Question 3 – What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and why?

First of all we had to decide our target audience and by doing an audience expectations
questionnaire and writing up and audience profile, we debated between a niche audience
and mass audience and we thought as our film was a psychological thriller, our audience
would already be limited so we would be looking to aim our film at a niche audience.
However, after researching other psychological thrillers we discovered that they are
becoming more and more popular and after the release of “The Black Swan” (2010),
which hit a mass audience, was a massive success, we decided to target a mass audience.
We also decided our film ‘The Ticklist’ would be a Mainstream or a Hollywood film as
the film has high potential and would sell well in a public cinema just like other
psychological thrillers like “Don’t Say a Word” (2001) and “Inception”(2010), two
massive films that hit the cinema and shocked everyone with the amazing film potential.
Mainstream films can best be defined as commercial films that have a wide release and
play in first run theatres. Hollywood movies are usually considered mainstream and
blockbusters are also mainstream films.
There are many institutions which produce and distribute mainstream films and to help
decide which institution may distribute our media product, I researched into previous
psychological thrillers in order to give me an insight into previous institutions which
distribute these genre of film such as ‘When A Stranger Calls’ (2006). Researching into
this film helped to develop our ideas of how our film would run as it refelcts the audience
we would be targeting and represents similar themes whch would feature in our media
film.
In order to gain a full understanding on who would distribute our film we needed to
conduct research into suitable distributors
Fox Searchlight Pictures produced the psychological thriller Black Swan (2010)
alongside Protozoa Pictures and Phoenix Pictures. Black swan had an estiamated budget
of $13,000,000 and a gross of $105,928,217. Fox Searchlight Pictures, established in
1994, is a film division of Fox Filmed Entertainment alongside the larger Fox studio 20th
Century Fox. It specializes in independent and British films so this institution would be
an institution that would distribute our media film as we are creating a British film. Our
company institution ‘Blue Prductions’ is an independent institution which could converge
together with a larger institution in order to provide a larger budget for the production,
distribution and exhibition of the film through the use of vertical integration such as
‘Working Title’ and ‘Universal’. NBC Universal is Working Title's parent company

We also gained inspiration from the opening of 'Dawn of the Dead' (2004). As this is a
mainstream film, we felt that the way we intend to edit our opening, has great similarities
to the opening of 'Dawn of the Dead'(2004)
I believe that our film would be produced and distributed by Universal Studio's as they
distributed 'Dawn of the Dead' (2004) and this is the type of film they would be interested
in as our film and we feel that our film would target the mass audience.

We also looked at other large companies that have previously released psychological
thrillers and companies that have a lot of bonuses with there companies for the best of the
film:
• Warner bros also produce psychological thrillers which have gone into cinemas
and straight out into DVD by request. In 2010 Warner bros realised
 “Inception”(2010) a film that was given a budget of $160,000,000 and came out
with a gross profit of $292,568,851. This film was a mainstream film which was
released on 18th of July and made $62,785,337 (USA) the film was showed
on3792 Screens.
• Regency Enterprises also produced psychological thrillers which have gone into
cinemas and been big hits. In 2001Rengency Enterprises produced a film called
“Don’t say a word” which had a budget of $50,000,000 which was released in the
USA on 2802 screens on the 30th of September and generated $17,090,474 and
then made a gross profit of $54,997,476 by January 27th 2002.
• Se7en (1995) was distributed by New Line Cinema. New Line Cinema, Inc. is a
leading producer and distributor of films. The company made its reputation
producing horror films and other low-budget niche movies. This would help to
reach our targeted mass audience.
Universal Studio's and 20th Century Fox, both have a mass mainstream audience. By
having a mainstream film, it would be very beneficial to us being with a well known
institution like 20th Century Fox and Universal Studio's as it would be easier distribute
our film effectively and productively to the mass mainstream audience. By doing a case
study on 'Avatar' (2009) I researched that 20th Century Fox had easier access to
distribution and it would be more likely that our film would be advertised in the cinema
close to the other mainstream well known films, for example 'Black Swan'(2010).
We decided we would go with a distribution company like Fox Searchlight Pictures that
are in business with Murdock therefore being able to advertise for cheaper for example;
Sky, The Times, The guardian and other companies who can help advertise the film and
get the film to the widest audience possible. This would be an example of horizontal
integration. The film can also help get the stories out of many children going missing
and make sure that more people realise its not just a fictional story, its real.