Evaluation Question 3

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

For my Media product, I chose Fox Searchlight to distribute my film because my film is an independent film. This means that 20th Century Fox wouldn't distribute it themselves but their Fox Searchlight division specialise in Indie Films. Below are reasons why they should distribute my film:

"I think that you should distribute my film because it brings attention to the type of teenager that enjoys being by himself. Usually, in Coming-of Age films, they focus on teenagers who already have friends. This opens up a whole new narrative that, commonly, wouldn't be explored.

"I am hoping to entice people in to the film by using billboards, theatrical trailers and TV advertisements. This would allow a good variety of people to see the trailer and get interested in what the film's narrative is. 

"I think that this film will be popular because it will appeal to a wide range of people, including our targeted audience but also from anyone above that age. If you look at other coming of age films, they were able to create popularity amongst their target audiences and more. Our film is going to be no different.

"The reason why we decided to seek your company to distribute our film over other distribution companies was that everyone has heard of 20th Century Fox. It is one of the most well known distributors. We then realised that you have a separate division, solely for distributing indie films, such as ours. It would be a huge honour and a great benefit to you, if we could use your company to distribute our film to as many people as possible. Additionally, you have already distributed a British made film; Slumdog Millionaire. It was picked up by you at the London Film festival and released in America 14 days later on the 23rd January 2009. It won 8 Academy Awards and 7 BAFTAS.

"Another reason why you should consider to distribute our work is that eight years ago, you distributed a coming of age film called Juno, which was a massive success as it made $230 million with only a starting budget of $7 million. I have no doubt in my mind that our film won't be a similar success for both of our companies.

"We will mainly use online forms of promoting our film. This is because it fits with the theme of the film and also teenagers and young adults are using the internet more and more. We would focus on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr) and debuting trailers on a specially made website two weeks earlier than we will on YouTube. This will mean that lots of people will see our advertisements and get involved with the launch of the film by going onto our website which will follow a similar aesthetic to that of the main character's screen in the film."

(Courtesy of Kit Fielder)

As of today, Fox Searchlight have distributed 119 titles. This means that when Firewall is announced to be distributed by Fox Searchlight, it will hopefully peak a lot of people's interest. Especially those of whom fall under our target audience.

The variety of advertising campaigns will hopefully mean that it will reach as many people as possible to get our film the interest that we think it deserves. As well as what I said in the interview with Fox, we will also use;

- TV advertisement trailers
- Billboards
- Radio
- Theatrical trailers before films on DVD and in the Cinema