Evaluation 3 – What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and why?

Our Production CompanyWe chose to name our production company ‘Grave Productions’ because we wanted to create an obvious link to the genre of our film.

We then chose our logo because it is simple and also tells the audience what our production company is about. We wanted to make our production name and logo simple so it was easy to remember but not so simple that it was uninteresting. Our production company is a British independent production company called Grave Productions. Grave Productions focuses mainly on creating thriller/horror movies. The company logo is of a white gravestone with the production companies names engraved into it with a black background. This is effective as it is a simple logo and isn't overdramatised, this looks almost effortless and very simplistic which both help towards the logo being remembered. This is very much like the logo from Rocky Mountain Film Company, which is a simple piece of cine film constructed to look like a mountain. As the company is one of the few British independent production companies, it works with other independent film makers and helps them get their work noticed.

What do Production Companies do? A production company essentially helps to create the film, it assists in the budgeting, scheduling, scripting, casting and more. The company usually looks over the film from the start, when it is just an idea, to the finish, when it is in cinemas and on DVD sales. They are also accountable for finding a director and the acting talent required to make up the cast. However, despite making sure everything goes smoothly they will be held responsible if anything went wrong on the film, for example an actor being injured or property being damaged.

What is a Distributor The distributor is a key part of film production, it’s jobs is to release the film to the public either in the cinema or on DVD. Another role they play in terms of distribution is the marketing for the film, they are responsible for promoting and advertising the film through trailers and posters.

What is a Production Company? A production company helps create the film by supporting with budgeting, casting, scripting and more. It also provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio and video.

Our production company is a British independent production company called Grave Productions. Grave Productions focuses mainly on creating thriller/horror movies. The company logo is of a white gravestone with the production companies names engraved into it with a black background. This is effective as it is a simple logo and isn't overdramatised, this looks almost effortless and very simplistic which both help towards the logo being remembered. This is very much like the logo from Rocky Mountain Film Company, which is a simple piece of cine film constructed to look like a mountain. As the company is one of the few British independent production companies, it works with other independent film makers and helps them get their work noticed.

Funding for our film openingWe tried to avoid getting funding from big British production companies, such as the BBC as we were worried they would try and change our idea so it could appeal to a wider audience. We decided to try and get funding via the film council. We had realised that many thriller films are successful films and this isn’t always due to the fact they had great funding, because films such as the first ‘Paranormal Activity’ were very successful and had little funding, but what we realised was that the audiences of these particular films didn’t so much care about the ‘Hollywood’ actors, they just wanted to be nervous and scared. So when we received our conformation for funding from the film council, we were very glad.

Titles in our film opening Our cast and crew were completely British, which meant it was rather small hence the small amount of names throughout our title sequence. There were many jobs titles to appear in our opening credits such as the Costume Designers, Script Writer and Cameraman. We decided to credit the actors as the first credit and timed this to appear at the same time as the actors were shown, we thought this would be effective because it would make it clear which actor was which and give credit to them individually. We decided to put the directors name last in the credits, as we had noticed this was where it was traditionally placed in other films, this is because they are believed to play the biggest role in the production of the film.

Similar films to ours One film which was released very similarly to ours was ‘Amy’ the documentary about the famous singer Amy Winehouse. This film didn’t have a general release and was only released to selected Art Houses. It also targeted indie cinemas but as the film became more popular and known it was also released into cinemas. ‘Amy’ was release by a British distribution company called Altitude, which has released many similar indie films, which not all but many are quite well known, such as ‘47 meters down’ which is thriller, like our film opening.

My chosen distributor Due the research and information I have found and discussed over the last few slides, I decided to distribute my film via a Scottish production company called ‘Sigma Films’. I made this decision because their most recent film released ‘Citadel’ was a very similar genre and idea to our film opening. Sigma films also set up an event ‘Film City Glasgow’ which allows smaller film producers to apply for help with finding locations, getting filming equipment etc. so releasing our film via this company, would in the long term help other small producers, like ourselves, develop and create their own films.