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

2. What film titles can we compare our film to and
who has distributed these films?
• We can compare our thriller to many big Hollywood films, for example:
Film Title: Distribution company:
Taken (2008)
Enemy of the State (1998)
The Transporter (2002)

3. What conclusions can we draw from
this?
• Firstly, in terms of differences, these are big Hollywood distribution
companies who have distributed these films so they must know that
these films will sell well because of the quality they’re produced at.
However as our film includes the use of low quality cameras and
equipment, there would be a huge risk of these Hollywood distribution
companies distributing our film. These Hollywood films also had a huge
budget invested into the making of the film whereas we had no budget
at all. This is another reason why our film is less likely to be distributed
by these companies.
• In terms of similarities, both these films and our film ‘Hostage’ are
generic thriller films which contain pretty much the same narrative.

4. Is our film more likely to be
Independently distributed?
• Yes, I believe our film is more likely to be independently distributed
because most independent films aim to deliver social realism and
verisimilitude which I feel our thriller includes.
• Furthermore, our production company name ‘Screech Productions’ is
not as well known as big Hollywood production companies such as ’20th
Century Fox’ and does not look as professionally made either. It can
instead be compared to ‘Vertigo Films’, another independent company.
Therefore, I believe our thriller may be suitable for an independent
release due to an institutionally unknown production company and low
budget production stage.

5. • For an independent film such as ours, funds would be
generated by the production company and any sponsors
who are willing to invest their money if they think our film
will be a box office success.
• This is mainly due to the actors used in our film being
unknown in the industry (independent actors) who earn
low wages in comparison to Hollywood actors.
• Our thriller can be compared to Garth Edward’s U.S
Independent ‘Monsters’, as we used cheap professional
cameras to maintain high quality footage at the lowest cost
possible and edited it by ourselves on the program ‘iMovie’,
just like Edwards did. This therefore draws a comparison
with another Independent film.

6. Who would distribute our film?
• The distributors of our film would be companies who have
previously dealt with independent clients such as VUE, Curzon
or Everyman cinema which can be easily accessed by the
public. These various distributors would be named in the titles
of a film so they can advertise their own product through the
screening.
• Alternatively, we could also distribute our film by a UK
independent cinema chain, as this is a cheaper option and
would make more money.

7. What rating would our film have?
• We believe that if our film were to be distributed,
it receive a classification of 15 as there could be a
few scenes which may come across as distressing
for a younger audience. This film may also not be
suitable for that age group due to the dark
content and use of mild violence, for example,
the antagonist knocking the protagonist
unconscious. A key convention of the thriller
genre is to create tension and we believe the way
in which we elicit this is not in an extreme way
suitable for an 18 audience. Therefore, this is why
we decided to classify our film as a 15.

8. How would our film be marketed?
We would market our Hostage via the internet because its upholds a
mass audience. Not only is this a cheaper option but it also enables us
to include a long trailer with no restricted time frame as opposed to
showing it on television. By marketing our film on the internet would
also mean that we could create our own website and be creative in our
approach to attracting an audience.
Furthermore as the internet encompasses a huge amount of users, this
would be the most efficient way for marketing. Such social networking
sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are used by the majority of
internet users, so these sites are vital to ensure recognition and word of
mouth.