MARKETING THE FILM

The movie “Why Did Ben Collins die”, is a low-budget production mockumentary dealing with a teenage boy’s death due to driving under the influence of ADHD medication which he is not supposed to take but does anyway in order to keep up with his stressful schedule.  The movie is a hybrid of a short movie and a mockumentary, therefore it is directed towards a more niche audience and the general marketing for it would be fairly limited. The marketing for “Why Did Ben Collins die” would mainly focus on printed advertisement. There would be posters, maybe flyers and a couple of articles in selected magazines. There will be a very short trailer which will air in art house cinemas mainly before other art house productions. The movie would have an independent production sponsored by a film festival like Sundance  film festival or a TV channel such as BBC. The movie itself would be accessible on online video communities such as YouTube and Vimeo as short movies, especially mockumentaries are not generally converted to DVD’s. Screening the movie at various film festivals such as Cannes, Sundance or the BFI, would get the movie the much needed exposure and attract various distributors.

There will be various magazine reviews of the movie maybe including screen caps of the movie and an interview with the creators. Due to the nature of a mockumentary, there wouldn’t be big stars within the movie as that would take away from the realistic atmosphere of the movie. Therefore, the main content of said magazine reviews would be about the movie and the plot within it. The poster and the trailer of the movie would emphasise on the mysterious and enigmatic circumstances of Ben Collin’s death, creating a big question mark on why someone so seemingly perfect felt the urge to fall back to something like ADHD medication. This element of mystery will be used in the promotion and raise interest in various audiences outside the general niche audience that is associated with Documentaries. While the movie deals with the mystery surround a teenager’s death, the movie is still supposed to explore the pressure that modern day teenagers carry on their shoulders and what it does to them and the people around them.