G321 Evaluation Q3

8/7/2019 G321 Evaluation Q3

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G321: Evaluation Q3

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

Our first question was whether our film would appeal to a mass audience or niche audience.

To aid our decision, we investigated well-known and successful films, released within thepast 15 years or so, and concluded whether they were mainstream or individual by looking

at the distributor and gross revenue.

Superbad(2007) is an excellent example to use as it is classified in the same comedy genre

and has a similar storyline to our film. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures and made a

gross revenue of over 103 million. The film won several awards between 2007 and 2008

including MTV Movie Awards, Canadian Comedy Awards, Broadcast Film Critics Association

Awards and Empire Awards. The film was largely successful across the USA and UK.

Columbia Pictures have distributed several successful

films within the comedy genre such as Stepbrothers(2008), Pineapple Express (2008), Funny People (2009)

and The Other Guys (2010). This shows that Columbia

Pictures is experienced and successful in distributing

mainstream, comedy films.

Role Models (2008) is another great example as it is also

associated with the nerdy characters and storyline and is

based within the comedy genre. The film was distributed

by Universal Studios and made a gross revenue of 108

million. The film was a summer hit, and opened at No. 1

at the box office, grossing 13,237,908 on its openingweekend, and stayed at No. 1 the following weekend.

Universal Studios have distributed a range of comedy

films includingAmerican Pie (1999), Hot Fuzz (2007), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) and Meet

the Fockers (2004). Universal is also a successful, leading distribution company based in

America.

Two examples of reputable and mainstream institutions that would not be ideal for the

distribution of our film would be Dreamworks Pictures and Disney Pictures as they are

generally associated with certificate U, PG and 12A films. Dreamworks specializes in

animated films and have distributed successful films such as Shrek(2001),Antz (1998) andThe Cat in the Hat(2003) which only has small uses of digital animation. Noticeably, all of

these mentioned films target kids under the age of 15 and would not reach our target

audience, meaning that Dreamworks would

not be the right distributor for our film.

Disney Pictures would not be ideal either for

the same reason as Dreamworks. Although

Disney is a very successful and very reputable

company that was founded by Walt Disney in

1923, it has created a reputation for being a

family friendly business that entertains bothchildren and adults alike through their


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divisions and subsidiaries (such as Pixar Animations, Disney Pictures and Walt Disney Parks

and Resorts). This again would not be ideal as neither Disney or our film would be reaching

the target audience.

Generally, we would like our film to target a mass audience, meaning we would distribute

through an American based institution such as Columbia Pictures and Universal Studios. Thereason we chose not to distribute through an independent distributor is because they tend

to target niche audiences and produce low budget films.

Warp Films is an example of an independent, UK based distribution company, which has

funded films such as Donkey Punch (2008), This is England 86 (2010) and Four Lions (2009).

Although some of these films are well known in the

UK, they do not reach a global scale like we would

intend our film to.

Our film would be released mainly for the purposes

of entertainment and merchandising. Our film wouldbe a fantastic opportunity for franchises as our film

is within the comedy genre and would provide

plenty of phrases, jokes and memorable lines that

could be printed onto T-shirts/clothing, posters and

bags.

The Hangover(2009) have produced slogan T-shirts,

hats, mugs and miscellaneous film-related items and

continue to sell them in music and film stores, such as HMV, and through online retailers,

such as Amazon. The Hangoverbroke an American record of being the highest grossing R-

rated comedy of all time with a profit of over $270 million, proving to be a successful andepic film.

As our film consists of a similar comedy style, we could be equally successful in

merchandising. Products would include:

DVD/Blu-Ray T-Shirts and clothing Movie Soundtrack

Film Posters Messenger bags

These products were chosen as they are safe merchandise items that have a low selling risk.

DVDs and Blu-Ray are a large percentage of post-production profit, as well as film-

representative items and memorabilia that can be used frequently or kept for a long period

of time (such as clothing).

As our film is a comedy, our soundtrack would consist of up-beat and rocky music. This

would appeal to not only our target audience, but with the right combination of

contemporary rock classics and softer, relaxed tracks, the soundtrack could appeal beyond

the youthful generation to mature adults.

A great example of a successful soundtrack that used a variety of music styles is the TwilightSoundtrack(2008), consisting of rocky artists such as Muse, Paramore and Linkin Park, as


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well as soft, acoustic tracks from Robert Pattinson and Iron & Wine. The album debuted at

#1 on the Billboard 200, having sold about 165,000 copies in its first week of release. This

soundtrack is evident that our soundtrack could be equally as successful when keeping to a

variety of music style and tracks.

Chain stores and retailers thatwould sell our merchandise would

be high street music and film

stores, such as HMV and Zavvi, and

leading online retailers, such as

Amazon and Play. As technology

advances, music and products are

being bought online more

frequently due to the consumer

convenience. Although store sales

are also an important contribution

to profits, the attention would befocused on internet sales. This is because internet retailers are becoming more and more

successful and is becoming a growing source of consumer goods. It also means that products

are always accessible on a global scale.

Overall, the choice of distributing our film as a mainstream production would correlate with

the success of the film, as well as merchandise sales and gross revenue. Another great

reason we chose to target a mass audience is because our storyline is fairly safe and is not to

extreme or unusual, meaning that large mainstream institutions would definitely consider

investing in our film for profit reasons.

Documents

G321 Evaluation Q3