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

Like most British films, our film would be a co-production, because our company does not have the means to produce, distribute and market. Our film would be produced by X Productions, distributed and marketed by Momentum Pictures, and financed by the BFI film fund. 

Distribution

When deciding on potential distributors, we decided to research which companies had distributed films of similar genres and themes. We also looked at major distributors, and distributors specifically within Britain to see if they had distributed any relevant films. We did this because our target audiences are likely to want to go see our film if they see that our distributor have distributed similar films that they have enjoyed. 

Heathers was a very key influence for us, and whilst a completely Americanised film, the connotations of having New World Pictures distributing our film would have been fantastic. New World Pictures however, has been effectively defunct since 1997. 

Newmarket Films, Paramount Pictures, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Columbia Pictures are all American distributors and so we could not use them because our film is British and so we would like our distributor to reflect this. 

We chose E One Momentum (originally Momentum Pictures) to distribute our film. Firstly they are one of the UK's leading independent distributors. Secondly they have distributed multiple films will strong, quirky female protagonists such as Amelie, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Chalet Girl. They have also distributed black comedies, such as Seven Psychopaths, and films appealing to older audiences including parents, such as The King's Speech. In summary, E One Momentum are able to reach both our audience of 16-24 year olds and the older audience of parents because they have successfully done this before. 

Production

Our Production Company is called X Productions. The title of the company in itself connotes enigma and secrecy; it does not give much away. We decided that this was a good name for our production company because it was memorable but not over the top; the film would by far by the main focus. 

Our Production Company would produce films predominantly targeting a broad audience of 16-24 year olds, the largest group of cinema-goers. The films would be made with an aim of quality over global appeal, and would target young adults looking for less cheesy films with a bit more substance. The types of genres that our company would be likely to produce are dramas, thrillers and comedies, as well as maybe fantasies and horror. X Productions would rarely produce romantic comedies and action/adventure films, of which there are a lot of targeted at young adults. 

X Productions would produce similar films to Heathers, Submarine, The Girl with a dragon tattoo and Chalet Girl. It is similar to Production Houses such as British Production Houses Between the Eyes [Shifty (2008)] and DNA [28 Days Later (2002), The Last King of Scotland (2006) Sunshine (2007), Never Let Me Go (2010)]. It would also be similar to ex-American Production House New World Titles. 

Financing
Like most British Productions, our film would probably be a Co-Production. We imagine that it would receive financing from the BFI Film Fund, who "use Lottery funds to nurture and invest in a diverse mix of first-class filmmakers UK wide". It would qualify for this funding because it is a British Production made by a small independent Production House. Other investors may be interested because it is unique yet has quite broad audience appeal. 

Exhibition Platforms
If our film was distributed by EOne Momentum, it would hopefully be released in mainstream cinemas (Odeon, Vue, Cineworld) in 2D in most cinemas around the UK. Given high success and appeal which is possible due to global themes and potential, we would aim for a saturation release within the UK. Depending on the funding, and cinematic response that our film received, we would also offer screenings in 3D. This would be possible given the new technology enabling films that have been shot in 2D to be exhibited in 3D. We feel that this would be a particularly immersive experience for our audience given the "trippy" point-of-view nature of our opening. 

We are however conscious that exhibition is considerably more than cinema viewings. The chart on the left demonstrates how the majority of viewings of films (approximately 97%) are in cinemas. This is one of the reasons we have been careful to consider exhibition platforms other than cinema. 

This chart (taken from the BFI statistical yearbook for 2012) denotes that the two genres that are sold the most on DVD are comedies and dramas. This demonstrates that there is a large target market for our film's genre on DVD. For this reason, after the life of the film in cinema ends, we would also release the film on DVD, including HD and Blu-Ray in order to maximise profits and audience reach. 
The VoD market is expanding rapidly, especially with the introduction of online VoD in 2008. By expanding exhibition platforms to include VoD we would make the film more accessible to our primary and secondary audiences, who are the major consumers of VoD. We would hope to make a deal with Netflix, who have an ever expanding 23 million members. They have a range of genres available and have effectively targeted a range of audiences. 

(Please click on these to enlarge them)

We would imagine that the rights to broadcast the film on television would go to Channel 4 or more specifically E4. They have been known to exhibit quirkier media, and given he success of Skins, a film with similar themes and concepts should be well received by a pre-existing audience. 

Marketing
Another reason for selecting EOne Momentum as our distributor was their history and expertise of marketing campaigns. For example, for Chalet Girl which has a similar core audience to Vendetta, exhibition platforms were exploited where appropriate to the target audience. More traditional forms of marketing included posters, trailers, and TV adverts, alongside a large premiere and a website.  Chalet girl also had effective interactive video viral marketing, linking in to social media. Their marketing was very successful as they did not just raise awareness of the film but they attracted the core audience successfully as well and therefore attracted viewers to the cinema.

Proposed Marketing for Vendetta
Firstly, our marketing would include conventional forms such as trailers and posters as well as a website from which we would base a viral campaign, taking influence from that of Chalet Girl. However, given that our core audience is 16-24 year olds, who are also the largest consumers of social media, it is crucial that our marketing reflects this. With accounts and pages on social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkden it is likely that we would successfully reach our core and secondary target audience. To keep followers and fans interested and engaged, we would post teaser clips, posters, and have competitions via these social networking sites. It would be very likely that would make an interactive video linking to social media, similar to the one made for Chalet Girl. The aims of our marketing campaign would be to raise awareness of our film and to interest our target audience enough to buy a ticket at the cinema. The marketing would focus on the core and secondary audience but definitely have appeal for our tertiary and any wider audience. 

Overall, I believe that the choices we have made in terms of distributing our film are realistic and appropriate. I feel that EOne Momentum would be the institution that would most effectively and successfully distribute and market Vendetta.