Evaluation: Question 3

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

To find out what company might be willing to take on our film, Adam researched the types of companies which exist and the types of films they're willing to work with. A distribution company is defined by the fact that, as a marketer, they raise awareness of the film through a range of campaigns. as well as forming deals with other companies (e.g. Sony) in order to aid the DVD, TV and online releases of the feature.

Adam looked at a variety of companies which we could have considered, ranging from small independent British institutions working primarily within the country to companies which distribute films worldwide.

Adam decided a likely group of candidates was the Independent British Companies, which would be more likely to take on a film shot in a quirky style similar to ours, with its stop-motion ident, unnatural colouring and acoustic soundtrack. "Vertigo", especially, seems appealing due to their previous involvement in micro-budget films, including Gareth Edwards' "Monsters". As our film is also a low-budget sci-fi production, the prospects of working with this company are all the more hopeful. Even the institution's limited reach shouldn't be a problem; much like the above film, Adam conjectured that we could then opt for a larger company such as "Magnolia Pictures" to take our feature to other countries instead.

Another viable option for the distribution of "De(i)fied" would be a company such as Film4, as they finance stylised, unique British films. Their past releases have included "Inbetweeners 2", "12 Years a Slave" and "71". Companies such as this are concerned predominantly with financing and international distribution; two things which are very important for small productions like ours. However, Adam found that, despite the fact that the BFI collaborates with many institutes such as this, a company such as Film4 is likely to overlook our product in favour of more easily marketable works, such as multi-genre biopics or comedies. It is likely our film would be too stylistically different to their usual releases for them to actually regard it seriously, and so a company in this vein wouldn't necessarily be an ideal candidate.

To supplement the above, Adam also researched larger studios such as Lionsgate, StudioCanal and Icon, the first of which stood out the most due to their distribution of "The Hunger Games" franchise from which we partially drew inspiration for our own work. However, considering the fact that these are the three biggest distributors in Britain and such companies usually prefer to avoid financing risky productions, our film is, again, likely to be rejected by them. Although we could use the brand name authority and the reach these titans have even outside of the country, the low budget production of the film and its unusual genre combination (indie sci-fi thriller) would likely put it into disfavour with institutions such as this. We would perhaps be more likely to succeed if, before producing the film, I completed the novel which we based its initial premise on and managed to publish it successfully (bringing "De(i)fied" closer to the standard of "The Hunger Games"), but this would take a significant amount of effort and would also postpone the creation of the feature itself indefinitely. Therefore, unless we managed to concretely show that our film was worth the effort in terms of profit, it would seem wiser to stick to companies that would be more likely to take our work on. 

Adam's research makes it clear that the type of company which would be most likely to distribute our film would be a small-scale British indie institution. The eerie atmosphere of our piece, as well as the saturated colours and guitar soundtrack all lend themselves to the type of feature a small production company would ordinarily release. "De(i)fied"'s originality, in this case, would be considered a strongpoint as opposed to a reason to overlook it (conversely to a typical Hollywood blockbuster). Therefore, a company such as "Vertigo" would have to be our first choice.

AF