What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Kimberley English

MAINSTREAM FILMS The most well know definition for a mainstream films is a commercial film. They are made by huge entertainment studios. These are owned by international media conglomerates. They use a multi million pound budget and extremely famous well known actors which is the main attraction for the audience. Mainstream films can also use very complex and expensive special effects such as 3D which create a ‘spectacle’ and entice the audience. They also have a very high profile marketing campaign in which they use; trailers, billboards, posters and large viral campaigns. This add to the escalating high production values however all of this leads to massive ticket, merchandise and DVD sales generating a massive profit. Example of mainstream studio and companies: Universal Studios Paramount New Line Cinema Warner bros Hammer Studios 20 th Century Fox

INDEPENDENT FILMS An independent film is the complete opposite to a mainstream, commercial film. It is professional film that is produced outside of a major filming studio. It had a low budget, meaning that instead of using big stars it uses new, up and coming talent. There are no special effects, the characters and narrative drive the film. The genre and content are more attracted to a niche audience. They also have a very small marketing campaign in which they use viral marketing, social networking, film festivals and awards. This allows the whole film to be produced on a very low budget. Example of independent studios and companies: Pathe Film 4 Vertigo Film The Weinstein Company MGM

Which film company would be interested in your film and why? The company which would be interested in producing our thriller film would be an independent company like coffee films as they have a lot of experience in producing low budget thriller films. They would be interested in producing our film because it doesn’t need expensive special effects as it just needs the narrative to keep it on track. However if a mainstream company like universal studios were to produce our film, it would completely change our film as there would be a lot more special effects and may loose the natural realism that we wanted to create. We would also miss the opportunity to use up and coming talents directors and actors.

Film festivals and award nominations Because our film had no budget it is classed an independent film. To gain publicity for our film it would need to be exposed in film festivals and be nominated for awards. The festivals that are film could be previewed in and nominated for awards would be: London Independent film festival British student film festival British urban film festival Commonwealth film festival UK film festival Birds Eye View (For up and coming women directors)

How would you use digital technologies, web 2.0, social networks to promote and distribute your film and why? YouTube – Create a YouTube channel based purely on our film and then share the link on social networking sites such as: Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. By doing this you can easily address a mass audience. Social Networking Sites – Create Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr pages to gain an interests in the film and this can lead to word spreading and creating fans off the film. Local papers/magazines – Arrange to have the actors and directors to give interviews in local papers, websites and magazine to promote our film. Why? - All of the above can all be used for free but also create a massive response. This means we can stick to our very small budget and not have to spend any money on the promotion side.