Question 3

What Kind of media institution might distribute your media

product and why?

I believe the main distribution company that would be interested in our film opening, if it were to ‘hit the big time’, would be MARVEL. The reasons for this, are as follows. Firstly, the general type of film opening they distribute

are mostly of Superhero genre. For example, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers.

Our film opening, being part of this genre, will fit MARVEL’s usual target audience of comic-book fans and 15-25 year olds. Their usual demographic based on these groups mentioned above would predominantly be males.

This would also create interest from MARVEL, as after deciding to use female characters, more of the male gender would be slightly more

interested. We took inspiration from this idea, from films such as The Avenger- ‘Black Widow’, played by Scarlett Johansson.

MARVEL

MARVEL, as a distribution company is known globally for its international success against its many rivals in the profession. I believe the reason

for it’s increased success, is because of it’s many different sales techniques.

The sales techniques they utilise are these; both Digital and Conventional screenings, cinema exhibitions, production of their films on DVD. The

much older sales technique goes back to it’s first years. The great and glorious COMIC BOOK! As you can see from the image below, MARVEL

itself have produced hundreds of thousands of comic books, that henceforth gives their company proliferation. Not only this, but do they

reach hundreds of countries around the world, this then gives them extremely successful advertising rates, only to increase their profit and

gets their distribution company name displayed all over. MARVEL would be the perfect distribution company for us, they provide all

types of technological advances that would get our film opening spotted and would help to get the film noticed all around the world,

thanks to their long and esteemed service to the film profession.

MARVEL CONTINUED…

Raising awarenessPreviously mentioned on the last slide, the MARVEL comic distribution company itself is known throughout the world,

through distant countries and known as a household name. I believe their biggest attribute is the production of their comic

books alone. After all, when thinking about the journey MARVEL have taken, their company really started off as just a comic-book producer. Once the comic book industry for them, had

‘taken off’ and the name and company as a whole was getting even more memorable , they began branching off and thinking of those who wanted more... Even more than the soft, smooth

sheets of paper in the comic book, filled with cleverly illustrated comic-strip cartoons. They wanted films. They wanted their

beloved characters to come to life on screen, right in front of their eyes. So this is what they did. In 1944 the black and white

war hero, ‘Captain America’ came to the big screen. It was loved!

MARVEL was now being displayed in a new light and it was certain never to go back. From here, MARVEL was becoming even more of a household name. Not only was this providing fans a chance to watch their favourite character’s ‘kick ass’ against their enemies, but it was also providing the perfect

advertising chance to get the name presented across the globe.

Films!

TrailersWhilst films are in production, often nearing their releases, they produce and release film trailers. What makes MARVEL’s films memorable, is the famous and world renowned MARVEL title comic

book flicker. This then introduces the film trailer itself. They raise

awareness by using their global success to manipulate their audience’s mind, by cleverly

placing together clips from the film itself that would appeal greatly to it’s audience. Such as; Clips where buildings fall down and objects blow up, action and

fighting scenes would be perfect to target their viewers. Watching the trailers for the films, you would be likely to find them on the MARVELHQ

YouTube channel, they post official videos, where fans can comment with their feedback. Not only

this, but again, using their global success in theatres around the world, they post the trailers into

cinemas, and play them throughout showings of similar or same genres. Subsequently, they are

straight away attracting the right target audience.

Reflecting on previous researchI believe my research was good on

distribution companies. I discussed who I believed would be interested in our film

opening and why. However, I don’t think I covered enough about how MARVEL go about

distributing their films and what other technologies they use, such as trailers and

DVDs. I think this is where I could have improved. Finally, another thing I perhaps

could have mentioned, would have been how our film opening itself would attract the

distribution company. I now believe I have covered this in this evaluation question.

My blog page for this post is here-

Follow the link.http://mollybinghamfoundationportfolio.blogspot.co.uk

/2013/02/research-into-film-genre-superheroes_4.html?q=Distribution

I believe DC Comics usual superhero film, i.e. ‘Batman’, delves too much into the

background of the protagonist, whereas MARVEL cover the background, but in a

shorter space of time. This is the effect we attempted to achieve. By showing the

younger version of our main protagonist, looking back on herself when her powers were developing at a young age, we have

given an insight to the background of a character, but not delved too deep. Out of the two big-time distribution companies, I

would opt for MARVEL.

Another distribution company I looked into was DC Comics.

However, I think after watching clips and film openings from DC, they

didn’t seem to grab my attention as much as MARVEL comics. I wanted

to choose a clever distribution company that I believed would really

help our film opening become a global success, if the opportunity

ever were to arise.

The 2nd potential distribution company

The 3rd potential distribution company

I then looked into smaller, independent British distributers and found Vertigo. ‘VERTIGO Distribution company’ is an independent British film distributor, that would be ideal for our film opening for a more niché audience. By ‘niché audience’ I mean, the possibility of our film opening stretching across the country alone. However, I do believe because of Vertigo’s previous work, they appear to have branched over to the Asian market and attracted people from that country. I believe this would be the perfect type of distributor as Vertigo has had great experience distributing all genres of film, to many areas in the country and areas of Asia. Because of the genre and stereotypically British surroundings during the film opening, I would highly recommend this company, as it knows how to attract specific niché audiences, in clever and adapting ways.

VERTIGO CONTINUEDBecause of Vertigo’s short, but intriguing background from 2004, they have been able to capture exactly what their

audience’s for each genre of film wants. I also think that their new and modern ways of independent distribution, will help to

promote my film opening in the right ways, attracting the target audience of 15-25+ years and over, by advertising in all

sorts of ways. Previously known as the typical producer of ‘Lads films’, Vertigo have managed to expand their horizons and offer not just males a taste of their distributed films, but females too. However, looking at surveys produced by their

staff members over the years, the male percentage of followers, is on the increase in comparison to female viewers.

This would fit perfectly with regards to our gender files. I calculated, through research using polls and questionnaires,

that males would be the most likely of gender to view our film opening. The lesser of the two, females, would also be

interested, but the main viewers, males, would be targeted and attracted the most. Their first film they distributed

in 2004, particularly for the male audience.

After completing the above research, and planning the work on my Blog, I had came to the definite

decision that MARVEL was the distribution company for my film opening. The target audience is generally the same (15-25 year olds), It doesn’t immediately

open with action-packed footage, like the majority of MARVEL films and finally, it would appeal to their

higher demographic of males, as there is predominantly female cast members.

To conclude…