Evaluation - Question 3 (Elliot)

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

Distributors control and secede how films and other media products are distributed to audiences and how media products might be marketed towards them. In the film industry, they control the circulation of movie in theatres and home viewings such as DVDs, pay-per-view and television rights, to name but a few. What's more, they are vital as they control and aid the marketing campaign which organises and controls commercials, advertisements, magazine interviews, trailers and promos, for example. This is a crucial process as it spreads word of the movie and creates an audience (whom without, no profit can be made and for which the success of a movie is dependent upon).

For larger film studios, distributors will often organise exhibition screenings for exhibitors such as ODEON, Cineworld and Vue and other marketing techniques such as movie pitches in order to demonstrate financial success of the film and profit for the exhibitors if they screen it. This process is more significant for independent films and differs slightly. Due to the fact that independent films often do not have established cast members such as Jennifer Lawrence in The Hunger Games it is vital that the films are marketed appropriately to create a concrete audience. Distributors for such independent movies as Night Bus (Baker, 2014) will utilise film festivals such as Sundance to reach out to their audiences.


In terms of current media products, I would compare our film to The Hunger Games and Lucy and thus can see our film being picked up by Universal or Lionsgate. Both Universal and Lionsgate have distributed major thriller blockbusters that are similar to ours as they both have female protagonists and convey similar themes and have received significant results in box office return.

Our film would primarily be released in cinemas and on the internet through sites such as Netflix and primarily advertised through social media such as Twitter as our target audience are aged 15-25 and mainly use the internet as a medium for film. Not only this, but our questionnaires have shown Twitter and Netflix are commonly used amongst this age group. Film is thereby more accessible to our target audience through the use of the internet and as our target audience are amongst the key demographic, they have the spare money and time to spend watching films.

The film would mainly be marketed online with teaser trailers being released on YouTube and shared via the Twitter page and movie site. Not only this, but as our thriller would be distributed by Hollywood and major institutions, trailers would likely be advertised on TV and interviews on TV talk shows. Additionally, with the release of posters, adshells and billboards, our thriller would gradually gain a substantial mass audience, building anticipation for the thriller release.