What Kind of Media Institutions Might Distribute Your Product and Why?

By Dylan Mann-Hazell

Over the past few months I have been working towards the completion of my product, which fits into the genre of 'horror'. I think that this product, named 'Full Moon' conformed very much so to the conventions of horror films, in terms of the overall story line, the sound, the mise-en-

scene and the setting. The setting was on an abandoned street at night, and in the outside of a forest. The music and sound used were both deliberately scary, in the hope that it would increase the chance of the overall film

being scarier. The lighting, costumes etc., were all stereotypically horror-like in order to conform to the conventions of horror and allow my movie to become as creepy as possible. When getting audience feedback on my film, it was mentioned that my film did indeed scare some people, meaning it has succeeded in its overall aim as a horror. This feedback would lead me to believe that an institution that has distributed many popular horror films would be the best type of company to distribute my film.

One example of a film company that could distribute 'Full Moon' is 'Hammer Film Productions'. This British company that was founded in 1934 is known for it's classic horror films, as well as their new ones, such as the recent 'The Woman In Black'. Some examples of films that Hammer Film Productions has distributed are 'The Curse of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy and Let Me In. All of these films were extremely popular and very much conformed to the conventions

of horror films, in terms of their sound, editing, mise-en-scene and setting. I personally think Hammer Film Productions might distribute my product due to the fact that I have followed the conventions of horror within my film quite like the other films it has distributed, allowing my product to fit into the 'horror' category for which Hammer Film Productions is famous for.

However, if I wanted to go bigger with my film, I would choose a film production company such as Paramount Pictures. This production company is one of the 'big six' studios of America, is the subsidiary of Viacom, and has produced many horror films that have become instantly popular and recongisable, such as Paranormal Activity and Friday the 13th, which have also both conformed to the conventions of horror, meaning Paramount Pictures would be looking for products such as mine to distribute. I would be happy to have my film distributed by this company also due to it's popularity, and for some people, popularity is a major factor contributing to whether they decide view a film or not.

To conclude, whether the company is huge and one of the 'big six', such as Paramount Pictures, or a significantly smaller company, such as Hammer Film Productions, all I need to do is find a production company that is looking for a horror film that has followed the conventions of horror. Having one of these companies distribute my film would make the popularity of it rise significantly, simply because it has been distributed by one of these companies.