Honeytrap:
Director: Rebecca Johnson
Producers: Sarah Sulick and Amy Ricker
Editor: John Dwelly
Genre: Woman Director, Drama
Runtime: 93 minutes (1 hour 33 minutes)
Format: HD, 2D
Technologies: ADR used to record lines for extra clarity (they had the issue of planes flying over Brixton whilst filming)
Release Date: 17th October 2014 (London Film Festival)
Only released within the UK/Nationwide.
Production Companies: Bright Pictures, Creativity Capital, Fierce Productions and Finite Films.
Other Companies: 999 24/7 (police vehicles and uniformed supporting artistes), Candid Casting (casting) and Creativity Media (post-production)
Distributor: Anchor Bay (due for release in February 2015)
The film will also be premiered at The British Film Festival and will then be sold to independent distributors nationwide.
Ritzy Cinema: October 17th.
Vue West End: October 18th.
Restricted distribution due to Rebecca Johnson being an independent director and distributor - it will have a fair amount of marketing due to her previous films such as Top Girl being uploaded onto YouTube and therefore being distributed worldwide (virally) however it will never reach the heights that a mainstream film such as Guardians of the Galaxy will do. It is almost impossible for it to become a tent-pole film.
Official Sites:
Extended Trailer
British Films Directory
Synopsis:
HONEYTRAP is a tragic teen romance, set in South London and inspired by true events. It tells the story of 15-year-old Layla, who sets up the boy in love with her to be killed.
Fresh off the boat from Trinidad and full of fairytale fantasies, Layla is swept off her feet by self-styled gang leader/rapper Troy. But in this dog-eat-dog world where being Troy's girl buys her envy as well as status, social outsider Shaun becomes her only true friend.When Troy discards her, Layla is left in ruins. She vows to rebuild herself as a hardened player in order to win him back and Shaun becomes a pawn in her game. Soon the forces she has set in motion are escalating out of control.
- The director chose to tell this particular story as she was inspired by true events that occurred. Telling the story of Layla, a 15 year old who sets up the boy who's in love with her to be killed, it's both an interesting and increasingly common situation. Despite it seeming extremely severe, dangerous and quite frankly shocking, this is what Rebecca Johnson wishes to highlight, in order to bring some sort of humanity and safety to urban teenagers and environments. The film was created to allow viewers to delve deep into the mind of a teenage girl such as Samantha Joseph, the real-life inspiration, and view things from her perspective rather than just a violent 'street' girl - this also allows us to realise the severity of the outcome of her choices and that there are other, safer ways to deal with situations. Rebecca also uses the process of film-making to inspire and challenge young people, aiding them in developing their skills and becoming better people.
Setting:
Brixton, London.
This film is set in Brixton specifically as it's local to the director and is an area that features many young people - especially those of the target audience. This means that it will appeal to and will most likely be more relatable for teenagers and the specific target audience (urban young people aged 15-25 who can relate to the story and cast).
Main Cast:
The cast was chosen specifically by a casting company that go by the name of Candid Casting. The casting process is the same as that of Top Girl - they searched for young people through agencies, theatres, schools and community centres as well as casting young people on the street. This provided them with a large range of interested young people from different backgrounds and ethnicities, as well as different ages and so on... many of these would fit into the desired target audience, also making the movie more appealing to urban teenagers - due to the cast being both relatable and also through association with the cast members in every day life.
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| Jessica Sula as Layla |
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| Lauren Johns as Jade |
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| Lucien Laviscount as Troy |
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| Modupe Adeyeye as Ciara |
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| Naomi Ryan as Shiree |
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| Ntonga Mwanza as Shaun |
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| Savannah Gordon-Liburd as Laetitia |
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| Tosin Cole as Andre |
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Daniella Vitalis as Tonisha
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Additional Cast Members:
Budget:
- Under £1,000,000 (production budget)
- Crowfunding campaign raised £10,000 in 3 days
- £20,000 grant from Walcot Foundation
Target Audience:
- Urban adults (aged 25 and over) who seek out critically well-reviewed films.
- Urban young people (aged 15 to 25) of both sexes who are able to relate to the story and cast, as well as listen to and enjoy the soundtrack artists.
This film would also appeal to a national audience as the target audience isn't restricting - there are young urban people worldwide, along with urban adults who seek out well-reviewed films and so the target audience stretches worldwide rather than being targeted specifically at British teenagers.
The actual audience and media consumption has the potential of being worldwide as the director has ties with Berlin, Rotterdam and Los Angeles at the very least from her work on Top Girl, ensuring additional publicity due to further distribution, which may result in proliferation at a later stage.
Collaborations:
The director, Rebecca Johnson, has collaborated with several different people in order to make this film and it's important as all three play a massive part in both the process and outcome of film-making - acting as a helping hand as well as close friends to the director, they've helped produce the film with their own expertise and perspective.
- David Raedeker: Director of Photography. He first collaborated with Rebecca on Top Girl, which was a great success, and is known for his signature camerawork. He won the Best Cinematographer Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, also mentored alongside Rebecca.
- Tracy Granger: Editor. She has worked on an oscar winning movie and is known for her commitment to projects and the ability to make something great out of barely any planned footage. She is also lifelong friends with Rebecca's mentor who will also provide useful advice and feedback in terms of editing.
- Julie Fawcett: Julie supports young people in projects, based in Brixton, and has backed Rebecca throughout all of her projects; providing crucial advice and much needed resources to make these films possible.
Marketing:
The three main sections of marketing planned by the director are: fundraising, production and festivals/run up to release.
Fundraising:
- Create a profile and start to develop a fan base
- Crowfunding promo sent to potential donors and future audiences, then virally spread
Production:
- Dedicated film pages on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr
- Cast, soundtrack artists and networks of young people, post content from rehearsal, on-set, etc
- Continues as the film is sold to distributors
- Crowdsourcing: set up by the producers in order to allow random people to donate money towards the production of the film. (Indiegogo.com)
Festivals/run up to release:
- Recruit unit publicist/PR company
- Features and reviews in broadsheets
- Target film and urban music blogs
- Engage with networks associated with young people/womens' issues/knife crime prevention
- Link Top Girl with Honeytrap trailer
- Use social networking to spread above content
- Look at possible promotions with WhatsApp/other free message and networking services used heavily by young people
The entire crew and cast and such, along with the director post photos, videos and information about the Honeytrap on their own, personal social networking sites, which allows it to reach a much larger audience; those they network with along with their initial fan-base.
There is only one example of synergy and in some sense, cross-media convergence through the soundtrack being made specifically for the film and being featured throughout it.
