Evaluation Q3:

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

Warp Films are an independent British production company, who specialise in indie films of all genres. Their most well known production is perhaps This Is England – a 2006 film about a young British boy in the 80’s who gets mixed up in crime. The idea of a young boy being associated with a dark secret or situation is similar to our film, in which a teenage boy is murdered for an unknown reason by an enigmatic murderer.However, a more relevant comparison between our film and a Warp Films movie would be Dead Man’s Shoes, which is a brutal thriller about a man out for revenge for the death of his brother. Due to the enigmatic nature of our opening, it could be interpreted that the character Holly is out for revenge on Billy, much like the protagonist in Dead Man’s Shoes Warp Films would also be very fitting because they tend to focus on movies containing young people (which may also happen to include crime and thriller elements) rather than slick, stylish thrillers like many mainstream films. Our thriller is representative of this, as it has a very dark and moody style similar to This is England and Dead Man’s Shoes.

Two shots similar in aesthetic: This is England (left) and our thriller both have a similar filming style, which makes them both look independent and low-budget (albeit not amateurish).

A company very different to Warp Films is Miramax. This is because while their films tend to be independent and low budget, they are quite mainstream.

A famous director whose films have been distributed through Miramax is Quentin Tarantino who is well known for his crime-thriller movies such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction. Tarantino’s link with Miramax supports the thought that our film would be suited for distribution by them because we have borrowed and taken inspiration from a few of his concepts and camera shots in our movie. Some examples are the sound bridge at the beginning of our film and the archetype of a strong female character.

If our film was distributed by Miramax then our audience would be increased due to the wide fanbase of Tarantino and the Coen Brothers (their critically acclaimed thrillers ‘Fargo’ and ‘No Country For Old Men’ were distributed by Miramax), whose films we have taken inspiration from.

Pictured to the right are Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Run Lola Run and No Country For Old Men; all Miramax distributed films which are independent and relatively low budget, just like our thriller. Furthermore, No Country For Old Men was one of the inspirations for our film because of its use of isolated, exterior locations in which the protagonist is hunted by a ruthless killer.

We would want to exhibit mainly in independent cinemas, such as Cinema City and other PictureHouse owned cinemas. This is because our film is an independent art-house movie which would profit more commercially if it were shown at a cinema whose customers prefer independent movies. PictureHouse have cinemas mainly in city centres and in predominantly university towns such as Norwich, Oxford., Cambridge and York. These locations are advantageous to our media product because our audience is primarily students.

PictureHouse claim to screen ‘a wide range of features spanning art-house, independent, classic…’, which is different to multiplexes such as Vue and Odeon which primarily show very mainstream and big budgeted films such as ‘The Avengers’ and ‘The Force Awakens’. Some examples of independent thrillers similar to ours which have been shown at Cinema City are ‘Victoria’, ‘The Connection’ and ‘The Two Faces of January’.

From left to right: The Two Faces of January, The Connection and Victoria. The latter is the most like our thriller, due to its independent low budget and art-house status. It also features a strong female character who was in fact one of the inspirations for our own female character, because of her uncompromising strength and how she was not sexualised in any way by the film, much like the character Holly in our thriller.