Evaluation - Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A production company is a company that is responsible for the physical production of new media, radio, film, arts or a television programme. They may also be directly responsible for the raising or funding of the production. A production company can be either big in scale, or small. Often, if they are big they can afford to sell their products to a film studio which can distribute the film.

A film distributor can be either a company for an individual. The distributor is responsible for releasing films to the public, which can be either theatrically or for home viewing i.e. DVD, television, download, video on demand etc. 

The distribution of a film is the process in which a movie is made available and accessible for the audience to watch at their pleasure. The first stage of film distribution is by standard release, which is where the film is first released into theatres and then released onto DVD after a period of 16 and a half weeks. If the film proves to be huge success, this is often done earlier. 

A film can also be distributed via simultaneous release where it gets released over a range of media platforms and this is a representation of the growing impact of technological convergence. There are often two sides to simultaneous release however, because although it fulfills the needs of the consumers, as these distribution efforts are often regarded as experimental they do not receive a huge amount in profit/investment or promotion.

There is also a straight-to-video release where the film goes straight to video without being released in theatres first. As a result of increasing DVD sales, straight-to-video releases have achieved higher success and have recently become a profitable market. 

I believe that FilmFour would be interested in distributing our film because they specialize in independent and British films and also develop and co-finance film productions. As they have backed a large number of UK films, I think they would be interested in our film because we are presenting original ideas which are innovative and creative and targeting a wide audience. FilmFour have also produced Slumdog Millionaire which was a very successful film and took in £1,827,457 in its opening weekend with 324 screens. This gives me an initial idea of what our film could achieve if FilmFour chose to distribute it.

Although FilmFour are not necessarily a big conglomerate, I still believe that they would distribute our film effectively because they were rebranded as FilmFour to coincide with the launch of digital TV which shows how they are developing as a company and emerging along with the growth of technological convergence. 

I also think that Fox Searchlight pictures would be interested in distributing our film because they specialize in independent and British films.  They are also the world's 3rd largest conglomerate and are owned by News Corporation. This serves to convey how they are of a large scale and because of this they can afford to produce far more prints of our film rather than smaller companies. They can do this because they know it will be worth it in regards to box office returns.

 

Optimum Releasing are another company that may be interested in distributing our film because they are one of the most prominent distributors in the UK. They are owned by Vivendi, which is a French international media conglomerate. Optimum Releasing release over 200 films a year which shows how they are large in scale.

I think that the UK Film Council could fund our film by providing us with funds for things such as script development and film production. If not we could always consider the lottery film fund as an alternative as there are three funds offering around £17 million per year for the production and development of films. It will act as a catalyst to fund our film.

I think that a film that is institutionally similar to ours would be 'Slumdog Millionaire' by Danny Boyle. This is because it was produced by FilmFour who developed and co-financed it with not a very high budget. Warner Brothers joined with Fox Searchlight to share distribution of the film, but initially doubted the commercial aspects and thought it would go straight to DVD without a US theatrical release. The outcome proved this wrong as Slumdog Millionaire took in £1, 827, 457 in the UK with a showing on 324 screens during its opening weekend.

The names that appear in the credits first are the names of the cast. This is because they are of more importance and are the device which engage the audience, who feel inclined to watch the film because they can identify with the actors/actresses and would be anticipating to see them in a new role. The credits that follow are often of the crew involved in the process of the film because they are of less importance. This is similar to our sequence because we show the company who present and produce the film followed by the cast names and then the other titles such as 'sound by', 'casting by' and 'costumer designer'.

Overall,  I think that Fox Searchlight would distribute our film because they specialize in independent and British films. Our narrative is also complex, but innovative which shows how our creativity can win over the audience and therefore Fox Searchlight would be attracted to this new prospect that we are offering them.