Evaluation Question 3

What kind of media institution might DISTRIBUTE your MEDIA PRODUCT and WHY?


Our film features life as a Teenager and the conflict that young people may experience within the confines of a school such as Love and Jealousy and High-school Life, these are also the themes within our film. This is similar to Clueless, Mean girls and Twilight as they all portray these themes within the genre Teenage Romance.

Spotlight on Alison was produced at our school, Barking Abbey because we thought it would easier as we already attend the school and as the typical settings of films in our genre is located in a school. If we were to distribute our film we would have to improve the quality and format of our film as we had no budget and it is not of what is expected in large cinemas. However having said this, I feel that the storylines and the contents are marketable because films such as High School Musical and Mean Girl focus on the typical themes that we portrayed and have attained a high rating. This means that our film has the potential to be distributed.

The type of media institution that we would considered if we wanted to distribute our film as an independent film would be Momentum Pictures. It’s a UK based film distributor and “is one of the leading independent motion picture distributors in the UK and Ireland and releases approximately 20 theatrical films a year” http://www.momentumpictures.co.uk/ Momentum Pictures are open to any genre. This distribution company would be useful as they distribute a lot of films and it means they may be willing to distribute our film.
Another media institution that we would consider is IFD (Icon Film Distribution) http://www.iconmovies.co.uk/. It is also UK based distributor. IFD have successful distributed films under the same genre as us (Teenage Romance) such as Its a Boy Girl Thing; and are open to independent filmmakers.

The process of distribution is relevant because film distributors are the people that approach exhibitors and convince them that the film would make money. We would need to first create an outline of the film so that we can try to gauge the interest of organisations which would invest in the film such as studios or independent investors. Afterwards, we would arrange for the film to be made to suit the standard that is relevant to the media institution. This is necessary because as stipulated above, the current state of the film may not meet the required standard because of the limited availability of technology and no budget was allocated so we were limited in our production.

Afterwards, the film would be given to the studio, which is responsible for negotiating the licensing agreement with the distributor. The distribution company would then show the screening to potential buyers from the theatres; agree the terms of the lease and negotiate the percentage of ticket sales that would be received. Determine the number of prints that would be required and ensure that it is accessible to all the exhibitors, advertised and the dubbing and subtitling is available where relevant. There is a specify time frame that the film should be exhibited and then it has to be sent back to the distributors.

If we wanted to distribute our film though other distribution methods such a film festival; we could consider LIFF (London Independent Film Festival) as it “is Europe’s top festival for micro budget and no budget films” http://www.londonindependent.org/ LIFF is for independent filmmakers such me and my group. This would be a good choice as it relates to our film because they are open “no budget films” which our film is and is probably the easiest way to screen our film. It has a simple procedure where all you have to do is send your film off with a small fee depending on the lateness (Early (ending June 6), Regular (June 7-Dec 6), Late (Dec 7- March 6)... Fees for feature films are £30 early, £35 regular, and £45 late). The amount asked for is affordable as we are students and don’t have a lot; and can just split between each other as there are three of us and we would not be paying a lot.

Another method is the internet, this is particularly relevant with the development and impact of sites such as YouTube as can be found on www.youtube.com/ another site called MySpace as can be found on www.myspace.com/. We would need to upload the film on the relevant site. This is a good avenue for distribution because it can be accessed by a wide audience because it is accessible by people all over the world, people do not need to pay to view the film, people can rate the film, give feedback, list it as one of their favourite video and the video can be shared and transferred to other sites and emailed to other users from the site. For interactive sites such as Facebook on www.facebook.com/; videos can be viewed and sent to friends on the senders lists and people who are not registered as the person’s friend may also be able to view the video depending on the person’s privacy setting that the individual has opted for their Facebook account.