TASK 3

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

A media institution refers to the organizations that provide media content and supply the context within which media products are produced. They represent how media is financed, generate profit and the processes of media production themselves. There are many different film industries through out the world such as paramount picture, Sony, 21st century. The kind of media product that would distribute my groups media product would be “film4 productions”. Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel 4. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of low budget and ‘indie’ and ‘alternative’ films made in the United Kingdom.

Our film is low budget and therefore Film4 is good for marketing and promoting our thriller as they will be able to advertise it on their film and TV channel. They also have links with European distributors which will help sell our film in Europe. Due to that our film would be a platform release due to its low budget, it would only need a short release window between cinema and Film4 TV channel. This could benefit us as advertising through its television appearance could benefit our DVD sales. 'Indie' and 'art house' films tend to provoke the audience to ‘think’ more than a Hollywood blockbuster would and have deeper and more intricate plots. Therefore the film institution that would be appropriate for my product would most likely be Film4 as it is not appropriate to glamorise the violence shown in the film as it is a sensitive issue and based on true events. There are not lots of large scale, violent scenes with extensive special effects and explosions, which therefore indicates that it is not a Hollywood Blockbuster. The film requires a low budget because it does not need many special effects, ‘what you see is what you get.’ The opening sequence is shot on mobile phone, throughout the film a large amount of equipment is not needed making Film4 the clear appropriate institution to distribute the product. Gus Van Sant’s film Elephant is also based on the events of the Columbine High School Massacre which was produced by HBO and Fine Line Features (which was the specialty films division of New Line Cinema. It produced, purchased, distributed and marketed films of a more "indie" flavour than its parent company) this reflects the subject. The film’s budget was only 3,000,000 million dollars which shows that it is unnecessary to be produced by a large Hollywood institution. Eden Lake was produced by the independent film companies Rollercoaster Films and The Weinstein Company. It is also a low budget film containing actors that would be appropriate for my own film. This indicates to me that it is most appropriate to have a low budget for my film and an independent film company like Film4.