Exam question

Many Codes and conventions are used to promote media products and this is evident in Ben Drew's Ill Manors. The film is targeted at the youth demographic and is consumed across the three media platforms; print, e-media and broadcast and synergy is created throughout all three platforms. However, the target audience is not fixed to the film as different media products appeal to a wider and perhaps unconventional audience. Within the print platform, the film Ill Manors has been promoted through a variety of different magazines and newspapers. Ben Drew appeared on the cover of NME magazine, which was initially produced as a rock magazine. Ben Drew, Ill Manor's film director, captures and embodies the stereotypical rapper with an attitude as he is seen with his middle finger up and a cigarette in his mouth, revealing a rather derogatory image. The target audience of the magazine itself would be youths and young adults, therefore this gesture and the attitude would appeal to the young and reckless demographic and the psychographic group of the explorers. This reinforces the negative representation of young people and also creates 'moral panics' as the tag line 'David Cameron... be very afraid' is highlighted across the cover. This reinforces the stereotypes that are fixed to young people and also creates this idea of 'moral panics' as Plan B appears as a threat to society. This as a whole would appeal to the similar working class target audience as the NME magazine is also free, therefore the similar target audience are able to understand more about the film. This is a conventional technique used in order to promote a film to the correct target audience and the fact that it is made entirely explicit that Ben Drew (Plan B) directed the film shows that he is part of the USP of the film. This is a convention which is used to promote a film positively as seen with A Field In England, a 2013 British psychological thriller, as within the print posters, the director Ben Wheatley is seen as the auter of the film and almost promotes the film through him being a successful and experienced director. Both films use their USP to their advantage, which helps the correct target audience to consume their media products. 

In addition, Plan B appears on the cover of Men's Health magazine, however we can explicitly tell from the magazine itself that the target audience would be different. The article not only entertains the reader but also informs them about Plan B's lifestyle and in terms of Blumler and Katz's uses and gratifications theory, Men's health's main aim would be surveillance as the magazine provides the reader with information about dieting. This would portray Ben Drew in a different presentation than within a magazine such as NME. The cover makes Plan B appear in a rather suave and sophisticated way, holding a dominant demeanour as a 'man' rather than a reckless boy. Men's Health holds strong ideologies towards health, lifestyle and fitness, therefore Plan B would not be promoting his film as such but more his lifestyle. The target audience for the magazine would axiomatically be males, most likely the young adult demographic as they would be interested in their image more so than the elder more mature male and therefore the psychographic group of aspirers would be the predominant readership as they are orientated around image and appearance. The fact that Ben Drew talks about his weight loss and his lifestyle would broaden his audience as he is able to promote both his diet but also his film through the talk of his lifestyle as an upcoming director. This would help to create exposure for his media products and also gather a wider audience to consume his media products; an audience that would not necessarily be aware of Plan B as a rapper or director.  

As already mentioned, A Field In England uses similar codes and conventions to appeal to the core target audience of the middle-class ABC1 demohraphic. This target audience is quite different from the Ill Manors' due to the historical content involved within the film. The film poster embodies 17th century England, through the use of the silhouette and the almost sepia looking, washed out colour. The colour of the poster is extremely important with identifying the genre of the film and appealing to the correct target audience. Through this old, traditional worn out colour, an audience would make the assumption that the film is a historical drama. With The King's Speech, the colour of the poster is again very similar as the orange, yellow background connotes the authenticity of the film as the colour looks almost worn out and different. However, it also connotes passion and fire, which signifies the King's determination to speak fluently. Simply from the background colour of a film poster, the audience are able to understand more about the film. This is used as a shorthand to understanding the narrative and therefore is closely interlocked with Dyer's theory of stereotypes being shorthand. The iconography of the microphone is also used to signify the genre of this film and the fact that it is a period movie, due to the authenticity of the microphone. This iconography is evident within the Ill Manors film poster too as Riz Ahmed, the main protagonist, holds a gun, which captures the genre of the film as an urban social realistic film. The use of film poster conventions help the audience to understand the genre of the film as the construction of these film posters help to emphasise the genres. 

Throughout the broadcast platform, Plan B stays true to his own ideologies and values as he appears as adopts the same personality even when the audience is different to his conventional 'fans.' The TEDx lecture that Plan B appears in has an audience that is on the opposite end of the spectrum when compared to the audience that would be viewing his film. The TEDx audience would be middle-class, ABC1 demographic and most fitting in the psychographic group of succeeders. This audience would not conventionally watch the film and therefore creates exposure to a new audeince and therefore understand Plan B's strong moral values and political beliefs. It also creates synergy through this platform as the director of the film is  able to promote his soundtrack and he is able to construct the way he speaks to promote himself as a brand too. This would help the audience understand Plan B as a brand and this would cross-promote himself and his film. Although his audience are middle class and perhaps rather conservative, Plan B himself is still informal and his dialect is colloquial, revealing how he holds strong ideologies for being true to himself. This in itself helps to promote his media products through the use of him as a loyal brand. Also, he appears on SBTV, who's core target audience is very similar to the audience Plan B knows. The youth, young adult, working class demographic would be the predominant viewers of SBTV and therefore may already know who Plan B is and therefore promotes his film through himself once again. Due to Plan B's background of being a rapper and being a political rapper, more specifically, it already gains a fan base for him, therefore creates exposure through his soundtrack, which creates synergy and therefore widens the audience that consumes his media products. 

The final way that the film was promoted was through interviews, this can be seen on YouTube which is a cross promotion with social media and other websites. This is a good method as people can see the characters and grow more attached to them. This is effective as they will be more inclined to watch the film and after watching the series the film was promoted on E4 and so were the interviews on E4. This is synergy between the TV series and the film itself. The series would help promote the film as people who enjoyed the series would find the film more appealing and the interviews also account for the promotion of the film. In conclusion the best platform to promote a film would be on e media which is the most effective way as you can target a wider audience through a short amount of time where as everyone else would be less likely to use any other platform such as print.