Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Producers and Distributors play a large part in getting the film through production, advertised and into cinemas or on DVDs. Audiences soon begin to associate these institutions with certain film genres expecting certain films from specific companies.

Distributors Low Budget Thriller Distributors Wind Chill Films Wind Chill films Wind Chill films is a small production company based in the USA and Canada, having only produced a total of nine, low budget horror/thriller films. Despite having few films to her name, the head producer, Suzanne Lyons has worked with extremely low budget independent films, from $200,000 to $10 million and has won a selection of awards from BAFTAS to prestigious premiers as well as Best Picture as Shockerfest. This type of company would be perfect for a low budget, independent thriller film, such as the Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity. Salt City Home Video Salt City Home Video is a production company that primarily worked with extremely minimal budget films in the late 90s, focusing around action, horror, fantasy and thriller genres. Their most famous film to date is ‘To Dance with Death’ which has scored an 8.2/10 on IMDB, but is highly unknown with no critic reviews but positive user reviews. High Budget Thriller Distributors New Line Cinema New Line Cinema has a wide variety of different films, all with a mix of genres, but are renowned for distributing some of the most well known blockbuster thriller and horror films, such as Pans Labyrinth and Nightmare on Elm Street. If my production was to get sufficient funding and necessary grants, New Line Cinema would be an ideal Distributor. Hammer Film Productions Hammer Film Productions is a solely high budget horror and thriller film production and distribution company. They have made a series of highly successful horror and thriller films and would be the headlining choice for our production, if we were to get sufficient funds and backing. With films such as ‘Let Me In’ making $12 million gross and $5 million on the box office weekend Hammer Film would be the winning Distribution company for my production.

Target Audiences and Figures Distribution The distribution of a film is crucial when it comes to getting the correct target audience for your genre. There is no point in advertising a film rated a 15 on a children's television channel. Getting the right market is vital for the film to make money, so for our film to be successful, we would aim to attract mid to late teenagers through to late forties both male and female. To keep the costs of advertising at a minimum, placing ads in newspapers such as the Metro and Evening Standard would spread awareness, as well as placing posters on bus shelters, buses and possibly billboards around built up areas in cities would be the maximum money spent. To promote the film further, we would aim to get the director, cast and crew on side to spread word through their websites, publicists, fan pages to get the ball rolling. Another free way of putting the film in the public domain, would be to create a fan page on facebook and viral campaigns on YouTube so everyone is able to see trailers, videos, images, interviews and information on the upcoming film and it’s progression towards the cinema. This would allow us to get a wide audience at minimal cost to keep our budget affordable. Target Audiences By getting the target market for a film spot on, it is possible to make a critically poor film a lot of money simply by aiming it at the correct people. For our film our genre and sub-genres include psychological thriller, crime and mystery, so our target market would be aimed largely at teenage through to mid forties males and females within the ABC1 and possibly even C2 & D demographics. This is because many middle to upper class people between 20 and 40 years of age would stereotypically look for a more sophisticated and complicated narrative as opposed to a standard plot with over the top explosions and fast paced action sequences. I have included the C2&D demographic, simply due to the fact that whilst it is mainly an upper class demographic many other people enjoy thrillers also, and stereotyping the advertising to a single group could be a dramatic error of judgment. As this is the case for the genre of film, the advertising would have to be relatively classy and reserved, without blaring special effects and outrageous colour schemes. Cinematic Release As our film follows a traditionally blockbuster style narrative, we felt that instead of aiming for independent cinemas and art houses, we would push our film for a major cinematic release under Cineworld, The Odeon and Orion cinemas. Whilst we felt our film would succeed well in an independent cinema, it doesn’t have the realism element that many indie films possess. Our film has a broad target and a typically major cinema narrative, that with sufficient advertising and funding could end up making a better gross income than it would do in an indie art house.