Johan Folkes A2 Media Blog: March 2017

What is a film distributor?
A film distributor is in charge of how the movie is released. This is important because in order for the film to become successful, the film distributor has to be able to provide the target audience of that film a range and diverse way to acknowledge that the film actually exists. However in order to distribute the film, the film distributor has to learn of the films target audience. The film can either aim at a wide, mainstream audience or it can aim at more of a niche target audience. It is the film distributors job to learn everything about the target audience from what their hobbies may be, their disposable income, what clothes they wear etc. If the film distributor fails to learn of its target audience then the film will be unable to reach its target audience and in result fail. Without the film distributor playing his part well, then the film could end up seeing a failed release. The film distributor has a range of ways that they can reach their target audience from different media platforms to different advertising techniques that can be used within a media platform. There are many media mediums that a film distributor can use such as TV, Radio, Internet, Outdoor ads and cinema ads. All of this is effected by the demographic and psychographic's of the films intended audience.

Deadpool is a 2016 action/comedy apart of the Marvel universe starring Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool was distributed by 20th Century Fox even though Marvel is owned by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 20th Century Fox owns the rights for X-men including mutants and associated characters in which Deadpool falls under this category. This alone tells you that its going to be a big budget blockbuster aimed a a mainstream audience. They first released a teaser poster which showed Deadpools mask within a circle with the slogan saying,' Witness the beginning of a happy ending'. The use of the colours and the font of the poster gives the connotations of an action movie as it gives a masculine feel to it. The use of a vague date of the film release tells the audience that this is a teaser and this means that there will be a lot more anticipation for the main poster and main trailer. The use of a teaser poster is within the word, its designed to tease the audeince and start speculation of the film. There is a clear uniform identity between the teaser poster and the main poster of the film as they both involve the same colour scheme and the same logo. However, the main poster clearly has had more work put into it with having a large main image of the suit of deadpool along with the release date. The trailer of Deadpool begins with what appears to be a sad story of a man with cancer. As the trailer goes on he is approached by a man that says he can save him by turning him into a superhero. This lays out the main plot of the starting sequence of Deadpool and presents the action part. The trailer then takes us to where he is being turned into a 'superhero' to which Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) says, 'don't make the supersuit green, or animated'. This is where we begin to see the comedy aspect of the film and those with foreknowledge of the Deadpool character will know that he is a comedic person. Deadpool made a gross of $787,770,709 in box office alone. This was done primarily through advertising.