What kind of media institution might

distribute your media product and why?

Daniel Bruce

INTRODUCTIONThe distribution of a film (or movie) is the process through which a movie is made available to watch for an audience by an institution of film. These institutions are known as established profit based organisations that deal with the creation and distribution of a particular film. Most are American and based in Hollywood, Los Angeles coincidentally where the famous red carpet is, and in most cases the setting for most of the films who’s institutions have a HQ there.

These institutions control almost everything about the film apart from the actual film itself. They make sure that the potential audience are completely aware of the production, and see to it that the film gets the correct advertising and marketing to gain maximum audience and eventually make the most capital for the institution and the circle continues.

OUR PRODUCTION

For our film as it would be an independent production I think we would find it hard to find a top quality producer to take on our film, as it requires a huge amount of investment and risk, however if I had a free choice then I would choose high quality distributors who I know have produced top quality films thriller films such as Shutter Island and Inception. 

A production company creates ideas and motion pictures, TV programmes, and adverts etc. - they may also find funding for the products they produce. Companies such as Universal, Paramount and Phoenix Productions are all highly regarded in the thriller industry and so if we could manage to emphasise our film to them then lots of publicity would be gained swell as funding. We also created our own company ident entitled BCES productions, this particular ident represents our own private company in which funding would have to be granted to before the release of the film.

CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD INSTITUTION

A distributor is also someone who is reliable and would get the film out there and support it fully. In terms of success rate I am fully confident that company's such as Paramount and Universal would be more than reliable when marketing out film. The funding for the film would usually be provided by the company itself however there are various charities and events such as the BFI's London Film Festival where we could appeal for further funding.

A good example of this would be the BFI speaker Jake Hume who’s film (Sixteen) won an award at the film festival, and this is another way we could launch our opening title sequence in to the industry.

INSTITUTIONS IN OUR OPENING SEQUENCE

The names of the production companies and various starring actors all have their own slide to make sure the audience know who player what roll in the film. On the bottom right is our groups ident/production company who produced the film.

Furthermore  the Producer and Director also have their own separate slides as they are a huge part in the movie and it is generally in their contract to have this privilege. This particular privilege is shown on the right and side, where an institution will always want the audience to be aware of exactly what institution/distributor is in charge of the film they’re going to see.

MY INFLUENCE

In terms of influence on our film as the Director I looked to companies such as Paramount Pictures, Universal and Phoenix Productions. I chose to look at these companies because I know they produce top quality Thriller films which generate vast amounts of money every year.

These companies provide huge amounts of inspiration for myself in there films for me as they are always able to hire the top quality actors, and as a result of their funding means that they can really set the scene for the audience and include big set pieces, special effects  and much more. This helps to keep the audience on the edge of their seats throughout. Also as a keen viewer of all films I've always recognised and identified with the institutions when watching films as they usually stand to me, in fact I often remember the soundtrack to 20th Century Fox’s ident. This goes to show that institutions have a huge impact on the audience themselves and exactly what films people will watch, often sticking to familiar, reliant companies because the audience members enjoy the films produced by that particular institution.