Question 3

Amber Waldron

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

*Firstly, the company our group decided to choose was Lionsgate. LionsGate Entertainment Corporation is a Canadian/American entertainment company that is involved in both production and distribution. It has featured in producing and distributing many high scale film productions such as The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Twilight Saga and The Day After Tomorrow. It also has distributed many mid-budget thrillers including most recently Criminal and Precious Cargo. It is the sort of company that tends to distribute mainstream films that have a wide appeal.

Our Company Logo: LIONSGATE

*Given our films story-line we came to the decision that our film could have mainstream appeal and that this company would work effectively to distribute it.*Mass market distributors promote their products in

large quantities to as wide an audience as possible. I believe our film would sell to a mass market since its story line could potentially intrigue a wide variety of viewers. Perhaps, it would promote mostly to young adults around 16-25 since the story line would be rather too mature in terms of adult themes and complex in terms of plot to follow through, which is something that may not appeal to younger audiences.

Target audience:

*I think our film would be on a fairly big budget since it would be very much an action thriller, possibly with some big budget set pieces in well-known locations like central London as well as major stars and as such it would need the sort of high profile promotion which an established company like Lionsgate would be able to offer.

Budgeting to make our film:

*Potentially, money to make our film could come from a number of investors interested in it becoming a large scale movie. Since our films idea is creative and interesting, investors may see this as something that they could work with. In addition through a developed detailed storyboard investors could visually see how far they think the film would go and could envision what the full film would look like.

Money to make our film:

*Since Lions gate has distributed the Hunger Games, Divergent and Twilight saga series, perhaps my film would appeal to a similar audience as their’s since they firstly appeal to young audiences and they also follow adults themes which could perhaps be too sensitive for children to watch. I think it would be essentially people of our own age group. In addition I believe that since a lot of young people do tend to watch TV, TV trailers would be a good way of promoting our film in order to distribute it to the audience we are aiming it at. Young adults around 16-25 would most probably be the type of audience that reads film magazines such as Empire. This would be good for our film to potentially advertise ourselves in and get features in about its sneak previews for instance. From personal experience, I find out about films from people speaking about them either face to face or on social media. If a film is really good, of course a lot of people will be talking about it and recommending you to watch it.

Distribution:

*The first distribution point for films is cinema screenings. Low budget, independent screenings often have a run in a limited number of cinemas, often in urban areas only or maybe in areas local to where the film was shot. *However, we are trying to produce a bigger budget and more

mainstream film and so we would be looking for a nationwide release in multiplexes up and down the country. Of course looking to sell our films at nationwide screenings it is going to be expensive. However, I believe that our film would sell to a mainstream audience and therefore I feel like we would be confident in drawing in our target audience and screening nationwide. *If our film was actually made, we would need to use major stars to

propel our film to become big as people want to watch films with celebrity actors/actresses that they like. Also, another way we could perhaps boost our films popularity is by having a famous ‘name’ director that has produced many good films.

Cinema Distribution:

*Distribution is about how information gets to its audience, and in the case of most films cinema screenings alone are not enough to make a profit. Distribution also relies of home screenings. In this case, I think that our film would probably be distributed of DVD, BluRay and we would also be looking to distribute our film on online streaming subscription services(e.g. Sky Box Office) approximately 3 months after theatrical release and then negotiate TV rights for other channels. *Lastly, the rights to screen the film on ‘free’ TV

would be the final point of distribution.

Home Distribution: