2. Decisions
In this question I will focus on the ways in which my thriller
film could be distributed. There are many potential ways to
distribute my film, including through big conglomerate film
companies, independent film companies or through other
online methods.
3. What Distribution
At first, a method of distribution would be through online
video sharing service such as YouTube. This is for several
reasons: We would have little budget at first and would need
to generate some form of publicity. Uploading the opening
scene to YouTube means the video is accessible to a
worldwide audience which would increase the audience. The
majority of my audience would have access to this service,
and people would be able to use this to share the video to
their friends, creating a network. If one person was to like of
share this video then our audience again would increase.
4. Mainstream or Independent
My film would qualify as “British”, due to it meeting the criteria
listed by the British Film Industry (BFI) in that it: Was filmed in
Britain with a British crew used British Actors ,Addresses and
British society. Hence, Independent companies would be a
suitable way of funding and distributing the film. The BFI offers
£17 Million for the production and development of UK films, and
our thriller meets the criteria to receive the grant to help
independent film makers and short films that the BFI offers.
Alternatively, the Microwave Scheme is a non -profit
organisation that offers film makers £100,000 for the directors
and producers to use in whatever way. Like the BFI, this
company will be supportive of the British Identity and will help to
reach the target audience and potentially a nationwide
audience.
5. Conglomerates
One drawback of the independent film companies is that the
end product may not have the same level of accessibility to
cinemas as a film distributed and funded by a larger
company, and hence may not be as successful.
Conglomerates such as Paramount Pictures and Universal
distributed the two main inspiration films for my thriller
(Shutter Island and Seven respectively), and due to the
similarities my thriller could obtain equal success. These US
companies have a lot of money to fund the film, yet are
unlikely to take my thriller on if it will achieve the guaranteed
success from the certain conventions and characteristics that
they will be looking for. Using these companies could also
result in a loss of identity in my film, and a large share of any
profit will go to the company.
6. How to gain interest
It is more appropriate to distribute through an independent
company or a smaller UK company that will maintain the
identity of our film, demand less of a share of the profits and
reach the target audience, such as Working Title. To gain the
interest of these production companies to distribute my
product, it could be beneficial to use competitions such as
those at “Shooting People” to showcase and promote our
film. A benefit of entering something like this, or the London
Short Film Festival, would be the raised awareness it would
generate for my product.
7. Conclusion
To conclude, the most appropriate media institution to
distribute my film would be an independent film company, as
it would allow the film to reach its target audience and
maintain the film’s identity, among the other reasons
discussed. Before release, I would generate interest through
online advertisement and Viral Marketing, by using social
networking sites to increase the awareness of the release of
my film to my target audience, who would likely be using
these networking sites on a regular basis, and would hence
be spread by these individuals in a short period of time.
