Evaluation Task 3 - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Our overall idea is of a group of criminal "amateurs" who carry out a heist. They get stitched up and more "professional" people take the briefcase off them. They then have to find a way to get the briefcase back which would prove to be difficult due to the high position that these Mafia-esque men have. It's even harder when the police are interfering.

When coming up with the idea of a high intensity heist with blood and action, I was picturing a Hollywood/New York setting and loads of police on the hunt for the thieves. 

In our opening title sequence, we see a single man with his driver steal the briefcase that the "amateurs" have just stolen. His sort of character is similar to the Mafia where he can't be touched as he is so high up. This is why the aggressive female character (Zell) gets stopped by her male accompany (adam) before shooting the "professional" man (James). Adam knows that if Zell shoots James, all of the Mafia will come after them.

The rest of the film would therefore show moments inside the Mafia's base which would be a very big  expensive house and very heavily guarded. There would also be a lot of high speed chases with fight scenes including weapons and explosions. This sort of film would normally need a huge budget, but as our piece is more stylised, we would want a smaller company that features independent Hollywood films. 

Obviously we would need a company with a good budget to be able to pull off the effects, as well as using money for the marketing and distribution of the film. A films success is mostly reliant on its marketing campaigns as thats how the world becomes aware of your film. Without a successful campaign, you are unlikely to make money and have a successful film.

A group of thieves assemble to pull of the perfect diamond heist. It turns into a bloody ambush when one of the men turns out to be a police informer. As the group begins to question each other's guilt, the heightening tensions threaten to explode the situation before the police step in.

Miramax is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films headquartered in Santa Monica, California. Miramax have a average budget from between $5 and $30 million which would cover the amount effects that we want. They also have a strong connection with Quentin Tarantino who I feel would be the perfect director for our film. However, although Miramax have produced a film similar to ours and they have produced a few action/thriller films like Pulp Fiction, they might not be suitable to distribute as they haven't done many films similar to ours.

http://www.miramax.com 

Warner Brothers is one of, if not the biggest distribution company in the world a long with Paramount, MGM, 21st Century Fox, Universal, Columbia and Walt Disney.

Warner Bros. have distributed many films and of all genres, however their most popular seem to be action or thrillers.

Two films that are very similar to ours are Heat and The Town.

Master criminal Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is trying to control the rogue actions of one of his men, while also planning one last big heist before retiring. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Hanna (Al Pacino) attempts to track down McCauley as he deals with the chaos in his own life, including the infidelity of his wife (Diane Venora) and the mental health of his stepdaughter (Natalie Portman). McCauley and Hanna discover a mutual respect, even as they try to thwart each other's plans.

Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck) leads a band of ruthless bank robbers and has no real attachments except for James (Jeremy Renner), who -- despite his dangerous temper -- is like a brother. Everything changes for Doug when James briefly takes a hostage, bank employee Claire Keesey. Learning that she lives in the gang's neighborhood, Doug seeks her out to discover what she knows, and he falls in love. As the romance deepens, he wants out of his criminal life, but that could threaten Claire.

Warner Bros. have a huge budget and would be able to create incredible special effects. On top of that they too can also get any director they want at a click of a finger. Possible directors would be Quentin Tarantino or Christopher Nolan. Their marketing and distribution campaigns are always hugely successful because they have the money to do whatever they want and they have a huge fan base globally. I think that Warner Bros. would be the most suited to our film.

Lionsgate is a Canadian-American film production/distribution studio and a division of Lions Gate Entertainment. It is the largest and most successful mini-major film studio in North America. It focuses on foreign and independent films and has distributed various commercially successful film series including The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games, The Divergent Series, Saw and The Expendables.

I feel that Lionsgate is similar to Miramax except they have more money. All of their commercially successful series have been action/thriller films and they are well established in Hollywood. They also have a base in the UK if I wanted to shoot there. I would rather Lionsgate that Warner Bros. because of the track record it has with independent films which I feel our film is.

Universal Studios is an American film studio and is one of Hollywood's "Big Six" film studios. They have had mass success with film series such as Jurassic Park, Fast and Furious and Despicable Me. They are also the only studio to have released three billion-dollar films in one year with Furious 7, Jurassic World and Minions.

I love this studio because it distributes a variety of films and they have a lot of money, however I don't think that they would be suitable for our film because they don't tend to distribute thrillers films that involve heists.