Honeytrap Research

The film was directed by Rebecca Johnson, who was the director of also the critically acclaimed film 'Top Girl,' which way of production was used very similarly with Honeytrap. 

This feature film is base on the case of Samantha Joseph, a true story. In july 2008, Samantha led a sixteen-year-old Shakilus Townsend into an ambush. This tragically ended in the murder of the young sixteen-year-old, by Samantha's boyfriend and his gang. 

The film was produced by Sarah Sulick, an american who moved to Britain to continue doing the thing she loved which was creating films. 

The budget of this film was under £1 million, which was primarily sourced through donations from the public (crowd funding) and corporate social responsibility. This was not such a big problem for both Rebecca and Sarah, as they have had a strong record for raising money quickly, they secured £20,000 grant from the Walcot Foundation.

The casting stage of the film was similar to the casting stage for 'Top Girl.' They searched for young people in agencies, theatres, schools, community centres and even did street castings.

Sarah is part of a company 'Bright Pictures' an independent company, she has also had one of her films 'The waiting room' sold to different companies in order for them to be viewed in different countries, (the film was sold to Lionsgate in order for it to be viewed in the Uk, IFC Films for the US and E1 for Canada.)
They used camera's and sound design was also very important.

The film was produced in Brixton, this was important because the director wanted to work with people in and around the community to be able to create a film that looks realistic to the actual idea of producing a film that reflects the actual reality of young adults in the society we live in.

The production team were first brought attention to Anchor Bay/ Starz, a distributor, who they found during their first campaign. This distributor will be in charge of releasing the film into cinema screens and then later DVD/ VOD in the UK.

Honeytrap's target audience for the film is :-

Urban adults (25+), who seek out critically well-reviewed films

Urban young aged around 15-25

Along with other traditional marketing tools like, posters, trailers, print ads on buses etc, and social media will be key to their marketing strategy as it is free and mostly everyone can access the sites. 

Facebook- 1,173 likes

Twitter- 297 followers

This film is a very good example of helping young adults to prosper in life, rather then commit crimes or just wonder the streets. This film changed the lives of 30 people, which is a impressing amount for an independent film. The production team also included a community Liaison, Julie Fawcett. This was the person who helped and supported the young people that were all involved in the film production and taking part in the Fierce projects.

This film will appeal to a national audience because it is a film based in the Uk and it focuses on young adults and their struggles in society which is topic that is highly known and many people can relate to this type of story or maybe just for others it allows them to see exactly the problems that engulf society and young people in it.

The role of the BFI London Film Festival is to get the movie seen and if it is liked by the festival it will give the film high ratings and recognition for the director and production team. 

Honeytrap's release is mostly national, begin released in the UK and Ireland. However it is also to be sold to Australia and New Zealand, these countries are some that are not so much giants in the film industry but the key idea is the film being distributed to a range of different audiences. 

The film is due to be released in UK cinemas in February 2015, the date is not yet confirmed which means that the distributor is planning out a release weekend that will get the most sales for the box office. 

The film has been selected by BFI as the 'Official Selection' and the director has been nominated for 'Best British Newcomer' Award.