Question 3 of AS Thriller Opening Sequence - Media

1. AS MEDIA EVALUATION
QUESTION THREE
What kind of media
institution would
distribute your media
product and why?

2. FILM GENRE
The genre of our media product is Thriller. This would impact the
audiences that would watch our film, and the institutions that would
show it. As for our thriller film, it is quite deep and the one character
of the film is quite dark. The film also represents drugs, and the
culture surrounding it therefore our film would appeal to an older
audience, which would have an impact on the institutions that would
distribute our media product.

3. TV CHANNELS
It would be very unlikely for our media product to be distributed in
huge cinema chains, or even any cinemas, as it is a very low budget
film and we would not have the funding or the popularity as an
established film company or anything near that. However institutions
that would perhaps show our film would be some TV Channels such
as Film 4 as they tend to show thriller films and often low budget, or
independent films. They also usually show thriller films late at night,
which is useful for our film as it reaches a more appropriate target
audience later at night due to its elements of cinematography such as
dark lighting, fast paced editing and a variety of shots including a
close ups of props. This also avoids a prime time spot for our film,
which we would be unlikely to get anyway, as it is low budget and
wouldn’t be shown at the most popular time, so this would be one
way our film would be distributed by institutions like smaller TV
channels.

4. FILM WEBSITES
Other institutions that may distribute our media product could be
online film websites such as Netflix and Lovefilm. These are both
quite cheap to have a film shown on, and they tend to show quite a
lot of low budget films, and not many big screen numbers are shown
on these sites, which would benefit our film as it may therefore
attract more interest from our target audience. Sites like these can
sometimes really benefit a film or companies success, as if it
becomes popular through these smaller institution it may become a
big film that could be shown in cinemas.

5. DVD’S
After being distributed by institutions such as TV Channels like Film 4
and Film websites such as Netflix and Lovefilm, our film could then
potentially be produced as a DVD and sold in local shops such as
HMV and local Supermarkets. The film would get a better reception
from this, as a lot of different people would go to local shops, and
also from our target audience research through questionnaires and
videos we are aware that quite a lot of people like thriller films, so
would therefore want to buy the DVD. This would be much more
effective for a very low budget film, compared to cinema release,
because as well as being expensive, it would be difficult to sell to
audiences, as many wouldn’t want to pay to watch a low budget film,
and would prefer bigger films, with famous casts unless it has been
popularised.

6. FILM FESTIVALSThis is another institution that would distribute our film, such as the
Cannes film festival and Sundance film festival because they are set
up for independent film projects, and would give us an overall
response for our film, and the opinions people have, before trying to
sell it somewhere else. This would benefit the popularity and interest
in the film, as there could be a wide range of people at a film festival
that may be interested. This could also be beneficial to our target
audience research before selling the film elsewhere, so this could
potentially be the first thing we would do.

7. CONCLUSION
Overall, we think that the main institution to distribute our thriller
film opening, would be TV Channels, like Film 4, as it is best for the
target audience we want to show it to, and the time it would likely be
shown being appropriate with the Watershed allowing the film to
progress. Also, as a starting point, we could potentially use film
festival institutions as this will give us an idea of what people think
about our film, and we would be able to compare with other low
budget films.
However, overall we think that the best way to go when producing
our film would be through TV channels such as film 4 as by looking
at the films film 4 often plays we believe our thriller would fit into
this and therefore be successful.