A PowerPoint presentation discussing and analysing production and distribution companies in the media business. Also including my final decision on which distribution company to use.

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

2. Our Production Company
We chose to name our production company ‘Grave Productions’ because we wanted to
create an obvious link to the genre of our film.
We then chose our logo because it is simple and also tells the audience what our
production company is about. We wanted to make our production name and logo simple so
it was easy to remember but not so simple that it was uninteresting. Our production
company is a British independent production company called Grave Productions. Grave
Productions focuses mainly on creating thriller/horror movies. The company logo is of a
white gravestone with the production companies names engraved into it with a black
background. This is effective as it is a simple logo and isn't overdramatised, this looks
almost effortless and very simplistic which both help towards the logo being remembered.
This is very much like the logo from Rocky Mountain Film Company, which is a simple
piece of cine film constructed to look like a mountain. As the company is one of the few
British independent production companies, it works with other independent film makers and
helps them get their work noticed.

3. What do Production Companies do?
A production company essentially helps to create the film, it assists in the
budgeting, scheduling, scripting, casting and more. The company usually
looks over the film from the start, when it is just an idea, to the finish, when
it is in cinemas and on DVD sales. They are also accountable for finding a
director and the acting talent required to make up the cast. However,
despite making sure everything goes smoothly they will be held
responsible if anything went wrong on the film, for example an actor being
injured or property being damaged.

4. What is a Distributor
The distributor is a key part of film production, it’s jobs is to release the film
to the public either in the cinema or on DVD. Another role they play in
terms of distribution is the marketing for the film, they are responsible for
promoting and advertising the film through trailers and posters.

5. What is a Production Company?
A production company helps create the film by supporting with budgeting, casting,
scripting and more. It also provides the physical basis for works in the realms of
the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio and video.
Our production company is a British independent production company called
Grave Productions. Grave Productions focuses mainly on creating thriller/horror
movies. The company logo is of a white gravestone with the production
companies names engraved into it with a black background. This is effective as it
is a simple logo and isn't overdramatised, this looks almost effortless and very
simplistic which both help towards the logo being remembered. This is very much
like the logo from Rocky Mountain Film Company, which is a simple piece of cine
film constructed to look like a mountain. As the company is one of the few
British independent production companies, it works with other independent film
makers and helps them get their work noticed.

6. Funding for our film opening
We tried to avoid getting funding from big British production companies, such as
the BBC as we were worried they would try and change our idea so it could
appeal to a wider audience. We decided to try and get funding via the film
council. We had realised that many thriller films are successful films and this
isn’t always due to the fact they had great funding, because films such as the
first ‘Paranormal Activity’ were very successful and had little funding, but what
we realised was that the audiences of these particular films didn’t so much care
about the ‘Hollywood’ actors, they just wanted to be nervous and scared. So
when we received our conformation for funding from the film council, we were
very glad.

7. Titles in our film opening
Our cast and crew were completely British, which meant it was rather small
hence the small amount of names throughout our title sequence. There were
many jobs titles to appear in our opening credits such as the Costume
Designers, Script Writer and Cameraman. We decided to credit the actors as
the first credit and timed this to appear at the same time as the actors were
shown, we thought this would be effective because it would make it clear
which actor was which and give credit to them individually. We decided to put
the directors name last in the credits, as we had noticed this was where it
was traditionally placed in other films, this is because they are believed to
play the biggest role in the production of the film.

8. Similar films to ours
One film which was released very similarly to ours was
‘Amy’ the documentary about the famous singer Amy
Winehouse. This film didn’t have a general release and
was only released to selected Art Houses. It also targeted
indie cinemas but as the film became more popular and
known it was also released into cinemas. ‘Amy’ was
release by a British distribution company called Altitude,
which has released many similar indie films, which not all
but many are quite well known, such as ‘47 meters down’
which is thriller, like our film opening.

9. My chosen distributor
Due the research and information I have found and discussed over the last
few slides, I decided to distribute my film via a Scottish production company
called ‘Sigma Films’. I made this decision because their most recent film
released ‘Citadel’ was a very similar genre and idea to our film opening.
Sigma films also set up an event ‘Film City Glasgow’ which allows smaller
film producers to apply for help with finding locations, getting filming
equipment etc. so releasing our film via this company, would in the long term
help other small producers, like ourselves, develop and create their own
films.