Evaluation Question Three - What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

The stages of production that my product would go through are:
  - Pre-production
  - Production
  - Marketing
  - Distribution
  - Exchange

The role of a distributor is to release films to the public for consumption. This includes how the final product is rated depending on content, where it is made available to an audience through theatrical release or home entertainment. It also includes the exchange of the product which is when it is sold either to consumers or the rites of the entire product are sold to a different distributor for them to do what they want with it.

A company that would distribute my product is Summit Entertainment, I think this because they have been responsible for distributing films from a similar genre to my product, such as Source Code and Memento. They don't specialize in only the thriller genre though, they have a wide variety of film genres that they have distributed.

Since both Memento and Source Code did quite well at the box officer I would say that Summit Entertainment have a decent knowledge of the target audience for this genre. This would give an advantage to distributing my product because they would know how to approach marketing, advertisement and exchange. My product is similar to some of the films they have already been involved with but differs greatly too, mainly because alot of what they distribute are high budget projects, although not all are. The company has a good reputation because it is still releasing high profile mainstream films newly on a regular basis, this is important because consumers will trust the company. I think that this also helps with more niche films as they can ride their reputation and take risks. My product is more of a niche film so it would fit with this company as they have done some similar releases already and are continuing to do so.

My film would be advertised through an online viral campaign as that is usually what works best for products whose genre is a twist on thriller. This combined with a poster campaign would be the most affective way to create awareness of my product and reach the desired target audience.

I don't think that my film would be suited for film festivals due to the experimental nature of the idea and the possiblity of it being only for a very small niche audience. The best way to distribute my product would be to premiere in cinemas and then make available for digital download on either a website devoted to the film or the production/distribution company.