Institutional Research

There are many film production companies and distributors that create and distribute films.

Whilst some are UK based, others are US based; there's different pros and cons to each of these. A UK based film production company and distributor such as Hammer Film Productions is an example. 

Founded in the 1930's, this film company is best known for the variety of horror films that is has made during the 1950's to 1970's such as The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula. These incredibly popular horror/thriller films gained a major success in both the box office and reviews; Hammer Film Productions eventually went on to create many sequels. During the last decade, they have begun to make well known revival films such as The Woman in Black and its sequel - The Woman in Black: Angel of Death. The company has also made thriller films, one in 2011 called The Resident, which has similar plot lines of our own film opening - a stalker pursing the main character. 

Using a UK based film production company would help keep costs low and ensure that members of the British public would be attracted to our film and pay to watch it. Often small, independent films made and produced in their own country gain the interest and support of people who live in that region and through word of mouth and reviews cause the film to then gain media attention, praise and box office success in other larger, more commercial countries such as the USA.

US based film production companies often tend to have far more money and therefore a larger budget to use on a film. These means that unlike smaller UK based companies, these larger businesses are able to spend more money on production, marketing and advertising. Paramount Pictures Corporation is a US film studio production company and has a revenue of $1.2 billion in 2011.

Working worldwide since the early 1900's, they've produced a range of famous films such as Transformers (and it's sequels); having a major film company such as this to produce our film would ensure its success. They'd have the money to promote it effectively and also have enough to cover any post production costs such as CGI and sound effects. Paranormal Activity is a franchise of films that whilst might not be a thriller film, it uses suspense to gain and heighten audience interest without the use of major post production. Techniques such as non diegetic music that can be heard throughout the film has its' expenses which is something Paramount Pictures would have helped contribute for.

When choosing film production companies to work on our film, I decided to choose a mixture of both UK and US businesses. 

Lionsgate Films is a Canadian-American production and distribution company founded in the 1960's. 

It focuses on small, independent films - which is what Apparition is - and distributes them worldwide turning them into a commercial success. It's a well known company with many other smaller distributor companies working for them such as Alliance Films and Momentum Pictures.

 

This company will help turn Apparition from a small, relatively unknown film to a hopefully major leading film across the U.S. Lionsgate's main goal is to help produce and then distribute the film worldwide, focusing on Canada and America. 

Vertigo Films is a British film and production company founded in London in 2002.

They also focus on small, unknown British films which have a mediocre to minimal funding budget; this fits with our film, Apparition. They have their own personal goal to produce and distribute four films a year with the help of Entertainment One - an international entertainment corporation. 

Blumhouse Productions is an American production company that produces micro and low budget films, the majority of them being horrors and thrillers; such as The Paranormal Activity series, Sinister, Dark Skies, The Purge and the Insidious series. They focus on producing the film independently and then release them to a large market, which helps reduce costs but also promote the film.

They also have a first look deal with Universal Companies, which means any new or upcoming film, Blumhouse Productions get to refuse it or accept it first before any other production company. This helps our film Apparition, because if was going to work with Blumhouse, it means there's a high chance our film could also get noticed by Universal; due to that deal and how closely they work together.