Task 3
- 1. TASK 3 WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY? What is distribution? The action of sharing something out among the target audience. This can be in terms of advertising such as in newspapers.
- 2. TYPE OF FILM WE HAVE PRODUCED We have produced a psychological thriller based on the lost memory of a woman who witnesses the exchanging of a document she was not meant to see. The film consists of her trying to uncover her forgotten memories.
- 3. THE BFI – WHY WOULD THEY BE INTERESTED IN FUNDING? The BFI's definition of specialized film is quite broad and relates to films that do not sit easily within a mainstream and highly commercial genre. Our film, although a psychological thriller is not typical in its style and therefore may appeal to that of the BFI. From their website it also says that they support filmmakers in the UK who are emerging or world class and capable of creating distinctive and entertaining work. Also, the plot of our film is distinctive and stands out as it has quite the twist as the main character in the dire situation of memory loss is female which is unlike most thriller films of this style; such as the Bourne series.
- 4. AUDIENCE Rather than just appealing to a UK audience, our film has a wide audience as it relates to those of a younger generation around the ages of 15 upwards by having the characters of this film of the same age group. Also it would be better to display as the BBFC classification of a 15 as there is a wider scope for this audience whereas a lot of the audience would be missed if displayed as a 18. But the gender highlights that there is an even split of both genders so our film will not be particularly aimed at a specific gender. The thriller genre is not centralized around a UK audience; although the use of British characters may limit it more to a UK audience.
- 5. P OS S I B L E M A RK E T I N G S T RAT E G I E S, RELEASE STRATEGIES AND EXHIBITION OPTIONS Marketing – An eye-catching and innovative theatrical trailer would be a good way to first market our film to give a taste of the content to the potential audience. Release – Producing social networking pages as the film is released, such as: Twitter, Facebook and even a Youtube account documenting is process and potential success in viral marketing. This film would also have a niche market so a platform release would be more successful as a blanket release would not be possible as a independent film. Exhibition – As the budget would be quite small; exhibition via cinema may be quite difficult if there is not a large success. However, although the BIFA were recent, a lot of films that received awards went to cinema exhibition. Although, this may not be possible for our film so the more likely outcome would be going straight to DVD, Bluray and sites suc as Lovefilm and Netflix.
- 6. METRODOME FILM DISTRIBUTION - WHY WOULD THEY BE INTERESTED? In relation to the film Shifty, Head of Marketing Jezz Vernon stated that Metrodome look for great British cinema which is particularly prominent in our film as all characters are British and is filmed in Surrey. The characters are also universally urban which is also an aspect of a film that Metrodome look for. However, the drawback of our film that may not appeal as that the plot is not particularly universal as not many people lose their memory because of something they saw. However, this company would handle the time consuming aspect of distribution and would also open up a lot of options in terms of sales.
- 7. SELF-DISTRIBUTION? However another option of distribution, other than Metrodome would be self distribution: The advantages would be that we would retain full control and rights over our film, giving us the choice over where our film would be shown and we don't have to give a cut of the money made from any sales of our film to a distributor. On the other hand, this would be incredibly time consuming and would limit our options for sales.