Distribution Research- Digital

Digital- Manchester By the Sea was released as an Amazon Prime Original and much like Bird Box the movie gained massive attention even without being released the traditional way through the theaters. However, the movie could not be anymore different than that of Bird Box the two's genres lead to completely different stories and emotions felt throughout the films, with Bird Box being more suspense and thrilling, while Manchester By the Sea was a serious drama that gained an Oscar for the lead actor. Both showing that releasing solely digital is not such a bad idea with both gaining massive success and recognition in different ways with Bird Box inspiring countless videos on social media and Manchester By the Sea winning various awards for their explore film.

Distribution Research- Digital

Digital- Bird Box was released solely on Netflix and was watched by over forty five million Netflix accounts. The Netflix Original became an overnight success with millions of fans posting it on social media and even an entire challenge was created after the film named "the bird box challenge". The movie was marketed through various social media platforms showing trailers or movie poster pics on Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter. The movie was a low budget film with just under 20 million going into the production of the film. Bird Box did far better than any other Netflix Original had ever done and set a new precedent for all direct digital releases to come.

Distribution Research- Traditional

Traditional- The Avengers Infinity War followed the basic guidelines set for movies released into theaters. It sat in theaters for roughly seventeen days and gained a box office of about two billion dollars globally. Some theaters chose to keep the film in their run for longer as it was doing so successful. After the initial release of the movie they waited around ninety days to then release their DVD and Blu-Ray editions of the film to gain even more money from those of whom wanted to own a copy. The traditional way the Avenger Infinity War followed however, would not be a bright choice for our film as theirs is a far lager budget film compared to our small budget found footage film.

Marketing Plan

Point of No Return- 

First idea to market our film, was to create a social media account and make a post relating to the release of the film. This would be a great way to awareness of the film to the youth of the population as many of whom use large social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. Considering that our target audience many focuses on millennials the fact of marketing through an Instagram post seems very beneficial. With Instagram having an aspect that allows you to promote your post to a general audience for a small fee was a huge reason why we decided to choose Instagram as our specific platform.

Another one of our ideas for marketing would be to make a newspaper ad of the missing persons (Nathan Rees and Oscar Baxter). Of course we would have to disclose the fact that it's an ad, but we would try to make it look as authentic as possible. The purpose of the missing persons ad is to draw attention to the found footage film making it look that much more realistic than other films. A perfect example is The Blair Witch Project where they created an entire cite pertaining to the idea of the Blair Witch. Changing that idea from 1999 and creating it into a missing persons ad would give our film that much more of an edge on other movies of the same genre.

Our last idea was that we are going to make a trailer. We would be using a point of view shot from Oscar's perspective continuing from where the film ends. The trailer will open up with camera on the ground looking through the grass out into the distance. This will give the viewer a drastic urge to view the movie, as the trailer will give very little information, while at the same time giving a lot. This also leaves it open to conspiracy theories for the viewers to engage in others who share the same interest.

Official Trailer: Point of No Return Trailer

Target Audience- Paranormal Activity

Paranormal Activity- This movie had a similar projected audience as our film did. They mainly focused on the younger portion of the population from around young pre-teens to younger to mid twenties. The movie was widely successful with a box office of nearly 200 million it is obvious that they produced a quality movie and marketed it well enough to get young people out there to see it. The movie followed the conventions set by none other than The Blair Witch Project, just like the other two movies we would also like to scare our viewers but also make them wonder what would lead after the end of the two minute first couple of scenes.

Target Audience- The Last Exorcism

The Last Exorcism-  This movie is fairly new compared to The Blair Witch Project as The Last Exorcism was released in 2010 but was far less successful. With that The Last Exorcism still had a similar target audience compared to our film. With a large majority of the viewers being teenagers to early twenties (millennials). The niche target audience who enjoy different horror/thriller films would also be our main audience focus. The movie was marketed through a series of trailers with two taking place and they really made the viewer squirm in their seat while watching, leaving the viewer in major suspense and wondered how scary the film must be.

Target Audience- The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project- This movie set a precedent like no other for movies within the same genre of our film. The movie created such a realistic atmosphere with the film makers even creating a website called https://www.blairwitch.com/project/main.html. The site fooled some audience members into truly believing the found footage film was legitimately from those of who died within the movie. Based on the massive success of the film the marketing used with the website and the trailers put out, created very much enticed audience and viewers who were ready to pay. Blair Witch Project's target audience is similar to ours as many of whom had seen The Blair Witch Project (millennials) who would probably be enticed to see a movie similar in style. Furthermore Jaxon and I would like to share the common aspect of creating an original

Conventions/Social Groups/Revisions

Conventions- All in all Jaxon and I's movie successfully followed the conventions set in movie making. Presenting our movie through the eye of the camera, somewhat breaking the fourth wall and acknowledging the audience was a stretch but I believe we succeeded with it, gaining great feedback from our test audience. The P.O.V. conventions set forth by past horror movies was a great template for us to follow. Another aspect we used throughout the movie was the idea of a found footage film, these movies began to get popular through the 1990's.
Social Groups- Our movie represented

Revisions- After we introduced our movie to the test audience we received very positive feedback but we did receive a few critiques that we read over and brainstormed how we could implement them in our movie to better the film as a whole.

The launch of the film was absolutely POSITIVELY phenomenal with a gross of nearly 300 million dollars within the first night it was released. The feedback gained from the test groups was completely necessary for the making of this KILLER film. The introduction to the main characters was within the first 30 seconds and