What Kind of Media Distribution Might Distribute Your Film?

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The type of media institution distributing your media product depends on the type of film we have created. Our film is low budget and is an independent film therefore it is limited in where you can show it due to budget and sometimes due to the content of the film which is very specific to British culture. Cinemas such as Vue, Odeon or Cineworld would be out of question but smaller art orientated exhibitions with private cinemas are more likely to show these movies in order to encourage British culture.

Forgetting the fact that this clip was filmed by students on a very low budget, I believe we would appeal to the audiences of Lionsgate and Warp films. This is because our thriller genre very much suits the reputation that Lionsgate have developed. Warp films are also a prime choice as we have some British signifiers resembling “chav” in our movie which very much relates to the genres Warp works with such as ‘This is England’. However more realistically I believe that YouTube would be a fantastic way in gaining popularity and receiving useful feedback from viewers of all age groups especially as it is available for everyone to see. Another institution would be short film competitions such as “Virgin Shorts” which is fundamentally for Young and aspiring directors with a piece under two minutes, similar to our own.

However since my thriller is a small budget film Vertigo Films would be the ideal company to distribute my thriller because they specialise in similar films to mine for instance the film ‘Waz’ and ‘The Escapist’. Vertigo specialise in distributing around the country, by keeping costs low Vertigo wont distribute our movie to the cinemas, instead have it on DVD, they also have experience with other media convergences such as Xbox Live to reach a global audience as they did for the film Monsters. Vertigo isn’t internationally well known, it was established in 2002 by producer Allan Niblo. Nonetheless Lionsgate would from our perspective be the perfect match as they are internationally recognised, experienced and we created our thriller based on some of their previous productions. However I don’t believe they would distribute our film because it appeals to only a niche market and it is also a small budget film, since Lionsgate tend to work on films with a high budget alongside well-known actors/actresses. To create publicity I think viral marketing is the way to go, because it is cheap and effective (if it works). I would send links via Facebook, MySpace and viral emails to create attention. I also believe it would be worth spending money on advertising through major film websites such as Empire to get people talking. Another idea which I thought was extremely cleverthat was utilized by ‘Cloverfield’ is to create MySpace accounts for the main characters in our production so the audience are able to feel connected to the production and will enjoy investigating to find out clues, as to what the motives of the hooded man may be. Furthermore it will possibly make the audience even more scared as it portrays the characters as normal people, implying these events could happen to them.