Who would distribute our thriller (TASK 3)

Either vertigo or warp would distribute our thriller because it is a low budget distributer and our film is low budget production. Our film would be distributed into art house cinemas like other warp films, such as submarine made by Richard Arayoade and Tyrannosaur made by Paddy Considine. Both of these directors are first time film makers so it is already established that warp are willing to take a risk on first time film makers because there is previous evidence. By having these film distributors produce our film would be suitable because they specialise in low-budget art-house films. Another reason we have chosen vertigo to distribute film is that they support independent directors such as Gareth Edwards who is also a first time film maker making them willing to take a risk on us with us being first time film makers. Much like Gareth Edward who editing Monsters at home we have edited our thriller at school. Another similarity between Monsters and Let the sleeping dog lie is Edwards used a £2000 Sony EX3 camera to film and we used a £3000 Sony NX5 digital HD camera. The reason we are not choosing a large company like Universal Studios or Time Warner is because is all because we have a low budget and our films noir is aimed at niche audience whereas there films are more aimed at the mass audience from every generation. This contrasts to our target audience because we feel that our film would appeal more to those existing in the 1990s the neo-film a period and the 1940s where film noir was for the mainstream audience. As well as this these large conglomerates would not produce our film because they specialise in films that are going to take more money in the box office and on merchandise then ours. Our film would probably make its money through DVD sales and television and as such its limited opportunities would mean that a bigger company would not want to take a risk on us.

Vertigo being a British film company would help us promote our thriller because the British population would want to support the British film industry because they want to make it match Americas industry. This is very helpful to us because our film is made in Britain but based in America make its similar to American film noirs. The film Bronson another Vertigo film was distributed in America through the company Magnolia pictures which specializes in both foreign and independent films. This is we think that it would be suitable to distribute our film through this company in the USA because they would be a perfect match for our thriller. This might help attract our target audience because they have a pre existing customer base, also our film deals with murder, drugs and has a strong female character which is similar to Vertigo films such as London To Brighton. This film deals in social realism and was made for a budget of £187,000 with additional lottery funding. The film had a limited theatrical release before finidng its audience on Film 4 and DVD which is probably similar to ours.

Vertigo specialises in genre films and ours is very much genre based being a film noir. Vertigo work in partnership with the BBC and the BFI on several productions and this would be of benefit to our film for distribution. Combining with other companies through cross media convergence means that they can share the costs. This benefits both the film companies as the minimise their risks by cost sharing and also our film as there is more chance that the BBC would show it on TV and help promote the film throughout the UK and Europe. Another example of a film that utilised this is The Kings Speech, although they still needed to sell it to the Weinstein Company in the US for distribution having the BBC’s name attached help sell the film in the UK as they are considered a worthy and venerable institution.