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

1. What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

2. What type of film is yours? • Seeing as our group had a whopping budget of £0000.00, our film can be described as an independent British thriller film. • Despite this, we still were keen to use blockbuster/ Hollywood type themes such as tense cutaways with effects and pounding music to make the scene seem more professional. • This may allow various production and distribution companies to want to distribute our product, providing us with plenty of choice with who we may work with.

3. What type of companies are suited for your type of film? When researching various publicising and distribution companies, it was evident that there were a fair few that would suit our thriller opening. Lions Gate • Lions Gate publicity has worked with films such as ‘Requiem for a Dream’ , ‘The Hunger Games’, and ‘Reservoir Dogs’. Although these are not all thriller films, the themes used within each of these films use a similar to the themes used within ours. • The publicity and distribution techniques for ‘Requiem for a Dream’ involve cold, blue and silver tones just like our thriller opening and help to portray the negative themes within the film. • Due to the reputation Lions Gate has when promoting thrillers, I believe that they would be a suitable distribution company to work with.

4. What type of companies are suited for your type of film? Summit Entertainment • Summit Entertainment is a smaller production and distribution company that was acquired by Lions Gate in 2012. • Summit, before being acquired by Lions Gate only had a mere six film library, as well as rights to The Twilight Saga . • Some of the films that Summit have been involved with are low-budget, for example the film Push which is a science-fiction type film. Due to Summit producing low-budget films, I believe that they would be a suitable company to work with seeing as we didn’t have a budget at all and were still able to produce a two- minute thriller opening. • Summit have also worked with teenage thriller films such as Sorority Row which again would benefit us seeing as ours is a thriller film involving adolescents.

5. So, what production/ distribution companies did you actually use? For our thriller opening we decided to split the rights of credit between three production/ distribution companies that we created ourselves: • “Imagine-X” (we all came up with this name together) • “B.I.G.B” (based on the initials of each of our names) • “ColourCloud” (the name for this just sprung to Bilal’s mind and we thought it sounded legit.) We had previously learnt in various media lessons that unlike Hollywood production companies who participate in vertical integration, when a low-budget British film is being produced, the companies that first works with the director and producer may not have enough funds to contribute to all three stages of film release (production, distribution and exhibition). Therefore they may have to work with other companies to make-up the necessary funds to release the film.

6. Imagine-X Entertainment • We decided that this would be the main funding company and would be similar to Lions Gate. It is mainly a British company (with American Investors) and fairly popular within the United Kingdom. It is mainly known for working on horror and thriller type films, but has occasionally worked with science-fiction as well. IMAGINE-X Entertainment

7. B.I.G-B Productions • B.I.G-B is smaller independent company that we created for the purpose of extra funding. It is based in East London and works with small independent British films. • As you can guess, we came up with the name by ourselves, using inspiration from our own names. It is similar to companies such as Summit and Bedlam Productions . B.I.G- B Productions

8. ColourCloud ColourCloud • ColourCloud the main distributor for Rising Fear. It is similar to distribution companies such as Icon and Entertainment One UK. • ColourCloud is responsible for the marketing and promotion of the film, it would create trailers and posters for the public a few weeks before the actual release of the film itself. • A film similar to ours, Devil, (a supernatural thriller, which also involves an elevator as a main part of the storyline) was distributed by a fairly well known company, Universal Pictures. However, the budget difference between Devil and Rising Fear may mean that the distribution would be fairly different regarding release and promotion. • Devil was released in the US in September 2010 but critics didn’t get the advantage of watching it first. With Rising Fear, it will be released in the UK two weeks before the US and because it is an independent film we will probably let critics watch it before screening it to the public.

9. Further Distribution/ Marketing • Seeing as our film is British Independent and un-budgeted we decided that we’d make a few trailers to promote it, along with some posters around the more artsy area of London, such as Soho. • However, as our main target audience is young adults, we would also have to consider advertising in shopping centres or Bowling alleys; anywhere that is a popular place for young people to spend time at. • For a campaign, we could also put adverts around or inside elevators suggesting the theme of our film to the audience, which may encourage them to go and see it. • Check my blog for an example of a short promo that Bilal made that could be shown between breaks on television channels!

10. Exhibition • The exhibition for our thriller would have to deeply consider the target audience. • Although most British independent films would often be exhibited in arthouse-style cinemas, this would not appeal to most young adults who enjoy thriller/horror films in Britain because they would most likely tend to go to mainstream multiplex cinemas for both convenience and comfort. • Therefore we would probably have to consider screening our film in well known cinema branches such as Odeon, Showcase and Vue.

11. I hope that Rising Fear would attract various production and distribution companies so that we have more to choose from and would be able to gain a good deal. Promotion is a key part of the release of a film, so we really need the best we can get!