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

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

As a group, we decided that our opening is the start of an action/thriller gritty British Film. This means that we would only use British distribution companies and directors, such as Andrea Arnold who has directed other British films such as Fishtank, Wuthering Heights and Redroad. Andrea Arnold has never directed an action film before, so some people think it would be unlikely that she would choose to direct our film. However, every film she has directed so far has been of a different genre, and so if she liked the plot enough I think she would enjoy trying to develop our storyline into a realistic, gritty, British action film.

The production company used is the UK Film Council. But more importantly company such as Artificial Eye and Limelight Communications would distribute our film to theatres as well as to DVD, if it was successful enough. This is the distribution company used for Fishtank, a low budget arthouse film, which is the same style as ours, hence why we think we would use the same distributers.
Fishtank had a budget of £2million, which would around the same budget we would have if we were to produce the whole film. We don't need a huge budget as we won't be paying high prices for our actors or studio because we would film in urban locations to keep the film looking realistic and relatable, just like the did in Fihtank as they filmed in council flats in London, the expected place to find the characters in the film. We agreed that we would use unknown actors, partly to save money but also because we all believe in showing new talent as much as possible and think this would be a great way to do so.

Originally, Fishtank was produced by the UK Film Council, but we wouldn't be able to do that for our film as this company was shut down and taken over by The BFI.

 The BFI Distribution Fund invests in increasing access to, and awareness of, high quality British independent and specialised films in order to boost audience choice and to enrich film culture UK-wide. They aim to do this in two key ways:

• By supporting the distribution launch of films that have the potential to reach beyond their core market.
• By championing fresh approaches in distribution and marketing that will help films find new audiences, both in cinemas and across additional platforms.

The Distribution Fund has an annual budget of £4 million. Therefore this company would be great to invest in our film as we would only need about half of this money, so we wouldn't be asking for too much from the company. They are also very committed to distributing urban British films as successfully as possible.

Funding strands

There are four distribution funding strands, each specifically designed to address different types of films, release strategies and the associated challenges and opportunities in the marketplace.

Big Audience awards – significant awards to support ambitious releases of new British films with the potential to reach a wide UK audience.

Breakout awards – supporting increased audience reach for exemplary independent British and specialised cinema.

New Models awards – to support experimental and ambitious release models, and creative marketing strategies that seek to exploit new opportunities outside traditional theatrical and marketing routes.

Sleeper awards – targeted at ‘in-release’ films that have achieved exceptional weekend box office results, exceeding market expectations.

Another key distribution company we could approach with our film is Film4, which is becoming more and more renowned for their low budget but successful british films. Film4 works with established and emerging talent, supporting them to tell unique stories and connect with audiences in new ways. In 2011 Film4 launched its groundbreaking new role in exploring innovation in filmmaking with the appointment of Anna Higgs as a Commissioning Executive with special responsibility for innovative talent development, production and audience engagement, with a focus on commissioning film projects that have the potential to explore the spaces and relationships between traditional media, digital platforms and the real world. This was great to know because this means that if we needed our film produced/distributed we have plenty of companies we could go to.

Another gritty British Film we compared ours to was The Sweeney, released in 2012. It had a budget of £3 million, not much more than Fishtank, and was directed by David Love. This film is similar as it was distributed by E1 Entertainment, who are a bigger company than the UK Film Council but are still nowhere near as big as mainstream companies such as Universal. Below is the poster they released, which we would take inspiration from as it features the cars to show what type of genre it is and to show the importance of cars to the storyline. This will attract our main target audience of teenage males as it is less likely for a very young girl to see this poster and want to go and see it. 

We would choose either of these companies to distribute our film (E1 Entertainment or Limelight Communication) and therefore would class our film as a mostly independent film. This means we would release the film in art houses and independent cinemas, such as The Watershed in Bristol which is famous for releasing low budget local films for a profit.
In terms of release dates, I think it would be sensible to do in time for the British Independent Film Awards, as this would be our highest chance of receiving recognition for our hard work. This also helps move production along if the company has a clear release date.









Before it is released, the company would release flyers around cities it would be viewed in, as well as having a few billboards. However, advertising is very expensive and we may not have the budget for over the top advertising such as a huge and expensive premier. The internet would be key to promoting our film as word of mouth would be a huge part of advertising, and now a days this is mostly done through social media. This is definitely important because of the age range of our target audience, who are known for their constant use of social networking sites.

This is a poster released for the film Fish Tank. It is a bit too simple for our genre of film but we would need low budget advertising like this. Our main inspiration would be from the posters of The Sweeney to show off the genre of the film and attract as much of our target audience as possible.