British independent films typically have lower budgets than Hollywood blockbusters because British production companies cannot afford large budgets. Most British films do not use many production and distribution companies either, as they cannot pay for production and distribution due to their small budgets. In contrast, Hollywood blockbusters have higher budgets as they are funded by major conglomerates like Disney, Universal, and Warner Bros. These large companies can afford big budgets to attract large audiences with famous actors and quality resources.

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

2. BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILMS
British independent films are those made in Britain using
British Film Industries and not by big Hollywood
conglomerates. British Independent Films usually have a
lower budget because companies in Britain cannot afford
to spend large budgets on films. Most British films don’t
use many production companies because British
production and distribution companies will not be able to
afford a budget needed to make a film.
British Independent films don’t use many production and
distribution companies to create their films as they cannot
afford to pay for them to be produced and distributed due
to their small budget. They use multiple production and
distribution companies to fund their films because British
film industries haven’t got the money to spend on a film
that people may or may not watch. British independent
films are usually less popular because there are lots of
Hollywood blockbusters that use large budgets to fund
their films and because British independent films can’t
afford large budgets, they do not have the resources
available to make their film better.

3. Here are some British independent
films:
• Borrowed Time - £120,000 budget
• Starred Up – £2 million budget
• The Selfish Giant - £1.4 million budget
• Philomena - £7 million (estimated) budget

4. HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTERS
In contrast to British independent films, there are Hollywood
Blockbusters that tend to use big conglomerates to produce
and distribute their films. Hollywood blockbusters tend to have
a higher budget as the major conglomerates can afford to
spend money on the resources and famous actors for their
films to gain a bigger audience. Some of the major
conglomerates are: Fox, Disney, Universal, Warner Bros/ Time
Warner, Sony and Paramount. These companies use large
budgets for their films because they know audiences are going
to see them based on their experience and popularity. For
example, Disney are known to create films for families and
children, and due to the success of their films, children will
want to go see the films and parents wouldn’t mind allowing
their children to watch them because they know Disney films
are entertaining for their children.
Hollywood blockbusters use a lot more distribution companies,
in particular than British independent films. This is because
they have larger budgets than independent films and due to
big conglomerates funding these films, cinemas are more than
likely to show Hollywood blockbusters because they are more
likely to get a bigger audience than British independent films.
Also the Hollywood blockbusters tend to have larger budgets,
therefore they can pay to have celebrities in their films. This
makes audiences want to see the film more because they know
the actors or stars from previous films and might enjoy
watching their acting and know the film will be good if that
actor is in the film.

5. Here are some Hollywood
Blockbusters
• The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $200,000,000
(estimated) budget
• Thor 2 - $170 million (estimated) budget
• The Dark Knight Rises - $250,000,000 (estimated)
budget
• Gravity - $100,000,000 (estimated) budget

6. OUR FILM
Our film would probably be a British Independent
film because we had a small budget and we used
British actors and characters when filming our
opening. Distributing our film as a British
independent film could be beneficial because it
can gain a wider audience, such as British people,
due to the film being British. Also the target
audience could be females as the film is based on
a woman or targeting people who enjoy watching
thriller movies. Because our film is rated 15, the
film will not be suitable for people younger than
this age, so the target audience would be young
adults or middle aged people. The fact that we
used a very small budget, in fact we didn’t have a
budget, therefore we didn’t have to pay for any
equipment or resources. Having a small budget is
ideal for British production and distribution
companies because British film industries cannot
afford big budgets for their films.