Research into Distributors

After doing some thorough research into this topic, I was accumulated a list of possible distributors who could potentially distribute our film. 

These Distributors are linked to the films I researched in terms of similar genre and genre conventions:

• WARNER BROTHERS

• Founded: 1918
• Founders: Albert, Sam, Jack and Harry Warner
• Headquarters: Burbank, CA, USA
• Website: http://www.warnerbros.com/ 

An American conglomerate film company that have released films such as: The Lucky One, New Year's Eve, Sex and the City 2, Valentine's Day, March of the Penguins, Femme Fatale, and Charlotte Gray. 

They are a large film company, and would be a good choice if we were looking to make it a mainstream film that would be accessible to a broad target audience. If we chose this film company, we would have a larger budget, with which we could employ more exotic or more expensive film locations, high quality costumes, lighting and even a cast list including some well-known actors and actresses. 

• PARAMOUNT VANTAGE

• Founded: 1998
• Founders: David Dinerstein and Ruth Vitale
• Website: http://www.paramount.com/film-group/paramount-vantage 

Smaller film company which have released a total of 51 films altogether. Some of these include The Duchess, Enduring Love, No Country for Old Men, Intimate Strangers, Girl on the Bridge, Arctic Tale, and Broken Bridges. 

The company tends to work with niche market films which stand alone and are independent. They particularly look for 'art' type films which are creative and interesting to watch. This film company would be a very good choice for our project because they are a smaller film company which deals with detail and not large-scale films which appeal to a mainstream audience.

• BBC FILMS

• Founders: Christine Langan
• Headquarters: London
• Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/film/ 

A branch of the English BBC who specialise in feature-film making. They work in partnership with major distributors both internationally and in the UK, and have released a total of 88 films since 1994. This small branch of the BBC has distributed films such as The Duchess, Nativity!, Jane Eyre, Made in Dagenham, Becoming Jane, The Men who Stare at Goats, and Brideshead Revisited. 

Again, this company would be a good choice because they deal with a range of different films, they are a local UK company, and they tend not to produce large-scale films. Our film will be a small production for a general audience, and may be better if it were distributed by a small, independent film company so that it is created in detail as intended.  

• PATHE

• Founded: 1896
• Founders: Pathe Brothers
• Headquarters: France
• Website: http://www.britishpathe.com/

The company has released 93 films in all, including The Duchess, The Iron Lady, Oliver Twist, 127 hours, Girl with a Pearl Earring, Cutthroat Island, and The Wedding Planner. 

This again could be a good company for us to choose because they have produced a variety of different films from different genres, most of which aren't necessarily big productions. Like the other, smaller distribution companies, having a more independent company distributing our film will mean that we can work with a smaller budget to create an interesting, visually gripping project. However, independent film companies usually work with niche audiences, and our film is aimed at a more general, mainstream audience.

• QWERTY FILMS 

• Founded: 1999
• Founders: Michael Kuhn 
• Headquarters: London

Feature film development and production company and media consultancy. Together with Citibank, it raised a fund to finance international films including Alien Autopsy, Kinsey, Wondrous Oblivion, Severance, I heart Huckabees, The Moguls, Stage Beauty and The Duchess. 

This is a very small company, and might prove difficult if we were to choose this as our production company. However, it is local and has produced some good films that appeal to a range of different groups of people.

• THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

• Founded: 2005
• Founders: Bob and Harvey Weinstein
• Headquarters: USA
• Website: http://weinsteinco.com/

An American Film Studio that have released 80 films in total, including The Iron Lady, The Artist, Bad Teacher, Awake, Rambo, Scary Movie, Spy Kids, and Miss Potter. 

This company have distributed some very popular films, and would also be a good choice. They cover a range of different genres intended for different audience types. We would have a choice as to whether to make our film a large-scale production, or whether to keep it more low key and independent such as a recently released film by this company named The Artist.

• 20TH CENTURY FOX

• Founded: 1935
• Founders: William Fox, Joseph Schenck and Darryl F. Zanuck 
• Headquarters: Fox Plaza, LA, CA, USA
• Website: www.foxmovies.com 

An American conglomerate film company. Similarly to Warner Brothers, they have many branches, one of which deals with film distribution. Overall, they have released many films since 1915, some of which are: The Iron Lady, Seventh Heaven, Grand Canary, Remember the Day, Love me Tender, Alien 3, and The Day After Tomorrow. 

Alike Warner Brothers, this would allow us to make our project into a large-scale film if we would like to. A great many of their films are well-known, and because they are a very successful and well-known company, our film would be well-marketed. Again, we would have more of a budget to work with, however this might mean that some of the detail and authenticity of our plot is lost.

• MOMENTUM PICTURES 

• Founded: 1996
• Headquarters: London
• Website: www.MomentumPictures.co.uk

One of the leading independent distributors in the UK and Ireland. They release approximately 20 films a year, and among their releases are: The Young Victoria, The Woman in Black, The King's Speech, Chalet Girl, Limitless, Dear John and P.S I Love You. 

Quite a few of these films are simple storylines that stand out among bigger production films. For that reason, this company would also be a good choice for us to consider because they are an independent film company, and are again local which would allow us to support the British Film Industry as opposed to more established ones.

• APPARITION 

• Founded: 2009
• Founders: Bob Berney, and Bill Pohlad
• Headquarters: Los Angeles, USA

An American distribution company established in 2009, and responsible for distributing films such as The Young Victoria, The Square, The Runaways, Bright Star and Black Dynamite. 

They are a smaller film company and therefore have not distributed many films, but this may mean that they spend more time perfecting their projects.

• NEW LINE CINEMA 

• Founded: 1967
• Founders: Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne
• Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA, USA
• Website: www.newline.com

An American film company that produce and/or distribute films. Among their releases are: My Sister's Keeper, The Street Fighter, Blind Date, Damage, The Mask, Elf, The Golden Compass, Monster in Law, and Take the Lead. 

This would be a good company if we wanted to make our film into a large-scale production to attract a general mainstream audience. They have released some of the most popular films that have ever been made, and are a well-established company with a good reputation.


After discussing the different companies that I have researched, we have decided to select Momentum Pictures as our Distributor. This is because we would like to make our film a low-budget, authentic-looking product, which would be better suited to an independent film company as opposed to a conglomerate. Despite Momentum Pictures only being a small company, they have still released some very popular films.

The video below discloses the 'SECRETS TO FILM DISTRIBUTION':

Teaser Trailer

Above is a finished teaser trailer that I created for our film. This allowed me to experience using a different program to the others that we use in class, and in this case, I used the program iMovie. Below I have provided an explanation of what I had to do, and how useful/effective I found the program.

This is the general interface that I had to use. It allowed me to multi-task and find things easily, so for those reasons I initially found it quite simple to use. 

This is the section where you can create your video in a sort of timeline format. I found this similar to FinalCut, and found it easy to navigate and move about the different slides.  

In the bottom left-hand corner is this section where I was able to drag different texts, transitions, audio and even photos if I wanted to add them. There were a lot of choices and again the effects were easy to apply to the video.

This is the main screen where I was able to add and edit the text. Again this is similar to the kind of screen used in FinalCut which meant that I found it easy to use.

This editing panel came up whenever I clicked on the different slides on the timeline. This is where I was able to control the duration of each slide, and the background colour scheme that I wanted.


What didn't I like or find useful about this program?

This program doesn't allow you to add photos from your documents or even desktop. Only camera photos can be added, which means that you don't get many options as to how you want to add media. 

The text transitions were very good, but there wasn't a great many selection of choices to use. This might be particularly inconvenient if someone is looking for a specific kind of text which fits with the style of their film, but I was able to find the right kind of text to correspond with the mood and style of our film.

Treatment

The plot we have developed begins with a typical situation of a troublesome teenage-parent relationship. The teenager Millie is the main character in the film, and hates living at home. Her mum is always embarrassing her in front of friends: walking into her room, texting and ringing to ask what time she is going to be home, asking where she is going or when she will be back...etc... These kind of issues are something which both the younger and older members of our target audience could relate to. One day Millie is trying to do her homework and keeps getting interrupted by her mum, so slamming down her notepad, she storms upstairs to her room. After trying to cool down in her room and not succeeding, she goes out to the park near her house to cool down, and as she enters a girl with a dog (Jodie) bumps into her and drops an armful of files. Millie stoops to help her pick them up, and after a brief exchange of dialogue they go their separate ways. As the main character settles onto one of the swings, she hears Jodie arguing with another girl in a hoody and looks over. The girl in the hoody (Sam) is shouting at her, and grabs for something in Jodie's pocket. In witnessing this, Millie thinks the situation is exactly as it appears - that the girl in the hoody is stealing something from Jodie. She is shocked and sits frozen as the Jodie runs away, and the girl in the hoody runs toward her, looking aggressive. At this point the screen fades out to black and the title of the film appears 'Jumping to Conclusions'. This makes the audience think about the situation, and question the situation they have just witnessed. Then the screen fades back in and the whole scene plays out again but in black and white, and this time around the entire sequence is shown from a different angle. At the point when the girl dropped her files and the main character bends down to help her pick them up, there is a slow motion shot of the girl reaching into the main character's pocket to steal her phone. This time around, it is therefore clear that Jodie was the suspicious one, and that Sam, the girl in the hoody was actually the one taking the phone back. The sequence then continues where it left off and the colour fades back into the shot as the girl in the hoody hands Millie the phone and says 'I was taking this back for you.' When the main character then apologizes, the girl says 'That's alright. I know her, she's been done a few times for stealing. Just be careful when you're out here.' 

This is a five minute short film called 'Jumping to Conclusions', and is aimed at a mainstream audience from teenagers to adults of both genders. We would certificate our film as a 12A because in correspondence with the BBFC guidelines; we are not dealing with matters of discrimination, drugs, horror, language, nudity or sex. The reason we have chosen a 12A is because our film includes minimal violence in terms of a mugging, which could be seen as imitable behaviour for young people. A 12A will also allow us to access a wider target audience which includes teenagers, while ensuring that young viewers are accompanied in order for them to view the film appropriately. According to the audience feedback we collected via our video questionnaire, we have established that certain parts of our plot will appeal to different groups of people. In all, we interviewed people within the age range of 17 - 45. The issue of prejudice will appeal to the young people in our target audience because young people tend to feel that they are wrongly judged on their appearance a lot nowadays, and adults like storylines that make them questions themselves. Most people like plots that have endings or twists that they don't expect, and this is why we think that our storyline will be very effective in terms of our target audience.

This is a linear narrative of the drama genre with a hint of detective and mystery as its sub-genre. It follows the conventions of the genre because it takes a real-life situation which is relatable, and presents it in a way to allow the challenging of stereotypes. We have also created our film in a way that engages the audience because it encourages then to question themselves in terms of prejudice. We plan to have the character in the hoody looking very suspicious in appearance because she will be wearing a hoody and dark clothes, whilst the girl who is doing the mugging will wear classy clothes that will make her appear ordinary and innocent. In doing this, our plot is very challenging of typical stereotypes which people are very familiar with, and will therefore provide an interesting storyline for the audience. 

Our film will stand out from other films in the genre because it uses elements such as text, slow motion, and freeze-frames. This will allow us to engage the audience and to make them second-guess themselves, as well as to help to outline just how situations can stimulate strong prejudices within people.

Final detailed summary of our film

Our Final Idea

After getting our potential audience's feedback on what films they would prefer to see, through the use of our recorded questionnaire, we have made a final decision on what our storyline will contain. The audience were split between the two ideas, some liking idea number one and some liking idea number two, taking this into consideration we have decided to merge the two stories into one which could potentially attract a wider audience including our two ideas from the brainstorm, our film has the twist ending (which was Laura's area of the brainstorm) and is based around the saying "don't judge a book by it's cover" (which was Nikki's area of the brainstorm). 

The teenager is the main character in the film, and hates living at home. Her parents are always embarrassing her in front of friends, walking into her room, texting and ringing to ask what time she is going to be home, telling them not to eat junk food...etc. An argument between the family takes place one day over something and nothing, and the girl storms into her room, wishing she didn't have parents. During the argument, the girl's parents tried to tell her that they were planning to go visit a relative who is ill and would be flying that night, but of course she did not listen.
She goes out to the park near her house to cool down, and as she enters, a girl with a dog passes her and drops an armful of files. The main character stops to help her pick them up, and they go their separate ways. As the main character settles onto one of the swings, she hears the girl arguing with another girl in a hoody, and looks over. The girl in the hoody is shouting at her, and grabs for something in her hand. The girl with the dog runs away, and the second girl runs toward her, looking aggressive.
 At this point, the screen fades out to black, and the title of the film appears 'Jumping to Conclusions'. Then the screen fades back in and the whole scene plays out again but in black and white, and this time around, the entire sequence is shown from a different angle.
At the point when the girl dropped her files and the main character bent down to help her pick them up, there is a slow motion shot of the girl reaching into the main character's bag to steal her phone.
The sequence then continues where it left off and the colour fades back into the shot as the girl in the hoody hands her the phone and says 'I was taking this back for you.' When the main character then apologizes, the girl says 'That's alright. I know her, she's been done a few times for stealing. Just be careful when you're out here.'

Conventions of a Teaser Trailer

Research into Conventions of Teaser Trailers.

Click Here to Find out more about the Time Travellers Wife

This is the Teaser Trailer to The Proposal which i found on YouTube.

Research into Certificate

’15′

Suitable only for 15 years and over

No one younger than 15 may see a ‘15’ film in a cinema. No one younger than 15 may rent or buy a ‘15’ rated video work.

Discrimination

The work as a whole must not endorse discriminatory language or behaviour.

Drugs

Drug taking may be shown but the film as a whole must not promote or encourage drug misuse. The misuse of easily accessible and highly dangerous substances (for example, aerosols or solvents) is unlikely to be acceptable.

Horror

Strong threat and menace are permitted unless sadistic or sexualised.

Imitable behaviour

Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied. Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language

There may be frequent use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’). The strongest  terms (for example, ‘cunt’) may be acceptable if justified by the context. Aggressive or repeated use of the strongest language is unlikely to be acceptable.

Nudity

Nudity may be allowed in a sexual context but without strong detail. There are no constraints on nudity in a non-sexual or educational context.

Sex

Sexual activity may be portrayed without strong detail. There may be strong verbal references to sexual behaviour, but the strongest references are unlikely to be acceptable unless justified by context. Works whose primary purpose is sexual arousal or stimulation are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme

No theme is prohibited, provided the treatment is appropriate for 15 year olds.

Violence

Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable. There may be detailed verbal references to sexual violence but any portrayal of sexual violence must be discreet and have a strong contextual justification.

A 15 would not be appropriate to apply to our film, because we are aiming to target a wide, general audience. Due to the tight restrictions of a 15 certificate, we would not be able to extend the viewing of our film to younger people. Teenagers would have to be supervised by adults, and therefore would probably not bother watching the film. 

Therefore, in comparison with the 12A which we have chosen, a 15 is not the right certificate for our film. 

Certificate Reading for Our Target Audience

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/ DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.

Click Here to read more about the BBFC

Click Here to read about the Structure of the BBFC 

Click Here to see what recent films the BBFC have classified

Once coming to an agreement of the content of our film i began thinking about our target audience. I then went on the BBFC website to read which of the guidelines on the website would be a suitable certificate for our film and audience. The12/12A certificate guidelines on violence were that it is allowed but not to go into detail of the voilence or any injury, we have an arguementive scene's in our film and a robbing which is low violence and agreed this would be the guidelines we would follow for our film. We wanted our potential audience to be as wide as possible, we are able to reach this wide audience as the lowest is age 12 and we dont think that there is an set age for people who will like our film. Using these guidelines we will apply these in the production of our film.

Discrimination: Discriminatory language or behaviour must not be endorsed by the work as a whole. Aggressive discriminatory language or behaviour is unlikely to be acceptable unless clearly condemned.

Drugs: Any misuse of drugs must be infrequent and should not be glamorised or give instructional detail.

Horror: Moderate physical and psychological threat may be permitted, provided disturbing sequences are not frequent or sustained.

Imitable behaviour: Dangerous behaviour (for example, hanging, suicide and self-harming) should not dwell on detail which could be copied, or appear pain or harm free.  Easily accessible weapons should not be glamorised.

Language: Moderate language is allowed. The use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent.

Nudity: Nudity is allowed, but in a sexual context must be brief and discreet.

Sex: Sexual activity may be briefly and discreetly portrayed. Sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. Frequent crude references are unlikely to be acceptable.

Theme: Mature themes are acceptable, but their treatment must be suitable for young teenagers.

Violence: Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. Sexual violence may only be implied or briefly and discreetly indicated, and must have a strong contextual justification.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/12a12/

Our Target Audience

  

Our film would be a low budget film as it is a real-life drama with no physical violence, sex, nudity or swearing. This allows our film to be a family film as it is a simple story of a girl with a twist at the end.

One way to classify audiences is by their class, which is normally judge on the kind of job the main wage-earner of the householder has.

As the concept of class became less fashionable, advertisers started thinking about audiences indifferent ways. One of the best-known was devised by the advertising agency Young and Rubicam.

This is a short video which helps you define our target audience as it gives us a lot of questions to think about when asking ourselves who is our audience and helps to teach us how to understand our target audience when advertising etc.

Next i am going to define our target audience, i am going to do this by going on to the 'BBFC' offcial  website to find our actual classification category that our audience will come under.

Audience Research Questionnaire

To collect our audience research, we went out to film people answering the questions recorded below.

This is a copy of our finished questionnaire:

1. What is your name?
2. How old are you?
3. What is your occupation?
4. Where are you from?
5. Where do you watch films?
6. What film genres do you like?
7. Have you ever seen a short film?
8. Where would you expect to find short films?

Please read our basic ideas for a film:

Idea 1
Character one is sitting on a bench and puts a purse/wallet into their pocket. Character two comes up behind character one and takes the purse/wallet. Character two is not stealing the item, but is in fact returning it to a third character.

Idea 2
A teenager wishes they didn't have their parents anymore and regrets this decision when their parents disappear. However, it turns out that the parents had booked a day trip and had told the teenager that they would be away (but of cours, the teenager didn't listen). They are hugely relieved when their parents return.

    9.  Which of our film ideas do you like?
   10. How do you think we could improve our ideas?


This is our finished video questionnaire:

Summary of Audience Research

For our audience research, we tried to interview as many different people as possible. We aimed for members of the public from different age groups, and managed to find people between the ages of 17 and 45. One of the main reasons we did this is because when brainstorming our film ideas, we decided that we would make our film suitable for a mainstream audience - of both genders and all ages. In doing this, we managed to find people with a range of different occupations such as: a store manager, a student, a sales assistant...etc.

Mostly, the feedback we received from our questionnaire was qualitative. This means that people were able to give their own opinions, which meant that our feedback was more detailed than if we had simply used a list of closed questions. However, the questions 'which of our film ideas do you like?' and 'have you ever seen a short film?' gave us quantitative feedback because we are able to summarize the number of yes and no's that we received afterward. Of the two different pieces of feedback, qualitative is the most efficient and helpful because it allows us to gain detailed feedback to help with creating an effective film idea that appeals to our intended audience. In terms of our demographic, we were limited because we didn't have the chance to travel very far in order to issue our questionnaire. This is shown in the feedback we received from the question 'where are you from?' The people we interviewed were local people from Barnsley who lived in the area, or nearby because of their occupations.

From our questionnaire, we found that most people watch films at the cinema and at home. We were not surprised to discover this, because it is becoming more widely acknowledged that with the development of technology, people are now able to access films via the Internet, on DVD, and on BlueRay. However, it may still be true that the cinema is the most popular place to watch films, because we only interviewed a small number of people. If we were not as limited in our demographic, and we took the time to interview more people, we may find a different result to this issue. As it is, we found that 6 people preferred watching films at home, whereas only 2 people said they watched films at the cinema. As for preferred genres, we found that the people we interviewed liked a range of different film genres including: rom-coms, chick flicks, comedies, horrors, action films and kids films.

When we questioned people about short films, we found that the result was evenly balanced. 3 people had seen a short film, and 3 people had not seen a short film before. This could show that perhaps short films are being noticed more, and is something that most people have heard of. When we asked where people would find short films however, people seemed a little more hesitant in their responses. The answers we received included 'at the cinema', 'at school', 'on TV', 'at awards ceremonies', 'on Netflix or YouTube', or even 'in small cinemas'. After asking this question, it became clear that quite a few people seem to have seen short films, but most people are still unsure as to where they can find and watch them because they are not as easily accessible as longer films that people watch every day.

The people that we interviewed tended to give us positive feedback for our film ideas. Four out of five people preferred idea 2 because they thought it was 'more interesting', it had 'more depth', it 'associated with being a parent', and it was 'something that most teenagers would like and agree with'. One person liked our first idea because they liked the 'unexpectedness' of the outcome. We concluded that idea 2 proved to interest the older people that we interviewed because they could relate to the familial situation that we were centering the storyline around. When we asked for any suggestions as to how we could improve our film ideas, the general feedback was to 'relate to people more' through our characters and situations, and to 'spend some time exploring character 3' because the character is quite anonymous in our plot at the moment.


After looking at the audience feedback we have collected, we have decided to try and merge both our ideas to suit a more mainstream audience. In doing this, we can take into account the constructive feedback we were given, and come up with a storyline that appeals to a range of different people for a range of different reasons.

Possible names for our Film

To make our film more unusual, we decided to try and brainstorm popular sayings that most people in our target audience will be accustomed with, or will at least have heard spoken at some point in their lives. 

The name of our film, whichever of these we choose, will go at the end of our film so that the audience never once suspects the twist in our narrative.


Popular sayings

• More than the eye can see
• More than meets the eye
• Two sides to the same coin
• Be two sides of the same coin
• Don't judge a book by its cover
• Look again
• Jumping to Conclusions
• Misleading

The title we have chosen for our film is 'Jumping to Conclusions' because it sums up our storyline better than the others. Some of the other names we brainstormed are too long, whereas this one is short and snappy, and puts the meaning of our film over to the audience quickly. It reflects the theme we are basing our film on, and engages the audience because they automatically consider whether or not they themselves tend to jump to conclusions.

Below are some examples of fonts that we could consider using for our film title. They are all bold, and most of them capitalised, to show that this is a serious issue that occurs every day. People automatically jump to conclusions on a daily basis. These fonts reflect the fact that we are not dealing with a horror genre, or a thriller, or a sci-fi for example. They look serious and meaningful to reflect the mood of our film.

Logo Ideas



After The use of Photoshop

Before Using Photoshop

 We wanted a bird to swoop down on to the screen revealing our film title, however due to the quality of this image we are unable to carry out this and will have to research a new photo, but we are wanting to stick with the same idea.



 

The Quill i found

The Quill after the colour change
 

Another idea we've had apart from the Swallow, is to get a quill to write out our production name on the screen before our film which will make our film stand out as this is not something usually done. We have decided on this idea because we couldn't find a Swallow that had high enough quality to put on FinalCut Express and this is the same kind of idea.