HoneyTrap Production

Production Companies:

Fierce Productions and Bright Studios

Producers:

Sarah Sulick and Rebecca Johnson

HoneyTrap was awarded development funding from the UK Film Council (now BFI). They are now in the process of raising production finance, which includes a CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN as well as traditional film finance. Rebecca Johnson is currently in pre-production on her first feature script HoneyTrap with producer Sarah Sulick at Bright Pictures. HoneyTrap received a Development Award from the UK Film Council and aims to shoot in August 2013. Her short TOP GIRL screened at nearly 30 film festivals internationally including Berlin, Clermont‐Ferrand and Los Angeles. TOP GIRL won several prizes and awards and sold to various broadcasters including Canal +. She was featured as one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow 2009 and selected for the UK’s prestigious Guiding Lights programme, under which she was mentored by BOURNE and UNITED 93 director Paul Greengrass. Both Paul and his Oscar‐winning editor Chris Rouse continue to play mentoring roles in her writing and career development.

HoneyTrap introduced a CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN in which members of the public fund for the movie to raise the production finance, as well as traditional film finance.

HoneyTrap Distribution/Marketing

Distribution

HoneyTrap is being distributed in cinemas and has also been selected for the London Film Festival which runs from 8th to 19th October 2014.

Oct 17, 2014 8:45 PM
Ritzy Cinema, Screen 2

Oct 18, 2014 3:15 PM
Vue West End Cinema, Screen 7


Marketing

HoneyTrap introduced a crowd-funding campaign on a website called 'Indiegogo' to raise funding for the film and also public awareness of the movie to get the movie more known. They've been retweeted by Telegraph and Sight & Sound on Twitter in the Brixton buzz, thanks to the boys at Multitude Media.
HoneyTrap collaborated with several music artists including Russo, Killa P and Skwilla to provide the score and also sourcing more emerging talent as they near production. They will be using the same casting process as as TOP GIRL- searching for new talent via agencies, theatres, schools and community centres and street casting. The director of photography is David Raedeker.
The film is being marketed on different websites to become widely known, these websites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Vimeo.

HoneyTrap Exhibition

Exhibition

This film was released in October 17^th 2014 at the London Film festival by the BFI. It is also released in independent cinemas as it is for now a restricted release, one of the places in which it is released is in the Ritzy cinema and Vue cinema in West End. On February 2015 the film will further be released to the rest of the public.

HoneyTrap Marketing/Distribution

Marketing

The target audience is urban 15-25 year olds. As they are more likely to relate to this story, and 25 year old would be looking for critically acclaimed films and that is what Honeytrap is.

First in the marketing they had to start fundraising they did this by …

1)   Creating a profile and start developing a fan base 

2)   Crowd funding promo sent to potential donors and future audiences 

Next they had to start creating a buzz for their film …

1)   They dedicated film pages on Facebook, twitter and tumblr

2)   The cast, soundtrack artists and networks of young people posted content from rehearsals and on-set. 

Closer to the release date, they used other ways in which to create a bigger buzz. 

1)   They targeted film and urban music blogs ad magazines, that focused on young people / women issues and knife crime prevention 

2)   Linked Top girl with their film to gain followers who watched it. 

3)   Looked at promotions with blackberry messenger, whatsapp and other free message and networking services used heavily by young people.

Distribution

The distributer for this film was Anchor Bay, they have also distributed Machine and Spartacus and other films in a wide range of genres.

Being an independent film means that getting a distributor is much harder then a big blockbuster film, this is because they don’t have as much money to put into it so there is no wide release as of this minute. 

Honeytrap PDME

PRODUCTION

• Producer - Sarah Sullick

• Sarah Sullick produced Top Girl which Rebecca Johnson liked and therefore decided to collaborate with Sullick on Honeytrap.

• The cast was scouted in community centres, through agencies, and street casting.

•  Filmed in Brixton and a lot of the cast was Brixton as Johnson was familiar with the area and the people in South London because she had been working in the area for over 10 years.

•  Young people in the area were employed and contributed to the production process of Honeytrap.

• Honeytrap is inspired by a real life case and explores gang culture from a girl's perspective.

• FUNDRAISING - people made donations for the production of he film on Indiegogo

• ADR was used to record the lines of the cast for Honeytrap

• A grant from the BFI was given in order to make the film.

•  Dedicated film pages on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr 

•  Cast, soundtrack artists and networks of young people post content from rehearsal, on-set etc. 

•  Continued as the film was sold to distributors

DISRIBUTION

• Distributor - Anchor Bay (They have also distributed films such as 'Little Princess' & 'Spartacus'

• Independent film makers can contact the distributors and tell them when the film can be distributed.

MARKETING

• Target Audience - Urban adults (25+), who seek out critically well-reviewed films.

• Urban young people (15-25), both sexes, who relate to story and cast and listen to soundtrack artists.

• 

• The film makers targeted urban music blogs and magazines (Grime Daily & RWD) to advertise the film

•  Engaged with networks focused on young people/womens’ issues/knife crime prevention

•  Looked at possible promotions with WhatsApp, Blackberry Messenger and other free message and networking services used heavily by young people.

Honeytrap Production

Production 

With independent films it is all about networking and mentoring and knowing someone who knows someone is the best way in which someone is going to get a job. Rebecca Johnson is the director for Honeytrap, while watching Top girl she had decided that she wanted to work with whoever produced it and that was Sarah Sulick who became the producer of Honeytrap. David Raedeker id the director photographer of Honeytrap he was selected as the same man who had mentored Rebecca mentored him.

The main cast for Honeytrap was Jessica Sula playing Layla, Lucien Laviscount playing Troy and Ntonga Mwanza playing Shaun. They found the films cast through multiple agencies, theatres, schools, community centers and street casting.

The technologies used in the making and filming of the film is an ADE, which is an Automatic dialogue replacement that was used to record lines for the additional clarity of the sound, as there are many planes that fly over Brixton. Sound designs and grading added to the colour, brightness and saturation.

The filming was done in Brixton as Rebecca Johnsons had been filming in Brixton for 10 years working with people in the communities. She feels as though young people have slipped under the radar and wants them to feel involved in society. During the Filming of HoneyTrap a training and mentoring programme where young people will work alongside a professional crew.

The film was made mostly of funding, given to them by donations from the public and companies like the Walcot Foundation.

HONEY TRAP PDME

Production
Rebecca Johnson used networking to get people to contribute to the film.

ADR was used to record lines for the film.

Filmed in Brixton

People were given money to fund the film, this is called crowd sourcing (Indigogo)

The film was given a grant by the British Film Industry (BFI)


Distribution
Distributor: Anchor Bay (Used to Sparctacus & Little Princess)

The film makers can contact the distributor and tell then why the film can be distibuted. (Independent film distribution process)

Marketing
The target audience for the Honey Trap is 'urban adults who seek out critically well reviewed films' and 'urban young people (15-25), both sexes, who relate to story and cast and listen to soundtrack artists', so the marketing used was their plan to attract these audiences.

The film makers targetted film and urban music blogs and magazines for advertisement (Grime Daily & RWD)

Advertisement through social media sites (Twitter, Facebook, Youtube) and also through free online chat services such as Whatsapp or Blackberry Messenger.

Exhibition
Release date : October 17th 2014 (Film Festival)

Will be released on February 2015

Rebecca Johnson nominated for Best British Newcomer

Exhibition/ Exchange of Honeytrap

BFI Film Festival Honey Trap Poster 2014

    

• The date of release - October 17th 2014 (BFI London film festival) released in feb 2015 officially in cinemas

• Restricted release (2 screens BFI) - Ritzy cinema 17th & Vue West end cinema 18th

 

Ritzy Cinema, Brixton

Vue Cinema, West End, Leicester Square

• Ritzy cinema is independent, picture house cinema located in Brixton - Relates to the setting of the film.

• West end cinema appeals to the target audience (Urban adults - 25+ & Urban young people - 15 - 25) as there are many tourists and people from different age groups in one area. In addition, it broadens the audience and spreads awarness about the film.

• Technologies used - HD

• Director (Rebecca Johnson) nominated for best British newcomer award at BFI Festival

• trailers -7,235 views

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHfCeClJEFI

Honeytrap - Saffron

HONEYTRAP

About the film...

HONEYTRAP is a tragic teen romance set in Brixton and inspired by true events. It tells the story of 15-year old Layla, who sets up for the boy in love with her to be killed. It is a low budget independent film therefore cannot afford the same promotional and distributional techniques that Guardians of the Galaxy did to get noticed by the public.

Production company: Bright House Studios
Distribution company: Anchor Bay
Producers: Sarah Sulick and Amy Ricker
Executive Producer: Laurie Holden
Writer/Director: Rebecca Johnson
Editor: John Dwelly
Budget: £1,000,000
Funding: Indiegogo campaign
This movie is funded by members of the public and have had 44 funders in Great Britain raising £8,560.
Genre: Tragic teen romance/ Urban drama
Release date: 17 October 2014 (London Film festival). Due to be released in UK cinemas in February 2015.
Formats: 2D and HD
Marketing:  Social media was the key strategy when it came to marketing. Along with the traditional marketing methods which consisted of posters, a trailer, print ads etc...
Target audience: Young people (15-25) of both genders who are able to relate to the story and cast.

Starring:

Jessica Sula as Layla

Lucien Laviscount as Troy

 

Ntonga Mwanza as Shaun

 

Naomi Ryan as Shiree

 

Danielle Vitalis as Tonisha

 

Lauren Johns as Jade

 

Tosin Cole as Andre

 

Savannah Gordon-Liburd

 

Modupe Adeyeye as Ciara

 

Technology being used:

 

The technology that will be used is:

• ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) - lines need to be recorded to sync for additional clarity (lots of planes fly over Brixton)
• Sound Design- the hugely talented folk at our post production facilities house will create sonic landscapes to bring you into the world of the film, both the external bustle of Brixton and the inner world of characters' psychological space.
• Grading- Photoshop for moving images. This is where the look and feel of the film are created with tweaks in colour, brightness and saturation and additional touches like flare - our favourite! 

There was no synergy between Bright House Studios and any other production company, this is mainly due to the fact that it was a micro budget movie and couldn't afford to synergise with any other company. However it was selected for the BFI London film festival.

 

 

There is an example of cross media convergence as they created a Honey trap soundtrack album which will be compiled and produced by Buck's music group.

 

 

Fatma Al-Faqeeh