ride along part 5

Who are the key institutions involved in promoting the film and how are they involved?

Universal pictures are the distributors of the movie.

Studios used were: Relativity media, Cube vision productions and rain forest films

Cube vision productions is Ice Cube's own studio in which he has made other movies. 

It is out on DVD and Blu-ray, amazon and also Netflix. 

Print
The magazine interview in which Kevin Hart and Ice Cube were being interviewed the interview would have a lot of writing and a lot of text to read from. This would not be targeted at a younger audience who would want to look at things that stand out and something which is unique and would normally go off task when reading these long texts and would not stay interested for long, on the other hand people who would be employed and older who were for e.g. going to work they would read this magazine as it would keep them entertained as well as getting key information about the movie and these people's lives. So there is more of a niche target audience when promoting print. 

Broadcast
Ride along was promoted through broadcast through mainly TV interviews to raise awareness of the movie. This was done by the two main actors Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, these actors appeared on many TV shows and even on YouTube channels in which have different audiences. For e.g. The Jonathan Ross show has a mainstream target audience which targets families as it comes on at prime time TV and then they also appeared on SBTV which targets a whole different audience in youngsters who would predominantly listen to 'grime' music. Kevin Hart also appeared on Kiss FM which is a radio station which also targets music listeners, this could be promoted well as within the movie there is scenes with non diegetic sound. Within this they would have to keep the listeners entertained. These audiences would be wider than those in print as it would target a wider demographic as they appeared on many different shows. 

E media 
Ride along was promoted through E Media through mainly the social media accounts of the main characters. Kevin Hart who has 10 million Twitter followers played a key role in promoting the movie through his Twitter as well as his Facebook and Instagram due to his popularity. Ice Cube is also popular but I believe Kevin Hart in today's generation is more popular and I also believe that these two people would have different target audiences to each other. By this I mean Ice Cube would target an older generation due to him being a rapper a while ago and he may still have his core fans who would support him whereas Kevin Hart would have a newer generation of core fans in where he started off as a comedian. So by using retweets and retweeting fans these fans would feel acknowledged that one of their favourite actors are witnessing them. Also through Facebook they use videos of behind the scenes and just little promo's which are funny to keep the viewers entertained. Also through their Instagram in which they also do 15 second video's to promote their movie and images too in which they also use hashtags to get their message across in raising awareness of their movie. 

I don't believe the distribution of the ride along on DVD and being released in cinemas would affect them. I say this as the movie is already out on DVD just after a couple of months being released. So it increases their chances of making profits as when the movie stopped getting released in cinemas they could then focus on promotion on the DVD which would then help them maximize their profits. 

Internet piracy may have affected the distribution of the movie as you are now able to download and watch the movies online. Especially for a movie like this as many people would prefer to illegally download the movie rather than go to the cinema as it is just a comedy and not as demanding as a horror movie. This may have hindered the sales of ride along. 

I believe the different platforms worked well together as each of them targeted different things but the message in each platform was to raise awareness and promote their movie. I believe synergy was also used between the three platforms as there was different types of ways in which the movie was promoted: Magazines, website and Twitter being just a couple of the examples. I believe e media would work best as I have stated they have the largest audiences as they could have all the different audiences all in one as social media is for everyone and anyone to use. Print being the least as it would only target a niche audience and also print not being in 'fashion' you could say as technology is now taking over and people would prefer to go online and get information from there instead.

ride along part 4

How are characters/stars in the film represented in:

Print media

I believe within all three different forms of media the main characters are presented the same and that they do not really contrast in each of the different media platforms. In print media you would expect this type of media to be promoted to people who are willing to read print for e.g. on the way to work on the train, so the working class and you would expect the text to be 'mature' and not in slang. But not in the magazine article in which I read the interview which included Kevin Hart and Ice Cube. They still used slang and even swear words and spoke in the way they would speak in their everyday life. So the two characters are presented in how they live their normal life in Kevin Hart being the funny man and Ice Cube also being funny but also the tough guy. 

Broadcast media

Yet again in broadcast media the main characters are presented in ways in which you would expect them to be promoted. However I believe there is one minor difference in that the main characters behaved differently on shows in America to shows in the UK. By this I mean in America they were more themselves such as Kevin Hart was more out there and 'crazy' on the Ellen Show whereas on this morning he was still the funny Kevin Hart but he was more laid back this could be due to the shows being very different and targeting different audiences but also because he is more known in America than in England and didn't want to make himself look like a fool and also the main reason he came here to the UK was to promote his film more than himself. That was the only difference I saw in them other than that they presented themselves in how they always present themselves in trying to entertain as well as inform people of their new movie.

E - Media

Within E media Kevin Hart one of the main characters uses social networking more than Ice Cube. However Ice Cube when the movie was close to it release date started to use his social networking sites more often than not and he will always have his fans and this shows how important e media is beginning to come as a film star may just use it to promote his film as there is a large number of potential audiences. However on the other hand Kevin Hart is very much so popular on Instagram and post things on social networking sites on a regular basis. Social networking has helped him I believe to progress in his career, I for one didn't really watch his comedy shows before but once I started following him on social networking I have now become a fan. So you can even gain fans on social networking even if they aren't that aware of you, so you are sort of raising awareness of yourself.

I believe the main characters are presented in this way to show that they are not fake people you could say. In a way that they are only funny and entertaining on camera but no they are also like this in real life and that they are real people and do not change on camera. They showed this as they went to burger shops in America and made food for fans and stuff like that. The audience are represented as being appreciated by the main characters this is mainly done through Twitter where the stars can retweet the fans and this would make the tweeters happy about themselves and that they are being noticed by their stars. This is a way in which they get to represent themselves and give out their own ideas, they could do this by even directly tweeting the actual ride along account and giving their feedback on their. 

ride along part 3

How is the film promoted to its target audience(s) through:
Print
I believe the film is promoted through print through the key conventions in which you would associate with print media. For e.g. if I was talking about a magazine interview in which Kevin Hart and Ice Cube were being interviewed the interview would have a lot of writing and a lot of text to read from. This would not be targeted at a younger audience who would want to look at things that stand out and something which is unique and would normally go off task when reading these long texts and would not stay interested for long, on the other hand people who would be employed and older who were for e.g. going to work they would read this magazine as it would keep them entertained as well as getting key information about the movie and these people's lives. 

Broadcast
Ride along was promoted through broadcast through mainly TV interviews to raise awareness of the movie. This was done by the two main actors Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, these actors appeared on many TV shows and even on YouTube channels in which have different audiences. For e.g. The Jonathan Ross show has a mainstream target audience which targets families as it comes on at prime time TV and then they also appeared on SBTV which targets a whole different audience in youngsters who would predominantly listen to 'grime' music. Kevin Hart also appeared on Kiss FM which is a radio station which also targets music listeners, this could be promoted well as within the movie there is scenes with non diegetic sound. Within this they would have to keep the listeners entertained 

E media 
Ride along was promoted through E Media through mainly the social media accounts of the main characters. Kevin Hart who has 10 million Twitter followers played a key role in promoting the movie through his Twitter as well as his Facebook and Instagram due to his popularity. Ice Cube is also popular but I believe Kevin Hart in today's generation is more popular and I also believe that these two people would have different target audiences to each other. By this I mean Ice Cube would target an older generation due to him being a rapper a while ago and he may still have his core fans who would support him whereas Kevin Hart would have a newer generation of core fans in where he started off as a comedian. So by using retweets and retweeting fans these fans would feel acknowledged that one of their favourite actors are witnessing them. Also through Facebook they use videos of behind the scenes and just little promo's which are funny to keep the viewers entertained. Also through their Instagram in which they also do 15 second video's to promote their movie and images too in which they also use hashtags to get their message across in raising awareness of their movie. 

Cross platform approach 
I believe the producers are widening their appeal through their cross platform approach due to the different target audiences in which all three different platforms have. By targeting different audiences they would cater for a much larger audience and could then in turn have more people go watch the movie. Print as I have stated would target a working class type of person who is willing to read a lot of text. Broadcast would target a wider audience as there are many different shows the two actors have appeared on and then e media in which it is becoming ever bigger and is becoming a norm in our daily lives targets a wide audience also which allows you to see what famous celebrities are doing in their daily lives.

Ride along part 2

How is the film promoted through...

Print
Ride along is promoted through print in ways such as interviews. One particular interview in which I have seen which is related with Ride Along is the interview with the main stars Kevin Hart and Ice Cube in which they talk about their relationships together and praise each others work ethic. Ice Cube said  'You’re making the crew crack up,but when we’re shooting, you ain't got no energy. What the fuck?' He’s not like that. He’s an Energizer bunny. I don’t know if it’s coffee or cocaine.' This shows us that Ice Cube is speaking highly of his partner within the movie and that they have a good working partnership. They also go on to speak about other movies they have done with Kevin Hart also going to appear in think like a man which is a big movie in America.

Broadcast
In broadcast the two main actors appeared in many interviews in both England and America to promote their movies. Kevin Hart had interviews on the morning and on the Ellen show in America where he did not just talk about the movie but about his life. This helps promote him as well as the movie especially being on a show such the Ellen show which has a massive range of audiences so at the same time he could have been widening the target audience of ride along. He also has an interview with Kiss FM which you could hear and also listen to if you go on YouTube and within this interview he was being funny as it was on radio and he needed to keep the listeners listening. Ice Cube had an interview with Jonathon Ross in which he also promoted the movie as well as his personal life and on all three shows the pair showed humour which could give the audience an indication of how it is going to be in the movie. They also done interviews together and one was on SBTV which is a music channel on YouTube where you get to listen to up and coming artists in the UK scene this again would help broaden their target audience. This particular interview was a Q and A with fans which allows the fans to interact with these famous people which is a good way of promoting the movie as the fans would believe they are getting noticed and then may go on and watch the movie and so on.

E- media 
Both of the main characters also promoted the movie through social media: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. On these sites they promoted the movie by showing images and behind the scenes action and even some videos to go and watch the movie. They also done stuff such as retweeting fans who went to watch the movie and so they get recognition. On Instagram you can also show 15 second video clips and this was another way of promoting their film which was like a short snippet of the movie. What I saw from Ice Cube's accounts is that he rarely used to update his profiles before but due to his new movie being released he started to Tweet and post new stuff on a regular basis, this shows that social media is becoming ever important in our daily lives and is sort of becoming a norm to check our social media accounts on a daily basic. On the other hand with Kevin Hart he has 10 millions followers on Twitter and also a lot on Instagram and Facebook which shows he has a very large fan base and this would have been beneficial for promoting the film due to his popularity and he also helped the official ride along twitter account gain more followers just by promoting it in on his official account. There is also the ride along website where you get behind the scene action as well as meeting all the characters.

Similarities between each of the platforms 
The main similarity between the three platforms is that they are each trying to promote the film and also the main characters at the same time. I believe in this movie the ride along as well as promoting the movie they are also trying to entertain the audiences that are within the three media platforms. As well as this they are informing the different viewers also, such as when the movie is going to be out and what the movie is going to be about etc. So each different platform as the same intention in that trying to get the message across to people to watch the movie and raising awareness of the movie.

Differences
The main difference between the three different platforms I believe is that they are targeted at different audiences. The print platform would be targeted at people who are at work in their 30's and older who when they are going to work would read the newspaper or a magazine and read the articles about ride along in the. You then have broadcast where it is targeted at a much wider audience in which you could say all ages above 15, I say this because I have stated that they promoted the movie on shows such as Jonathon Ross which is a prime time TV show and then on sites such as SBTV which is for younger people and Kiss FM which is music for a certain type of genre. The audiences for Jonathon Ross, SBTV and Kiss FM would vary hence broadcast targeting wider audiences. Social media is becoming the biggest target audience of all as everyone and anyone can make a social media account and follow famous people and so with Kevin Hart sending out a tweet anyone can see this tweet even if you don't have Twitter other people could tell you and you could also hear about what someone as tweeted, so the age group for social media doesn't really have an age limit. 

Ride along research

How does the industry promote the film to audiences using:

 •Print media?

http://www.iamrogue.com/news/interviews/item/10446-iar-interview-ice-cube-and-kevin-hart-talk-ride-along.html

 •Broadcast media (TV/Radio/DVD)?

•E-Media?

What are the key issues and changes taking place in each platform?

Print media is not instant and free like social media. By this I mean that on social media websites you can go on your phone at any time and check your Twitter and it is also free as all you have to do is download it. On the other hand print media such as interviews you would have to buy the magazine or some sort and unlike social media it would not update, however the print media may be in more depth than on social websites such as Twitter where you can only type 140 characters.

TV is becoming less dictated (Sky+), competition from YouTube. By this TV is being catered for everyone at any time so for e.g. if you are busy at work and you can not watch the programme you want you can easily record your programme and watch it when you come back. There is also competition from YouTube where you can also watch repeated shows and it is easier in a way as you can forward parts that you do not want to watch. 

Social media is taking over. Nearly everyone is jumping on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. By this you can keep in touch with your friends and celebrities on a daily basis as anyone and everyone can update at any time of day. On these social websites you can also keep up to date with what's going on in the media for e.g. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West getting engaged recently. Also you could even watch videos on these sites with Instagram now allowing you to show videos for 15 seconds. This then links in to new technologies as it sort of a norm to have social networking in today's day and age and it's not just the younger audience who are changing their behaviour. I say this because there is even accounts on Twitter where you have BBC news so you can check the latest news. Also the trending page on Twitter is also helpful so you know what is being most talked about in the world and even in different areas of the world. 

Here is some information I got from the variety website:

Ride Along

Kevin Hart is looking for success as a lead actor after his stand-up show “Let Me Explain” took $30 million in theatres last summer. The pulling power of the leading men, Hart and Ice Cube, is shown in their Facebook numbers: there are 10.6 million Kevin Hart fans and 4.8 million Ice Cube fans on the platform. Taking into account the 700,000 on the page itself, “Ride Along” has more fans pre-release than Tyler Perry and his Madea character, which appeal to a similar audience.

Hart is also a force on both Twitter and Instagram, where he has 9.6 million and 5 million followers respectively and is pushing the movie to his fans with much more vigor than talent typically provides.  While “Ride Along” already has a healthy 90,000 tweets this week, including ‘Kevin Hart’ in the search terms bumps the movie up well over 100,000 – a benchmark reserved for movies that typically break at least $25 million over the opening weekend. And it sure will. YouTube also looks strong, including two very popular viral videos with over 11 million views: “Kevin’s NBA Wish” and “Ice Cube, Kevin Hart, and Conan Share a Lyft Car”

media evaluation draft

In the MEST2 of Media Studies we the media students had to make a production and print work which was part of our coursework. The production we had to make was an opening sequence of a new programme which would be starting, so we would have to do a two minute sequence to promote our new programme. I worked with Rohail and Daniel in my production and we believed that the institution that would distribute our new programme would be E4 as it would be something similar to what you would watch on E4 already and our pre production also helped us come up with this conclusion. The print work involved making a front cover of a magazine in where our production would be promoted and also a double page spread to also promote the movie or some of the actors, I chose the route of an interview with the main actor in our production.

Within our pre production we did some research that would help us with our production. Firstly we done some research on similar programmes to the genre of E4, this included shows such as Top Boy and Luther. We then analysed the opening sequence of these shows and described things such as mise-en-scene and camerawork as well as talking about the target audiences of these shows. Here is an example of the research I carried out on Top Boy and the camerawork: “We then get an idea of who the main characters may be has the camera starts to focus on three main characters. One character is in his house who can see everything and at one stage we see an over the shoulder shot of him and also various other shots such as close ups to see his emotion...” After this I then done research on institutions such as E4 and BBC 3 which were the two channels which we believed were best suited to distribute our production. Within the research we had to search up about the history and things such as the most successful shows on these channels. We then highlighted our target audience of the shows, using psychographics and demographics to profile our audience. We done this through the research we carried out and also held out a focus group in where we pitched our plan of the movie and the timings we believed were best suitable. The feedback we got from the focus group were that we should think about changing the timings of our show from a Friday as this when most of the people who we are targeting for our show are going out and maybe a Wednesday instead due to programmes such as Eastenders not being on. We also got feedback such as showing a help line at the end of the show due to the plot of the production and also ways on how we could show violence in a less drastic way due to the show being shown during pre watershed.

We believe our target audience would be 17-35 year olds. We say 17 year olds as the characters in the programme will be 17 year olds and the viewers that are 17 could relate to these characters. We also believe it would target a more male audience due to most of the characters being male and with violence being involved it would most likely cater towards males. I also believe its best that E4 would be the best show to view it on as they have a wide target audience. The psychographic group which we think would watch our programme would be aspirers and explorers as they are a mixture of young and materialistic and explorers like to seek discovery and try out new brands. The social demographic group we believe would be 'B' group which involve creative people such as graphic people and links with our own TV programme which shows a different side to teenagers and problems they may face mentally, we also would cater to social demographic groups such as 'C1 and C2' as this group may have a connection with the characters, they are most likely to be working class and as our show is shown at prime time TV for when families are all home together back from work and school they can watch our show after dinner, but mainly a 'B' social demographic group. As we said our psychographic group we believe would aspirers and explorers who are a younger audience, we believe these audiences would listen to rap and R&B music as this type of music is in at the moment and these groups want to be hip and unique so they would listen to music of people such as Tyler the creator and Kendrick Lamar. They would also watch other shows that are similar to this such as Top Boy as this also links in with rap music as some of the actors such as Kano who is one of the main actors in the movie is a rapper. So our target audience can relate to this. If we had done something differently to target our audience we could have maybe targeted a female audience also, by this we could have had maybe a female actor within our opening sequence so that females had something to relate to also, this would have widened our target audience. Also as our show is being shown on prime time TV we could have done maybe more to target mainstreamers as they are the biggest target audience and this too would have also widened our target audience.

Our TV opening sequence is a drama which would be shown on E4 and it involves a schizophrenic and the opening sequence shows us what the schizophrenia does to him. One of the key moments within our opening sequence included the flashbacks of our main character Viraj. This would give the viewers an indication of his schizophrenia, we showed this by showing Viraj when he was sleeping and then him having problems whilst sleeping and then going to the part where he killed someone and to show it was a flashback the scene was fuzzy.

In my print work we had to make a front cover and a double page spread which was linked with our production ‘The Carnage’. I believe my front cover met the key conventions of magazine front covers in many ways. One way is the title of the magazine is in the top third of the magazine on my magazine it was ‘The Carnage’, another convention was that there was a central image and my central image is of Viraj and all the focus is on him as he is the main character. I also had cover lines on my magazine on both sides of Viraj, some of my cover lines were linked with E4 who were going to be distributing my magazine, my cover lines included things such as ‘Troy’s Challenge’ who is a new and upcoming magician on E4 so I would be promoting other shows on E4 but not direct rivals. In my magazine there is also a colour scheme which is a dark red and a dark purple I believe these colours interlinked each other well and they do not look out of place. I chose the red which is related to blood and The Carnage and I chose the purple as I believe it assisted the red well and also purple links with E4 also. Finally I also included as it is a souvenir magazine a little sticker stating that it is free inside the independent, making sure that it is clear and that nothing is misunderstood. Within my double page spread I also met the key conventions, as my double page spread was an interview I had to put my questions in columns as it would look like in professional magazines and I also added a quote next to the interview as a little teaser. Also at the top of the interview I included some cover lines introducing Viraj and a little slogan saying ‘sky is the limit’ so that the readers get a better indication of him. On the page before the interview I included a main central image of Viraj which was a close up and I believe it went well with my double page spread. Finally at the bottom of both pages I included the page numbers, website and the date which is a key convention of double page spreads. I believe the main weaknesses in my print work were the information I needed to include especially on the front cover. By this I mean that I had to adapt my front cover numerous times, this included changing the font as I felt it never stood out and didn’t actually look like a magazine but instead a poster, also that my cover lines weren’t going to connect with the reader and at one stage my cover lines included my competitors such as Dexter and I would have been promoting my competitors which wasn’t the most clever thing to do and also spacing in a way that some spaces on my magazine looked empty and I needed to change that so it actually looked like a magazine. Whereas on the other hand I found it easier to do the double page spread as I wrote out the interview and as the image I picked fitted perfectly in a way that my image was on one side and I had space to write on the other side. The main problems were adjusting the cover lines to make it realistic to Viraj as at first they were not realistic.

I believe the representation of young people we created in our production were the stereotypical views in how young people are portrayed in the media. By this I mean young people are shown as folk devils in today’s society in a way that they are letting everyone down and you can see this through our production in that a teenager kills another person, but as a condition which could link to today’s society in a way that people may not understand why these young people commit these crimes which links to the theory of Dyer in exaggerated views and targeting the weak people in society and in this case it is the young people. Also the theory of Medhurst would be used within our production in that the stereotypical views of young people would be used as a short hand within our production as all young people do is cause trouble. Also as there are only males that are acting within our production it links to Berger and his theory of ‘Men act women appear’ but in this case there was no women appearing and that men are the more masculine and have the power as they are the only ones who can commit crime. I believe it would have been hard for us to subvert stereotypical views of young people within our production as we involved a killing of a young person by a young person so this wouldn’t exactly have subverted the stereotypical views of young people. 

Ill Manors social networking questions

1. How many 'likes' has the Ill Manors film page had

The Ill manors Facebook page has 30,137 likes. 

1. What is the top of the page promoting?

The top of the page is promoting the Ill Manors DVD

On their Facebook account there was links to exclusive clips from the movie and links to songs within the movie of Plan B’s to raise awareness and promote the movie as well as him at the same time. The ways in which they promoted the movie and the DVD was by doing competitions and also chances to meet the Ill Manors cast at HMV. They also done this through newspaper articles and through awards in which ill manors won, showing that the movie was a success and that you should go watch the movie. Also through promoting the music of Plan B's music videos the movie was being promoted at the same time as they are linked with each other. Also they promoted the movie and DVD through the graffiti campaign to get people who like graffiti involved within the movie and help them get their message across. 

The way in which Ill Manors promoted the movie on Twitter was through mainly audience interaction and famous people also. By audience interaction I mean they would use hash tags to get the audience involved and also retweet fans and people who have watched the movie. They also retweeted different celebrities and tweeted them who watched the movie. This would also promote their movie as people would think if these celebrities watched the movie then it must be a good movie that is a must watch and these people would want to follow in their footsteps. They used images such as images from the movies and also images of people going to watch the movie to show again they care about the people who watch the movie and would notice them. The tag London feed I believe helped promote the film and target their audience as the film would relate to the what they are doing, by this I mean graffiti and these younger audiences would be targeted and this is a way of targeting them in a way in which is something they do and something that interests them. They promoted the film in the cinemas and DVD by again using retweets of fans and also the cast of the movie so that people could see the cast of the movie and if they wanted to follow them they could as well. 

Ill Manors has been promoted through Instagram mainly through Plan B’s personal account. This has done by images of when the movie is coming, when his new music which is linked to the movie is coming out and also behind the scene images. Linking this to a synergy, the image in which Plan B is promoting his music could be linked to when he is having an interview with Fearne Cotton on Radio 1 in which he also is promoting his music. So on both he is promoting his music but in different ways. Another piece of synergy is when he is promoting his new single this is linked in with the actual video of his new single in which they are both promoting the film as well as his music. I believe the hash tags have to be consistent as they would want to get these hash tags trending so that everyone is talking about it, it is sort of like word of mouth but on social networking instead. 

YouTube

Plan B’s YouTube channel was used to promote the movie as well as his music. As from his music his movie is also being promoted and you can see from the header from his YouTube channel the main image is promoting his album. Synergy is used as he is promoting his music which he has done in interviews in which he has appeared in such as Soccer AM and the Jonathan Ross show. You can also see links to his Facebook, Twitter and Souncloud where he will be promoted more. Souncloud is where you could listen to his music and Facebook and Twitter would be to see what he is currently doing and keeping up to date with him as well as the movie Ill Manors.