Question 3

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

Distribution is the process of delivering films to an audience, the six giants of industry include; Walt Disney studios, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. Pictures. This is done by securing deals with cinemas. Distributors are responsible for the marketing campaign of a film - depending on the genre and target audience of a film this process can vary significantly. For example, having identified a widely differing aged preliminary audience, distributors of The Hobbit (Warner Bros. pictures), set to social media to advertise their release, they had a visually captivating website accessible through the answer of a riddle, a YouTube account releasing behind the scenes clips, and a film blog, They co-branded with "Denny's" a temporary Hobbit themed restaurant, and  New Zealand airlines. 



Distribution is a highly competitive, high stakes area of the film industry and  as a result many low budget 'indie' films go straight to DVD/ digital sale. This is as the cost of making it into a cinema is so high, and as films often contain countertypes, it may not draw the audience necessary to cover the costs. 

Before I discuss the institution would distribute my film it is important to establish the genre and budget - my film is a micro budget, fantasy film opening, without any established stars. As a micro budget film, if it was to continue to a full 90 minute film the budget would likely fall under £100,000, (£150,00 is the cutoff point for a "micro budget"). 

Smaller UK distributors include Columbia pictures, Artificial Pictures and Warp Films. Signature Entertainment came to mind as a suitable distributor for our film, as they have disturbed low budget fantasy films such as Arthur and Merlin.

As a result of such a small budget there are limited distribution options. It is likely a film such as mine may be unable to find a distributor, due to the financial risk of marketing. But as demonstrated by The Hobbit, social media can act as a cost free effective mode of advertising to a younger audience such as ours. Furthermore sites such as YouTube can act as a platform for exhibition of the film, increasingly micro budget films are bucking the trend of a theatrical release and are utilising the web as a platform to share their films.