Honeytrap - Helen Dam

Film Chain of Honeytrap

Honeytrap is a 2014 British Urban Teenage Drama film based on gang violence made by Fierce Production and British Film Institute and distributed by Anchor Bay/Starz. Sarah and Rebecca have track records of fundraising and secured an initial £20k grant from the Walcot Foundation.

The budget for Honeytrap was a low budget film of under £1 million. 

The film was produced by Sarah Sulick and Amy Ricker and directed by Rebecca Johnson who also wrote the screenplay. The executive producer is Laurie Holden.

The stars in the film are Jessica Sula who played Layla, Lucien Laviscount as Troy and Ntonga Mwanza as Shaun.

Honeytrap Trailer!

PRODUCTION

The filming was set in Brixton and is inspired by true events. Honeytrap incorporated a training and mentoring programme as an integral part of production. Young people worked with professional crew to feed back every aspect of the film. The whole process of the film making was filmed with freedom and speed which built up the actors skills and relationships. The budget was spent on the music, automated dialogue replacement, sound design and grading for photoshop.

DISTRIBUTION

Honeytrap has been selected for the 58th BFI London Film Festival which runs from 8 to 19 October 2014. The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shots from almost 50 countries. Honeytrap will be released in United Kingdom on February 2015. Anchor Bay/Starz will release the film on cinema screens and then on DVD/VOD in the UK. They also pre-brought the film for Ireland, Australia and New Zealand which was released in the cinemas in 17 October, 2014. The target audience is teenagers to young adults.

MARKETING

For marketing, Honeytrap did traditional marketing such as posters, trailer and print ads. Social media was their main key to marketing, they had three stages Fundraising, Production and Festival/run up to release.

First was Fundraising where they created a profile and developed a fan base, crowdfunding promo sent to potential donors and future audience, then virally spread. Next was Production where they dedicated film pages on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Cast, soundtrack artist and networks of young people post content from rehearsals, on-set etc. Lastly, Festivals/run up to release which is where they recruit unit publicist, targeted film and urban music blogs and magazines. They also engaged with network focused on young people/womans' issues and knife crime prevention. By linking Honeytrap to TOP GIRL, they gained more than 65,000 views and over 1000 views per week. 

EXHIBITION

The film will be released by Anchor Bay/Starz in cinemas and on DVD/VOD in the UK. The official release will be February 2015, however in Ireland, Austrailia and New Zealand the film was pre-brought by Anchor Bay so it was released earlier on 17 October 2014. 58th BFI London Film Festival will show the film on the 8 to 19 October 2014. 

BOX OFFICE

The film was selected for the 58th BFI London Film Festival and Fierce Production was awarded £20,000. Rebecca and her team launched an online crowd-funding campaign for Honeytrap so the public can show support by investing in the film. They raised $40,000 (£25,940) and with £10,000 being donated in the first three days.