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

Evaluation Task 3: What institution would make my film?
Here is a prezi that includes information on what institution I think would make our film. 




Here are the research notes I had made:

Hammer Film Productions

History of the institution:

–                    A British Film Production Company based in London

–                    Founded in 1934

–                    Best known for „Hammer Horror“ films made from the mid 1950s to the 1970s.

–                    During it's best years it dominated the horror film market.

–                    Ceased production in the mid 1980s.

–                    In 2000, the studio was bought by Charles Saatchi, however made no movies.

–                    In May of 2007, the company was sold to John de Mol, who planned to invest $50 million on new films.

–                    Since then the company produced several feature films „Let Me In“ (2010), „The Resident“ (2011), and „The Woman in Black“ (2012).

Why would your chosen company make your film?:

–                    Hammer Film Productions seems to be a good choice to make our thriller because of the following reasons:

–                    They are known for their „Hammer Horror“ films. Because our thriller leans more towards the horror-thriller genre, it seems tht it would be a good choice because they would most likely be able to properly grasp the essence of our thriller and properly execute what is required of it (e.g. Using props such as fake blood, creating proper costumes, and having a proper setting for things like the opening sequence we had created). It is a very gory-type thriller (as it is protrayed in our opening sequence), and therefore requires a certain level of skill to perfect. I feel as though Hammer Film Productions knows what they are doing in this aspect. As an example, in „The Woman in Black“ (2012), there was a scene in which a little girl died after throwing up a lot of blood. By showing something this grotesque, it gives us the ability to see what the studio is capable of and willing to show in their films, making it obvious that shooting something like our opening sequence wouldn't be a big problem.

What other films have they made?

–                    Hammer Films have made the following films:

–                    The Curse of Frankenstein (and several sequels: The Revenge of Frankenstein, The Evil of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Created Woman, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Horror of Frankenstein, and Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell).

–                    Dracula (and several sequels: The Brides of Dracula, Dracula: Prince of Darkness, Dracula has Risen from the Grave, Taste the Blood of Dracula, Scars of Dracula, Dracula A.D, The Satanic Rites of Dracula, and The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires).

–                    The Mummy (and several sequels: The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, The Mummy's Shroud, and Blood from the Mummy's Tomb).

–                    Hammer Films also made a series of „mini-Hitchcock“ psychological thrillers, mostly written by Jimmy Sangster. These films were made in the style of Hitchcock: Taste of Fear, Maniac, Paranoiac, Nightmare, Hysteria, Fanatic, The Nanny, Crescendo, Straight on Till Morning, and Fear in the Night.

–                    The „revival“ films, used to bring Hammer Films back into business and make them successful again, are the following:

–                    Beyond the Rave

–                    Let me In

–                    The Resident

–                    Wake Wood

–                    The Woman in Black

–                    The Quiet Ones

–                    The Woman in Black: Angel of Death

How does the film fit the ethos of the institution? i.e. First time directors, low budget, action.

–                    A lot of films produced by this company are also well known books, such as the Phantom of the Opera, Dracula, and Frankenstein, and are often part of a franchise. Rarely have they ever created alone-standing films, however have created several films which are not part of a franchise or are not based on books. A few of these examples would be „The Reptile“, „The Plague of the Zombies“, or a newer film „The Woman in Black“. Therefore our film would not be out of place and would probably not be too difficult for the production company to make.

–                    Hammer Films has a history of using actors who have made a name for themselves. An example of this would be Daniel Radcliffe; on the other hand, they also use actors who may have become successful due to their success when working with Hammer. An example of this would be Christopher Lee. Our film would have the possibility starring someone who may have had successful movies in the past, which would boost the audience of the film because some people may want to go see it because of the actors.

–                    Some of the movies they make are rather low budget; even if our film was never made out to be a large production in which a lot of money can or should be invested into, it can still be made into a short film which could potentially still be successful. Because this company has a history of making films like their „mini-Hitchcock“ series, or their „Hammer House of Horror“ and „Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense“ series, making a film like ours on a low budget still could turn out to be quite successful and would not cost the institution too much.

How would they market your film? Give examples of other marketing they have done before.

–                    Hammer Films is known for their horror movies, which, in itself is already a great way to market films. If the audience is familiar with Hammer Films they know that a movie produced by them in that particular genre will most likely be a success. In the past, when they first brought out horror movies in the 1950s, their U.S.P was a certain level of gore. „No one can say the customers won't have had their money's worth by now. In fact, someone will almost certainly have been sick. We must have a great deal more restraint, and much more done by onlookers' reactions instead of by shots of 'pulsating obscenity', hideous scars, hideous sightless faces, etc, etc.“. I believe that their way of marketing is to bring out new types of things they show in films, or the way they show it as a way to market the film.

Do they specialise in a genre?

–                    Our film is a type of psychological thriller, which makes it an obvious choice for Hammer Films. This is because of the series of films they had made before; many of their films are psychological thrillers, so our film would fit perfectly into their ethos. They are especially known for their Hammer Horror films.

Does the studio have a particular target audience?

–                    The studio seems to have a particular target audience, especially those who are „attracted“ to a more gore-filled film. Their films are directed at those who have a „stronger stomach“ (for viewing purposes), meaning they can handle more violence, gore and obscenity within a film.

Universal Studios

History of the Institution:

-          A subsidary of NBCUniversal

-          Founded on April 30th, 1912

-          It is the world’s fourth oldest film studio

-          Interestingly enough, Universal worked together with Hammer Films during their time period of making Frankenstein, Dracula, and the Mummy.

-          They still make high-budget films to this date and also spend a lot of time and money to make their films as good as possible. A lot of their thrillers nowadays are stand-alone films and they are therefore taking a risk with them.

Why would this institution make your film?

-          This institution has a history of creating several psychological thrillers, from the original Psycho to Red Dragon (which is a film that can be compared to our opening sequence anyway). This indicates that it wouldn’t be difficult for the institution to understand what the storyline of our thriller is in the first place, and second of all, by having made so many psychological thrillers, the institution would probably not have a big issue with creating our kind of thriller, and with the killer being insane. This is also because they would have the opportunity to hire more renowned actor and they would probably have the right resources to get the goryness and the plot twists and questioning we want to bring across to our audience.

What other films have they made?:

-          Other films they have made:

o   Dream House

o   Psycho

o   Red Dragon

o   Chucky

o   The Strangers

-          All these films are thrillers, or psychological thrillers. Whilst Universal Pictures also focuses on different genres, I thought it may be useful to look at those which are in a similar genre as ours.

How does the film fit the ethos of the institution? i.e. First time directors, low budget, action.

-           The film fits into the ethos of the institution because of the way they make their thrillers; first of all, they have a wide variety of psychological thrillers which all show the different ways the film could be made. This studio also has the resources to spend a lot of money on this film and take a risk with it, and to make it as gory as they want to. They do not seem to shy away from certain themes and topics and therefore I think  it would be possible to make an entire movie on our psychological killer and show his story.

How would they market your film?

-          Universal Studios knows how to make a trailer, so that would be one definite way of creating hype for the film. NBCUniversal owns things such as NBCUniversal Television, or Hulu.com – this means that they have the chance to broadcast their own trailers on TV, and would also be able to create their own print advertising when it gets closer to the time of releasing the film in the cinema. I am pretty sure that they will also have the opportunity to market their films in newspapers and such, as they do have access to certain companies that do this for them.

-          Social media is a big one; this company has the ability of marketing through social media as it is such a contrivertial area of marketing and gives the audience the ability to be interactive with the film.

-          An example of this would be the film „Hail Caesar“ – not only had they released several trailers for the film, they also used social media and print, such as posters. This is a pretty generic way of marketing a film, but somethng else they did was use many big actors in their film and highlight them in their trailers and on their movie posters, which makes a larger audience want to go see the film, especially because on some occasions people go to see a film just because a certain actor is in it.

Do they specialise in a genre?

-          Universal Pictures does not necessarily focus on one genre, as they have a wide variety of films they produce. However, they do have a wide variety of thrillers that are similar to ours and would therefore be suitable to create our thriller.

Does the studio have a particular target audience?

-          I don’t think so, no. There is a possibility that films by universal pictures are for everyone, and that there are certain sections of the studio’s films which are for a more definite audience, so that might be where the target audience for our thriller comes from.