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

What cinema would be most likely to exhibit our film?
As our film is a very art house styled Film Noir aimed at a  more artistic, stylised and matured audience we would not try to exhibit our film to a mainstream chain such as Vue or Odeon, as it is not a film that would interest the majority of its audience, and they would therefore be unlikely to distribute it, as they aim their films at the wider population with block buster movies such as Harry Potter which has a huge demographic audience, and is likely to sell tickets and make them a large profit. Where as Cinema City have distributed many art-house styled productions, tailored to its target audience  For example, many of the productions that they have shown have been the works of Working Title 2 and other such independent production companies which aim their films at a very independent and niche audience. For example, Cinema City are currently showing Alois Nebel which is a post-war German film, which is shown in Czech with subtitles, and is based on a graphic novel. This is a prime example of a film that is going to have a very small and particular audience, similar to our own thriller, and therefore it is likely that they may exhibit our thriller.
 Ways in which they do this is by targeting smaller groups directly, such as their 'Silver Screens' promotion which targets the over 60's by showing them a film that the cinema think will be of their interest and offering them free refreshments.

Gross profit by country of the film
'A fond Kiss'

 'A fond kiss' and 'Once' are good examples  to show independent niche films and their success internationally. Although they are not of the same genre, they are unique and shot to appeal to a small demographic audience similarly to our own. Both of these films were distributed by icon, and were both shown to be more successful in European countries than the UK and America. This would suggest that our own unique film will also be more successful and appeal more to a European market, focusing on distributing to countries such as France and Germany.

Gross profit by country of 'Once'

How could digital technologies offer new distribution opportunities?
With the rapid growth of the internet, it has bought with it a variety of new and arguably more effective way to distribute media products to its audience.
For example, social networking sites can now track at what else the user has been viewing, such as what websites they have been on, and what products they have viewed; this means that adverts and clips can be tailored to the individual, so that our thriller would reach the intended film enthusiasts, meaning that it is an effective way to distribute our product. In a similar way to this, Youtube find suggestions for the audience with regards to what to watch, based on what they have previously watched, so our audience of our thriller will be more likely to find our film because of they're personal taste in the specific genre Noir. In addition, online television and film streaming sites such as Love Film have set up an exclusive partnership with studio-canal, so that Love Film can distribute studio-canal films first through their online website. This would be an advantage to our thriller, as if it was to be distributed by Studio-Canal it would be an additional method used to distribute our film without any additional cost as the deal is already established. Because of this distribution deal, it would mean that it is more likely for our thriller to reach a larger percentage of our audience, as it is an international website which is appropriate and easily accessible for the majority of our audience , and as films are categorised, those looking for Noir, or independent Niche films will easily be able to do so, and with it our thriller.

Would your status as a student film-maker offer opportunities for distribution?
Being a student film-maker gives us the opportunity to enter student targeted film festivals, which are attended by bigger names within the film industry looking for new talent. Along with film festivals, comes a high level of publicity aimed at independent film makers who may be looking for inspiration, or to aspire to new pieces of work meaning that our target audience especially, are given another opportunity to find out about or film. Along with the press, comes the thousands of passionate film makers and viewers who want to find unique and refreshing independent films, such as our own.
An example of this is the Borderlines film festival, which targets the 250,000 people living within the area, as well as the 20,000 who travel to the film festival, showing previously on average 230 screenings of short films, again meaning a great opportunity to distribute our film to the audience as feed back can be gathered and received  and information about the target audience can be used to then distribute the product on a wider scale most effectively.