Media Studies EvaluationQUESTION 3

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

Warner Bros. Pictures

Warner Bros. are an American producer of film, television and music entertainment. It is currently the worlds largest film and television studio. They have distributed several post-apocalyptic films, including: I am Legend, The book of Eli, The Matrix and Godzilla.

Some of the post-apocalyptic films that they have distributed, somewhat relate to our media product in the sense of their narrative. For example the 'lone survivor' protagonist appears in both 'I am legend' and 'The book of Eli'. This suggests that they may be interested in distributing our film if it were to need mass marketing due to its popularity.

However as they are an established company, I do not think that they would be interested in distributing our low-budget film (with its lack of famous actors/directors) at this moment in time.

Lionsgate Entertainment

Lionsgate Entertainment Corporation is a Canadian-American Entertainment company. They are well established but are not as big as Warner Bros and generate significantly less revenue. However they have also distributed many post-apocalyptic films, including: The Hunger Games series, Divergent and The day after Tomorrow.

The post-apocalyptic films they have distributed do not relate to ours as much as the ones distributed by Warner Bros. This would mean our film is less likely to appeal to Lionsgate as they are used to associating themselves with more action-packed films and relatively famous actors which our film does not contain .

Due to the differences between their currently distributed films of our genre and our film, I do not believe that Lionsgate Entertainment would take interest in distributing our media product.

Independent British Film CompaniesAs the two distribution companies that I have wrote about in the previous slides are major American based corporations, there is very little chance they will even hear about our media product never mind distribute it. Therefore I have chosen to look at various independent British film companies as I feel they will be interested in distributing our film as it will not cost them too much.

Companies such as DNA Films and Palace Pictures that are based in the UK, have distributed films such as 28 Days Later and Hardware which are both films of the same genre as ours.

I feel a British film company is best suited to distribute our film as many of their films are based in England and use the stereotypical British setting to attract a niche audience of British people. The distributor would manipulate our film's British setting and actor to attract that audience and make our film successful.

Advertising

As films are nearing their release date, they tend to produce and release film trailers. These trailers can then be shown by cinemas either on screens before other films or on their websites.

Odeon was founded in 1930 and is now the largest and most popular cinema chain in the UK. The homepage of their website features major blockbuster films with famous actors and multi-million pound budgets. They do also show other films that may not be as popular but those films are still usually critically-acclaimed films that have some famous name affiliated with them.

This is why I believe our film would be shown and advertised at Small Film Festivals throughout the UK, the main one being theBritish Independent Film Festival. This festival particularly focuses on British directors that are new to the scene (like myself) who create films and then they give those films publicity and awards.

Conclusion

To conclude, I think that our film would not attract any major distribution companies such as Warner Bros. On the other hand, our film would appeal to independent British film companies such as DNA films/Palace Pictures. This is due to it being set in England starring English actors and it is also a low-budget film that doesn't have much chance of becoming a blockbuster hit.

In addition to this, I feel as if it would benefit from being shown at a film festival such as the British Independent Film Festival rather than at a cinema such as Odeon. This is because it would get more recognition at a film festival, whereas at a cinema it would just be ignored and overshadowed by blockbuster films.