Initial research for evaluation questions 1 + 2

1. What kind of company would distribute your product?

The main film distribution companies include…

• 20th century fox - have distributed films such as the Home Alone franchise, 27 dresses, Chicken Run, Adaptation, the Garfield franchise, and more.

• Lionsgate - have distributed films such as La La Land, The Hunger Games and The Divergent Series.

• Universal Pictures UK & US - have distributed films such as The Jurassic Park franchise, Jaws and The Despicable Me franchise.

• Vertigo Films - have distributed films such as Monsters, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Walking on Sunshine and Bronson.

• Walt Disney - has released the most films that have crossed the $1-billion-mark, for example Monsters Inc., The Princess Diaries, and Finding Nemo.

Our film is quite similar to the film Taken, however with a slight twist as it is a wife doing the rescuing rather than a father. It also revolves around a telephone call which is similar to When a Stranger Calls (1979), in which a  murderer rings up a caretaker and threatens to kill her and the kids. Taken was distributed by EuropaCorp and When a Stranger Calls was distributed by  Columbia Pictures, and so ideally I would want one of these to distribute our film.

2. Who would be the audience for your media product

• The genre of our media product is a thriller.
• There is some violence - shooting - so it is not suitable for young audiences
• I would probably give it Rating 12, as there is some swearing and violence but nothing too hardcore.
• An ideal audience would be from a ‘western’ society as they are usually more interested in action films with violence, mystery, a hero figure etc. it is set in a rural England town thus might appeal more to those to live in similar areas, such as Sussex.
• Since the hero in our film is a woman and this is a countertype representation we would not want an overly traditional or  narrow minded audience, so we would be aiming for teenagers and young adults, those in their twenties and early thirties.
• An ideal audience member would have hobbies like playing sport, video games, cars, and would not typically enjoy films like romance or comedy, preferring action films, thrillers and horrors. Whilst these sound like quite masculine ideals, since the protagonist is a woman, we would also want women in the audience and think our film would attract them. People who cannot accept the idea of a strong woman in a role that a male actor would usually fill would not be an ideal audience member.
• Our film is not overly glamorous, flashy or ‘hollywood.’ The protagonist is not unusually wealthy, on the surface she has a fairly normal life. (except that really she’s a spy.) Thus most audience members will be able to relate to her so our film isn’t only for a narrow category of people.