Evaluation: What kind of media insititution might distrubute your media product and why?

Evaluating the final cut of Talisman, I feel that it would definitely fall into the category of a movie produced by a major Hollywood studio. This is because it reflects the  'conveyor belt', profit driven Hollywood horror movie conventions. For example, making Talisman into a feature film may require a large budget, perhaps for other death scenes that occur later within the film which require more blood, gore and special effects. The typical budget of a major Hollywood movie is around $100 million dollars, contrasting massively to the cost of a British movie (Averaging around £1-2 million). The Budget for the major 2004 USA Warner Brothers picture, Saw, was estimated at around $1,200,000. 

Furthermore, my movie contains a cast of attractive actors and actresses, another convention of the glamorous movies of Hollywood. Leah Williams, acting as Bonnie, is dressed elegantly in a black dress with heavy make up applied. 

However, unfortunately my actors are not famous (A-list actress Amanda Seyfried is used to sell the appeal of movie Red Riding Hood, for example) which would help the sale of my movie; there is little I can do about this, although, I tried to find the most experienced actors that I possibly could for my movie opening. Preferably, my actors would have been A-list Americans, without the Northern British accents, making it easier for the massive USA audience to understand the speech. Once again, there was little I could do about this. On the other hand, many British actors do become successful overseas e.g. Keira knightley, a British actress, has become highly successful in Hollywood, starring in block busters such as Pirates of the Carribbean.

  The themes in the plot of my movie opening e.g. the idea of demonic possession and the inclusion of romance, are often used in Hollywood horror movies. For example, The Possession, released in 2012, focuses on the story of a young girl who stumbles upon an antique box, not knowing that it contains a demonic presence that threatens to take control of her body. Since the release and success of movies such as The Exorcist and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the theme of possession has been a highly popular choice for horror movie narratives. 

The theme of romance is used mainly to draw in a teenage audience who are able to connect with this as a sub-plot in the narrative, seeing it as a reflection of events within their own lives (uses and gratifications audience theory) e.g. the ups and downs of teen relationship  highlighted in Jennifer's Body. In Hollywood, in order to be sure that a movie will take a large profit, it is best not to take a risk with something more experimental and rather use a pattern that has been tried and tested time and time again.  This is the main reason why major studios, such as Universal and Warner Bros. often turn to remakes or chose to make stories that already have a fan base (e.g. popular novels like Twilight) into feature films and why similar storylines seem to reoccur.
 

Already I have made it clear that my movie opening sequence has many similarities to existing products. For example, the plot of my movie has many links to The Possession with the idea of finding a possessed object that attempts to take the life of the finder. The horror movie poster  above highights another similarity: the choice of distressed typography which is conventional of horror movies. Similarly, as mentioned previously, my use of gore was inspired by the psychological thriller, Black Swan and my unconventional style of cinematography was inspired by Let Me In. 

My film also includes that element of romance, reflecting so many existing Hollywood products e.g. The Roommate, Jennifer's Body and, again, Black Swan.  Talisman is a clear example of franchising, using a model that has been successful in Hollywood since the beginning of commercial cinema.

 Talisman is certainly not an arthouse, indie or small British film, despite the use of British actors and the unique style of digital (this new media technology allows independent and low budget filmmakers to create good quality pictures due to it's low cost) cinematography (this was inspired by Let Me In which is in fact a Hollywood movie). 

The story offers nothing thought provoking or mentally challenging as a typical arthouse movie would. Instead, Talisman is made to appeal to the mass audience attending their local cinema chains. The plot is easy to grasp, making the film nothing but a little light escapism. Furthermore, Talisman does not focus on any social/political issues but simply contains a fictional narrative for light hearted fun.

Made for a mass audience, with popular themes and a simple plotline, I would expect Talisman to reach a mass audience and therefore be exhibited in cinema chains e.g. Odeon and Empire, rather than receiving an only online/TV release.  

 

As part of my marketing for Talisman (the role of the distributor) I would create a movie trailer to play before movies  in cinema chains, directing potential audiences to the movie's official website prior to release (e.g. www.Talisman.com- vital for marketing because millions of homes now have access to the internet). 

Similarly, although it is possible to distinguish the 'film industry', media convergence means we no longer live in a world where films, games and music, for example, exist separately. This creates the perfect opportunity for marketing; if the distributor owns the record label creating a movies soundtrack they can advertise this, furthermore, they can use their ownership of the magazine and TV industries to advertise the movie i.e. convergence of industry. We could also expect to see adverts for Talisman on WebPages on the internet as well as pages created for the movie on social networking sites such as twitter and facebook.

Aside from the profit that exhibition would provide (The Possession, a film that is similar institutionally- distributed by Lions Gate, the seventh most profitable movie studio- took a profit of around $3,000,000 on it's opening weekend in the USA alone), Talisman would provide an excellent opportunity for merchandising. The 'talisman' necklace for example, a key and prop and iconography in this movie, could perhaps become a piece of merchandise. For example, with the release of the movie Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton) a new range of jewellery was released by Topshop, reflecting themes found within the movie. Furthermore, Urban Decay brought out an eye shadow palette in time for the release of the film. 

 
Perhaps this could be emulated with merchandise created for Talisman. For example, a replica of the locket from the movie could be sold in high street fashion stores, popular with my 16-24 target audience (Topshop, Bank and River Island, for example). Many members of my target audience who left feedback on my film did compliment the use of this prop.

As well as merchandising, Talisman would also draw revenue from ancillary products e.g. the DVD and Blu-ray release (this provides scope the marketing of other film products too). This could include a directors cut and added extras such as my behind the scenes video and directors commentary. An extended edition of my movie could perhaps be released after the initial DVD release in order to draw in extra profit (people may feel the need to repurchase the DVD for the extra features). Talisman would constantly be drawing in profit from a back log of DVD sales as copies continue to be sold, years after the initial release.

Also, games containing themes from the movie could be released on the official website (perhaps even a full video game for consoles such as Sony PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 could be released to draw in more profit and make the film interactive for the audience- they have the chance to play out the storyline themselves). 

Finally, my soundtrack would also draw in profit as an ancillary product (if the music was original, of course). The Red Riding Hood soundtrack, for example, has been highly successful on itunes. 

 
I feel that Talisman, if released by one of the Hollywood 'big six' studios (Columbia, Warner Bros., Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Walt Disney), would be largely successful and make a substantial profit in many different areas. In Hollywood, profit is the sole aim of creating a film.