Evaluation question 3

1. Evaluation question 3
Charlie Beadle

2. What is an institution?
An institution is a company that can distribute media products out to the
public, if a picture, a CD or a film, they can get it out to the general
population. A film can be released nationwide or internationally,
depending on how good the product is and how big the institution
distributing is.

3. Which companies distribute in my genre?
My genre is horror, so I am going to research some institutions and their products
that are horror related and look at how they are distributed. I am going to look
at:
 The walking dead
 Zombieland
 Shaun of the dead

4. The Walking Dead
The walking dead is a tv series produced by AMC, an
American tv network, about a zombie apocalypse.
This series is distributed by AMC themselves on their
own tv network. This helps advertise the channel and
also allows the channel to get exclusive access to the
series, allowing them to broadcast to other stations
at their own will, meaning that they have full control
over who shows the content. Along with AMC, the
walking dead is broadcasted on Channel 5 and Fox.
This is helpful as in the UK, AMC isn’t available, so
with the addition of the series to channels such as
FOX and Channel 5, it opens the series up to a new
audience that is international. AMC have produced
some other major tv series such as Breaking Bad, a
massive tv series that finished in 2013, however is
still being talked about to this day.

5. Zombieland
Zombieland is a film that is produced by Columbia
pictures, and is also distributed by Columbia
pictures. This is because they are both part of the
Sony Conglomerate, the main company behind
many different studios, both in film and music,
allowing its members to distribute/ advertise across
many different types of media to reach as many
consumers as possible. The company generally
release to America, but also go international for
box office smashers, such as zombieland, which
gained $24,733,155 in its opening weekend.

6. Shaun of the dead
Shaun of the dead is a film produced by
Universal pictures, another conglomerate
subsidiary. The film was distributed by
universal studios worldwide. It was first
distributed around the main media consumer
countries such as the USA and the UK, then
later on distributed in countries such as
Germany, Finland and the Netherlands. This
is part of a three part movie trilogy
consisting of; Shawn of the dead, Hot Fuzz
and The worlds end, each containing Easter
eggs referencing each's others films. The
same actors star/ perform in each. This helps
promote the film, making it easier to
distribute.

7. The distribution companies
The distribution companies that have distributed these three films are
 AMC
 Columbia pictures
 Universal pictures
Other companies that could distribute my media are
Ø Warner Brothers
Ø Film 4
Ø Studio Canal

8. Columbia Pictures
Columbia pictures have distributed many different films, including: Captain
Philips, The karate Kid, RoboCop, Spectre, Zero Dark Thirty among many others.
The company distributes a wide range of content under different genres. With
zombieland combining both horror and comedy, it was noticed by the company
and ended up being very successful in the box office. I feel like Columbia
pictures would be a good distributor for my product as it could open the
audience to my film through the use of conglomerate advertising, showing
trailers /posters across the different platforms of media that are owned by them.

9. Universal Pictures
Universal pictures is the biggest distribution company, with the top 25
grossing films coming from their studios, they aren’t short of hit titles.
They cover a lot of different genres, such as Jurassic world, bridesmaids,
Fast and furious, E.T and many more classics and box office hits. Much
like Sony, Universal pictures is a major conglomerate company and can
cover most areas of media with advertisement for my product. Looking
through the list of films however, they haven’t released any serious films
devoted to zombie/ apocalyptic scenarios. With the exception of Shawn
of the dead, however that is more comedy orientated with an aspect of
horror rather than the other way round. For this reason I believe that
although universal pictures would be a good choice, there is better
choices such as film 4 productions that cover more amateur/ independent
style horror films.

10. Film 4
Film 4 productions is a film company that mainly
distributes films that bigger companies wouldn’t, such as
127 hours, 12 years a slave, attack the block, Frank etc.
These films are generally produced by small companies
with non- familiar cast and directors. This amateur
cinematography wouldn’t be worth the conglomerate
distributors time, money or effort however Film 4
specialises in these sort of productions, and some still
make a lot of profit, such as 127 hours, which made
roughly $18,000,000 gross profit. I feel like Film 4 would
be a good company to distribute my film as it specialises
in amateur productions and generally distributes films that
feature suspense and thrill the viewer.

11. Conclusion
In conclusion, I believe if I distributed my film, I would probably wish to
distribute with Film4 as they specialise in cinematography such as mine. The
films that they create are distributed physically and on their TV channel, film4,
available to anyone with a digital antenna connection. This showcases all films
that they produce, as well as films other companies have distributed to them,
showcasing the best in films that they have made, with a good mix of blockbuster
hits and amateur, first time productions.