Evaluation Task 3

Film Production Companies

What does a Production Company do?

• A production company provides physical elements of films such as props, lights, cameras, and above all, money. It also handles many organisational elements such as distributing, marketing, scheduling and scripting.

Silvelight Productions

This is our production company logo. We chose the moon because it is silver, and shines in the night, creating a horror tone. We then chose to use light because of the other part of the name of the productions. It is quite a literal logo, and with it’s two different sections, would hopefully be memorable to audiences if it were used in a real film.

What is Distribution?

• Distribution is what countries and areas the film is planned to be showing in. The production companies help organise this and decide where the best places for a film to be shown are. The companies will decide which audiences will enjoy the film the most, and weather it may offend some other audiences. For example, The Exorcist may be offensive in an area densely populated by devout Christians. The film distributor may also

choose the release date and the method of exhibition.

Distribution of the film.

• Our film would appeal to a wider audience such as

America as the themes displayed are universal . Our film

picks up on fears people may have and things they may

find scary, for example the feeling of being watched . So

people in other countries who enjoy horrors, would enjoy our movie because they should still find it scary.

Our Chosen Distributor

Since 1997 Lionsgate have produced/distributed over 200 films. It is an indecent company and has no parent companies. Lionsgate mainly distributes horror movies and in the opening credits of horror movies their logo is dark and red, which matches the genre. Some horror movies that they have distributed include; the Saw movies, House with 1000 corpses, Undead, Sicko, The Condemned, Texas Chainsaw and Cabin in the Woods. But it also distributes films outside of the horror genre like the Twilight movies or the Hunger games. Lionsgate would be a good company to distribute our film as ours is a horror movie and Lionsgate specialize in our movies genre. Lionsgate has distributed similar films to ours like Cabin in the Woods, so for this reason , I think that they would be interested in distributing ours.

Funding

• We have chosen The Movie Fund to fund our film, as it’s specialty is horror and independent films. Our film is a British film, so it is quite low-budget, and this company specializes in horror films, so we feel this is an appropriate choice.

Marketing Stratagies

• The main aim is to make our target audience know about our film. Our target audience would be young people of both genders and people who enjoy horror. Hollywood movie distributors spend about $4 billion a year to buy paid advertising (30-second TV commercials, newspaper ads, etc.) and over half that total is placed on broadcast and cable TV, which are the main vehicles for advertising movies to audiences.

• We could put adverts on radio stations that are popular with young people , such as KISS FM or CHOICE FM. Posters could be disbalayed in magazines, outside cinemas and on busses. If we had a big budget for promoting our film we could play the trailer on TV. We would put the advert on popular channels that young people watch, like MTV. Or in adverts of shows like Most Haunted . However I think the strongest and most effective form of advertisment would be playing the trailer on cinema screens that play horror movies. This way we already have our target audience , and they are movie "goers" so are more like to go to the cinema to see our movie.

Self -distribution Advantages and

Disadvantages• Only recently has self-distribution become a credible method

to distribute. Self-distribution can be hard work and is often seen as a last option but successful self-distribution has huge advantages.

• Avantages: It saves the film maker alot of money if they distibute the film themselevs.

• Disadvantages: The process can be complicated in a range of areas . From making the poster ads to negotiation with the exhibitors. Also many buyers/exhibitors only have interest in packages of films presented to them by large film distribution companies, rather than individual films from independent filmmakers.