QUESTION 3 – WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

Trang Lam

Examples of popular institutions:

New Line Cinema was established in 1967 by Robert Shayne. Many films distributed from New Line Cinema are the popular psychological thrillers such as ‘ A Nightmare on Elm Street’, ‘Final Destination’, ‘Se7en’ and ‘The conjuring’. In addition, these films were some of the ones that had the highest domestic gross.

Warner Brothers is an American entertainment company where they produce films as well as television and music. Warner Bros also has several subsidiary companies, including Warner Bros Pictures, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, Warner Bros Television, Warner Bros Animation, Warner Home Video, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Entertainment, and DC Entertainment.

Paramount is a film institution, television production company and a motion picture distributor. Paramount is a very popular institution as it is consistently ranked as one of the big six film studios of Hollywood. There are many action thriller associated with Paramount such as ‘Iron man’, ‘G.I Joe’ and ‘Watchmen’.

Summit entertainment is usually associated with horror and crime thrillers such as ‘Now you see me’, ‘Insurgent’, ‘RED’, ‘Wrong Turn’ and ‘Sinister’. Summit was originally founded in 1991 by film producers Bernd Eichinger. Aron Milchan and Andrew G Vajna.

Universal is a very popular institution well known for their action thrillers such as ‘Furious 7’, ‘Battleship’ and ‘The Boy Next Door’. Universal is also one of the big six film companies followed by paramount.

Lionsgate is a Canadian-American entertainment industry that was formed in1997. Popular films distributed from Lionsgate are adventure, mystery and crime films like ‘The Hunger Games’ and ‘Saw’.

20th century fox is an American film studio, distributor and one of the six major American film studios and is popularly known for action, adventure films like ‘X-men’ and ‘Avatar’.

Columbia is an American film production and distribution studio of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group. They’re very popular comedic films such as ‘Smurfs’ and ‘Step Brothers’.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CHOOSING THE RIGHT INSTITUTIONIt’s important to identify and choose the correct institution to distribute my thriller product due to various significant factors of association including genre association, audience expectation and industry reputation. Choosing the correct institution is very important as it helps to promote mu film opening idea which will further interest my audience and result in profit. In addition, once the correct distribution company is chosen, this will help me decide what certain conventions, themes and film making techniques I have to use in order to appeal to my target audience . I need to ensure that the type of institution I pick is appropriate for my type of production.

Each unique institution is associated to a specific genre which will help the audience and industry understand the production, marketing, and narrative of films they produce. Choosing the most appropriate institution will help me understand what type of particular conventions I must use to achieve certain responses from the audience. This will be how the audience decide whether it’s worth watching or not, deciding if it appeals to them. For example, an institution like Walt Disney is well known for animated and moralistic films.

I must choose the correct institution making sure that this particular institution is a respected and a well known one. The reputation of production companies is vital as it increases the amount of viewers judging with the amount of successful films they have made in the past. If the institution has received critical acclaimed reviews, this will bode well for the reputation and popularity of my film.

I must ensure when picking my institution, my thriller production fits well with the expectations of institution. For example, I would definitely not pick Disney as it’s well known for animation and not for psychological, crime thrillers.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CORRECT INSTITUTION CONTINUED

For Audience:

The audience will have certain expectations therefore if they are aware of other popular films distributed by this certain institution, they are likely to pick a film from this company to watch over a different one. Loyal viewers are also likely to watch films produced by that institution if they regularly watch films distributed by the same company. As a result, its important to choose the correct institution according to audiences as we are aiming our thriller production at those who are aged 15-21. Therefore, our chosen institution must be familiar and relevant to this demographic.

Genre:

Genre is important because if a particular institution had released a popular and successful thriller film in the past, audiences are more likely to believe that other films released by this institution will be just as good, if not better. The audience are most likely to watch a new thriller distributed by an associated and popular institution as they’ve been very satisfied by other releases, therefore it’s important to choose the correct institution as the company should be known for producing certain genres as they will be familiar of how to film and apply film-making conventions appropriately.

Industry:

The industry’s reputation is extremely important as the audience are likely to listen to the thoughts and opinions by film critics. On the other hand, if the company had a bad reputation for bad movie releases, then that would lead to less viewers because of the criticism. This is why it’s important to decide on the correct institution making sure we have maximum numbers of viewers making it successful for the current production and other future ones. Deciding on the appropriate institution will increase our chances of more viewers.

WHO WOULD I CHOOSE TO DISTRIBUTE MY THRILLER AND WHY?

After researching institutions who are well known to the thriller genre, I discovered that the institution ‘New Line Cinema’ has many Psychological and Crime Thrillers that were very successful with the audience, therefore my group and I decided to pick this company to distribute our Psychological, Crime Thriller ‘One of Us’. It is a well established company that has been set up ‘since 1967’. Because this company has been making popular films for so long and distributing so many great films, it has earned an excellent reputation within the industry and amongst audiences, therefore we chose this company as it fits with our productions narrative well and its great successes.New Line Cinema fits our genre well and meets the audiences expectations as they have made popular thrillers such as ‘The Conjuring (2013)’, ‘Annabelle (2015)’ and ‘Se7en (1995)’. These films were very successful and possess similar themes to my production such as supernatural, revenge, murder and death that audiences expect from another ‘New Line Cinema’ production. ‘New Line Cinema’ both have strong male and female roles that are very popular with viewers so they are able to relate to them, this is one reason why it’s such a popular institutions. On an international scale, our production is able to be viewed by everyone around the world as ‘New Line’ distribute on an international scale. Furthermore, New Line Cinema has many films that have been rated a high score for its brilliance such as ‘Se7en’ and ‘The Butterfly Effect’ which are both thrillers.

COMPARING MY THRILLER TO OTHER EXISTING THRILLERS MADE BY ‘NEW LINE CINEMA’

The crime thriller ‘Se7en’ is similar to our thriller ‘One of Us’ with similar occurrences and themes like death and murder. It was released in 1995 directed by David Fincher, and had big stars such as Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow. It involved similar content involving an antagonist persistently murdering other people and an anti-hero. The film was well received by critics, holding a 60% positive rating at the film-review aggregator ‘Rotten Tomatoes’. Furthermore, it was based on 68 critics with an average rating of 7.6 out of 10. It was described by one critic “A brutal, relentless grimy shocker with taut performances, slick gore effects, and a haunting finale.”. This successful psychological thriller has earned is name as one of the most popular institutions. This is a similar reputation we hope for as our thriller has similar conventions and themes that these particular viewers are interested in.

The horror and supernatural thriller ‘The Conjuring’ has resembling themes and conventions to my thriller production ‘One of Us’. It follows a story of a supernatural story where an evil spirit is haunting a family. Although my character’s have different roles in this thriller film, it has similar character appearances, for example the antagonist has the same comparable looks to my anti-hero as they both play supernatural characters but with different intentions.

The two comparable films by New Line Cinema are both psychological thrillers like mine, so I believe that the audience will expect certain expectations for my production. This is why I have chosen ‘New Line Cinema’ as it is clear they have an understanding of how to represent thrillers conventionally.

Grudge 2004

Grudge 2004

Stepfather 1987

WHAT BENEFITS WILL CHOOSING THIS INSTITUTION HAVE ON MY MEDIA PRODUCT?

Choosing ‘New Line Cinema’ to distribute my thriller production ‘One of Us’ will be beneficial for my media product as it will be perceived by an audience with high expectations. The institution has a good reputation for distributing successful films so there will be more people wanting to watch my thriller film, as an institution with a good reputation and funds will be able to distribute my production on an international scale, getting more viewers which will increase my box office gross. Furthermore, this institution has many films that have been distributed as psychological thrillers like mine so I believe that those who do know about this film will likely to watch it from enjoyable previous experiences.

‘New Line Cinema’ is classified as one of the most popular and successful institutions due to the audience’s enjoyment which will encourage the audience to then watch my psychological, crime thriller. In addition, I believe that this will benefit my thriller production as it will receive more views and will gain more popularity due to the institutions previous successes.