Alternative trailer research

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Downton Abbey

Music, sound, voice overThe music relates directly to the message that the

production team are trying to get across with the lyrics

"watching you" playing every time a clip of a character's

eyes is present. This has reinforced the fact to me that

music must have a good link to what is on screen. The

music sounds somewhat spooky, which could be linked to

the manor-house setting.

What can be noticed is that when the tempo quickens the

higher-action scenes appear on screen such as running,

fighting and horses cantering across a field.

The voice over is just dialogue between the characters

giving the perspective audience an idea of what the drama

series are about. It becomes clear it is about "unpublished

secrets" and "The English being curious about other

peoples lives". The use of dialogue, I have learnt is common

in giving away some storyline details.

Genre and narrative

The genre is introduced at the beginning when the

equivalent to the Universal ident- the ITV drama ident tells

the audience that the trailer is advertising that of a drama. It

some becomes apparent that it is that of a period drama

due to the manor house setting and the costume worn by

actors. A little information is given about the storyline, which

is common in trailers, in this trailer through the

dialogue/speech between characters. It is this speech that

tells the audience that "untold secrets" are to be a key

theme of the drama.

Cinematography and special effects

The cinematography varies with both close up and long

shots as well as a variety of establishing shots, high angle

shots and extreme close ups. Showing a range of shots is

important in a trailer to show that the film/drama is diverse

and that action is always occurring. There are no special

effects in this trailer. This could be due to the genre,

whereby alien space ships and massive car crashes would

not be expected. Special effects and CGI may be used

simply to neaten up shots somehow rather than to create

any sci-fi scenes, for example.

Selection of titles

Like most trailers it opens with the production companies

ident, in this case ITV and is followed by crediting the writer,

and the fact that she is an Oscar award winning writer. This

is similar to The Great Gatsby, where awards are

mentioned. This could give the drama credibility of being a

good television series. It later goes on to display the series

title at the very end, along with the release date. The

structure of this trailer for a television drama series, in fact is

not much different from that of a film.