey' is extremely different as it shows the audience a household consisting of the two classes at that time (early 20th Century, two years before the great war). The trailer is not slow motion like the other one, it is normal pace with camera shots allowing the audience to see how the series involves a lot of emotion and events. The use of long shots shows the house in which the stories take place, and close ups give the audience an idea of what actors are in the series, perhaps causing a wider appeal to the programme. The movement varies in pace, as the transition between each shot becomes quicker in a sense, with music allows quickening in pace, to represent how the stories become more and more complicated, intriguing the audience to see what the stories are. The costume allows us to see what period it is set in, like 'Desperate Romantics', and the different actions of the servants and of the family that live in Downton Abbey represent their classes and the attitudes of the people. The servants seem to have a more 'gossip' like attitude, and the shots are generally close ups or mid shots, showing the haste needed downstairs in a large country house. The camera angles and shots upperstairs seem to show the family at ease and not worrying about what the servants are having to do for them. This trailer generally attracts an older audience, because of the issues shown in the trailer and of the actors who are in it.

Yours 

Bessie