Evaluation- Part Three

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

If Out of Focus was an actual feature length Thriller it could be distrubted by the Optimum Distribution Company (http://www.optimumreleasing.com/) because it is supported by aid from EM Media- a company specialising in generating business in the East Midlands for filmmakers by providing actors, equipment, props and locations to film with, within the East Midlands. This could be one possibility as we have created this opening in the East Midlands and if it were a real film we could use the support from EM Media (http://www.em-media.org.uk/) to create it, staying within our own location and it would generate business for the area- meeting the requirements of EM Media's agreement for support. However there films do not tend to be large scale action or suspenseful films but more culturally specific films with a niche audience such as 'This is England', illustrated below.

Therefore another distributor that I think would be suitable to distribute our Thriller were it a real film is New Line Cinema. (http://www.newline.com/) Research says: 'New Line Cinema was founded in 1967 and is one of the major American film studios along with 'Warner Brothers' and '20th Century Fox'. Although New Line Cinema was originally an independent film company, it became a subsidiary of Timer Warner 1996 and later merged with larger studio sister 'Warner Brothers' in 2008'

This company is suitable as it has distributed many Thrillers in the past such as Cellular, The Number 23 (posters and trailers below demonstrate that they are from the Thriller genre and ways of advertising them) and Se7en- which our opening sequence takes inspiration from. They are similar as the openings act as prologues and are montage of short clips which pose questions about the narrative. Se7en was a crime thriller released in 1995, starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman. It was directed by David Fincher (who's directoral debut was Alien 3) and followed the story of a 'retiring detective and his replacement, jointly investigating a series of ritualistic murders inspired by the seven deadly sins'. The film was a financial success grossing over 327 million worldwide.

However, if it was distributed by a large company like this it may not be very popular due to no well known actors, locations or a big budget being present in it. Therefore our film would be more suitable to be distributed to local Broadway cinemas across the UK by a company like Optimum (with support from EM Media) rather than multi-plexes which have certain requirements (like the genre and stars) for a film to be accepted to be shown. Although Optimum and EM Media do not make films in the Thriller genre it could be their first attempt at targeting a new audience and market.






There are several effective ways that our thriller could be marketed. As it is aimed at mature teenagers aged between 16 and 22 and more specifically boys, an effective way of marketing and promoting the film would be to use the internet as this is accessed by most people of these ages and is a large part of their lifestyle. A web- site could be created with trailers, interviews, sneak- peaks and news about the film and a link/ advertisement could be placed on social networking sites as well as film and game sites such as Empire and Gamespot, sites boys of this age are sure to visit. In addition Youtube would be another site to place trailers and clips from the film as this is visited by the majority of people who have access to the internet. This method of advertising the film would be successful as it uses a tool/ technology (the internet) that the target audience is regularly involved with, allowing news of the film to reach out to them. Further marketing methods that advertise through sources the target age are interested in that would be used are posters, television trailers and advertisements in magazines which boys of this age would buy such as game, film and 'lad' magazines. In addition they are 'whats new' services on game consoles like the Playstation 3 that could advertise the film too.

Another advertising method for our Thriller would take inspiration from Univeral's marketing strategy of Bridget Jones' Diary released in 2001. Universal used synergy with various companies to promote the film for their benefit and attract customers to the other company. Synergy benefits both companies and is a tool to gain audience interest and popularity in the film using the services or products of other companies. Universal made deals with the Body Shop, Diet Coke and Virgin Megatores to promote Bridget Jones. The companies selected and promotions used link to the narrative and characters of the film. For example Diet Coke uses 'diet' which links with the aspiration of Bridget to lose weight. Synergy is an effective way of capturing the audience's interest in the film. We could collaborate with companies which our target audience is interested in such as Sony and Apple. However it would be more tricky to promote our film this way as it is not aimed at a mass audience, nor doe sit have a plot that is easy to link products or promotions with. Therefore we could highlight the dangers of abduction of teenagers and promote awareness, this links to the narrative of the film and is a serious current affair.