The document discusses the decisions made regarding distribution of a student media production called "The Longing". It was decided that the film would be produced by independent companies BBC Films and distributed by Pathé. These companies were chosen because they have experience with technological convergence and cross-media marketing. The document also compares "The Longing" to the social realism film "This is England", noting some ways the production could have been improved such as through more research on target audiences and holding actor auditions. Web 2.0 and social media would be key in marketing the film through its distribution phase.

1. B Y J A C K A R C H E R
WHAT KIND OF INSTITUTION MIGHT
DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT
AND WHY?
Evaluation Question 3:

2. WHAT DID WE DECIDE??
• We decided in the end for our production to be produced
and distributed by independent companies. This was so that
we would adhere to the convention of social realism films
being produced by independent companies.
• In addition, having the film/opening sequence produced by
independent companies cater for the fact that our narrative
includes challenging ideologies, such as our production
dealing with issues that arise from social deprivation.

3. WHAT DID WE DECIDE?? (CONTINUED)
• This consequently challenges the somewhat ‘sanitised’
output that Hollywood provides. Independent
production also corresponds with our niche target
audiences. However, the problem with independent
production, although conventional, these companies
tend to not be horizontally or vertically integrated (as
they are too small of companies to produce other
media products). This is highlighted by the studio system
of Hollywood, as Hollywood tend to work with large,
American conglomerates such as Universal Studios and
Warner Bros.

4. WHAT COMPANIES DID WE DECIDE TO
USE AND WHY??
• In the end, we decided that Pathé would distribute
our film and BBC Films will produce it.
We decided to use these companies because they have worked with
each other previously and both companies have experience in the use
of technological convergence to market their films. In addition, the BBC
Film production team often seek partnership and potential co-
production teams with other independent companies like Pathé and
therefore we felt that these were the appropriate choices at the time.

5. WHAT COMPANIES DID WE DECIDE TO
USE AND WHY?? (CON…)
• Another reason why we decided to co-produce our
production with BBC films is that they are often funded by
companies such as the British Film Institute (BFI). Therefore we
knew that if we were to work with BBC films, we would get
funding from the BFI and also other funding companies such
as “Creative England” and/or BBC films themselves (which is a
good incentive!!)
All these successful
companies potentially
on our side for
funding…BRILLIANT!

6. WHAT HAVE BBC AND PATHÉ WORKED
TOGETHER ON IN THE PAST?
•PRIDE (2014) PHILOMENA (2013)

7. WHERE ARE THERE EXAMPLES OF
TECHNICAL CONVERGENCE WITH THESE
FILMS?
• For ‘Philomena’(2013), technological convergence allowed
BBC Films and Pathé, alongside ‘The Wienstein company’ to
fund and enable their film to be advertised on billboards,
websites and also release trailers etc.
• In addition, technological convergence enabled the film to
be released on DVD and Blu-ray. This shows how these
companies have collaborated with each other in order to
create a better quality version of the film, which is an
incentive for more people to buy the movie and generate a
profit.

8. HOW ABOUT EXAMPLES OF
TECHNOLOGICAL CONVERGENCE IN
‘PRIDE’?
• ‘Pride’ (2014) also had sufficient funding and co- production
from BBC Films and Pathé and were therefore also able to
release their film on DVD and Blu-ray. This also shows how
these companies have collaborated with each other yet
again in order to create a better quality version of the film,
which is an incentive for more people to buy the movie and
generate a profit.
• As this film was also independently produced, their
marketing was more focused on web 2.0 advertising for
converged devices, however they still used the traditional
advertising techniques such as posters etc.

9. HOW ABOUT FOR “THE LONGING”?
• For our production “The Longing”, dependent on
our budget in the real world, I think it would be
beneficial to release the film on DVD and Blu-ray as
this will expand out our audience possibilities, as
more people would be able to watch the film if it
was released on both formats. However, the
problem with technological convergence is that it
can be expensive, and as our production would be
independently produced, like ‘Philomena’ and
‘Pride’

10. SO…THE VERDICT. WERE THESE
COMPANIES THE RIGHT CHOICE?
• In my opinion, having Pathé and BBC films to distribute and
co-produce “The Longing was a good decision as these
companies have worked together before via technological
convergence and other methods. Therefore, they would
have sufficient experience in aiding us to market our
product via below- the- line marketing such as the use of
web 2.0 on Facebook pages, Twitter accounts etc.
• This type of cross- media marketing would be beneficial for
our product as web 2.0 is now more commonly found on
everyday converged devices such as mobile phones.

11. SO…THE VERDICT. WERE THESE COMPANIES
THE RIGHT CHOICE? (CONTINUED)
• As these devices are readily available nowadays to our
younger audience and our older sophisticated
audiences (as they may have disposable income to buy
the latest converged technologies), this will enable our
product to be digitally distributed to as many audience
members as possible, aiding the success of our product.
This is incredibly important for our independent
production, as the digital distribution of our product’s
marketing is reliant on our audience being part of
Gaunlett’s ‘making and doing’ culture and active
participants.

12. AND...
Furthermore, using these companies would allow us
to gain sufficient funds from the British Film Institute
(BFI) and/or “Creative England” to further advertise
our product.

13. ANYTHING WE COULD HAVE
IMPROVED ON??
• Personally although I think that using BBC Films and
Pathé was a good decision, I believe that we could
have possibly considered/ used British Independent
companies that specialise more with the social realism
genre. This is because although companies such as BBC
Films tackle social issues, these are often not based in
the social realism genre and therefore their techniques
would not be conventional to our genre. I think we
should have considered the company ‘Warp Films’ to
produce our film for this reason.

14. ANYTHING WE COULD HAVE
IMPROVED ON?? (CONTINUED)
• For example, we could have more strongly considered or used
companies such as ‘Warp Films’ that have produced films
such as “This is England” which is a social realism product. This
may, in the real world, have allowed us to put their production
techniques into practise, such as the utilization of stock actors
and the conventions of Shane Meadows and Paddy
Considine’s directing.
• Both these directors have directed Social Realism films and
have also directed these films for Warp Films in the past.

15. WHEN COMPARING “THE LONGING”
TO A ‘SIMILAR’ PRODUCT (“THIS IS
ENGLAND”)...HOW COULD WE HAVE
IMPROVED??

16. “THIS IS ENGLAND”
• The film was set at a controversial and cultural point in history (the
early 1980’s in England, when Margaret Thatcher ran the country
and there was racial unease.
• In addition, Shane Meadows, when producing the film, ensured
that it reflected his personal experiences as a child (i.e. Violence
and bullying) that was also relatable to other people too.
• Therefore, here we could have improved our production by
considering more political issues of England in the current
economic and social climate, and catering our editing to do this
(maybe possibly by including high angle shots of Shannon- the
character with African ethnicity, to connote the issues of racism,
for example.) However, due to our independent production and
thus our limited funding, the extent that this could be carried out
would be limited.

17. “THIS IS ENGLAND”...
• Shane Meadows always tended to use non- professional/
stock actors (i.e. Those that were perhaps inexperienced in
acting or were to feature in their first film. He would also train
the actors via workshops and acting exercises. Thomas
Turgoose (who played the main role of Shaun in the film, had
virtually no acting experience.)
• Furthermore, auditions were a key part of Shane Meadow’s
approach to casting. He mainly for “This is England”
auditioned those that originated from similar environments
that are shown in the film i.e. from inner city locations in order
to capture a high level of verisimilitude.

18. “THIS IS ENGLAND”
• We could have improved this in “The Longing”. Although we
used non-professional actors with virtually no acting/ filming
experience (apart from Rosie Jones and Liam Wilkinson) to
create verisimilitude, I feel that we were too quick when
making decisions on actors (this was mainly due to time
restrictions and lack of available actors). But, I think we still
should have been more considerate when choosing our
actors, possibly by holding ‘semi-serious’ auditions for a
number of actors for each role. However, in the real world,
this would cost a lot and affect our remaining budget.

19. “THIS IS ENGLAND”
• Shane Meadows also openly talks about how he found it difficult to
produce his period piece, especially as many of his locations
would needed to have been inner city areas where Satellite dishes
would be... These were not around in the 1980’s England!! In
addition, Warp Films and Shane Meadows had a small budget to
produce the film.
• Shane Meadows was adamant in making every element in terms
of mise-en-scene, appropriate for the film, again to create a high
level of verisimilitude (that the social realism genre demands for.)

20. “THIS IS ENGLAND”
• For “The Longing” I think we understood that every element
of mise-en-scene needed to be appropriate. However, this
might have been forgotten when showing Laura stealing
shower gel! Therefore I think that we should have chosen
something more appropriate for Laura to steal and also
show shots of the gang members using their converged
devices (i.e. Mobile phones) more possibly, to reflect the
trend of young people’s affinity to social media/ converged
devices.

21. “THIS IS ENGLAND”
• Finally, a lot of research was carried out to find out the
popular trends of people in 1980’s English, inner city culture.
This is mainly what introduced the ‘skin-head’ theme in the
film.
• Also, Warp Films are said to “Namely support artists and their
visions”. This therefore shows how Warp Films are an example
of the Auteur theory, as Shane Meadows was able to
explore the issues associated with working class people and
interpret these issues in his own way, primarily through his
personal experiences.

22. “THIS IS ENGLAND”
• For “The Longing” I feel that we could have made more research
into the common trends of teenagers/young adult in the working
class in order to create verisimilitude. This therefore has shown our
possible slight mistake with actors (previously discussed) as the
majority of these actors come from more privileged backgrounds.
However this would again mean more time and money would
have to be spent consequently restricting our flexibility with our
budget, if the film was to be produced in the real world.
• I feel that our production has also been an example of Auteur
theory as we have also explored social issues within the working
class, such as peer pressure and fear. We have shown this through
our own signature style, of using many shots depicting the Laura’s
plight at ‘comfortable distances’ from our audiences i.e. Medium
shots, medium long shots etc. We have also shown this by having a
female protagonist as our main character in the production.

23. “THIS IS ENGLAND”
• I feel that our production has also been an example of
Auteur theory as we have also explored social issues
within the working class, such as peer pressure and fear.
We have shown this through our own signature style, of
using many shots depicting the Laura’s plight at
‘comfortable distances’ from our audiences i.e. Medium
shots, medium long shots etc. We have also shown this
by having a female protagonist as our main character in
the production.

24. THE WIDER
CAMPAIGN…

25. SO…THE FILM IS TO BE RELEASED TO
OUR AUDIENCE….HOW THOUGH!!!
• In order to follow the common conventions of film, the
creation and distribution of a film is done in four main stages,
these are:
• PRODUCTION- when the product is actually made.
• DISTRIBUTION- the product is marketed and sent out to
the products’ audience.
• EXHIBITION- showing/revealing the product to
audience members
• EXCHANGE- where the audience receive the product.

26. PRODUCTION
• This involves 3 main stages:
• RESEARCH- the director(s), producer(s) and rest of the crew
research into the genre, narrative type and conventions that they
want to include within their product.
• PLANNING- the director(s), producer(s) and rest of the crew
then decide shooting dates, what actors are needed when and then
costume, props and locations will be needed for each scene of the
product.
• PRODUCING- the director(s), producer(s) and rest of the crew
then film their production and then edit it all together to create a final
product.
• Companies (such as BBC Films, Pathé, British Film Institute and possibly
Creative England- in our case) would fund these processes so that
they may take place. Our company (JEE Media Productions) carried
out the stages discussed above.

27. DISTRIBUTION
• Due to our company (JEE Media Productions) being an independent
company and therefore not vertically integrated or a subsidiary, we
would in the real world rely on a separate distributor (Pathé). This is
especially as BBC Films often forms relationships with separate
distributors like Pathé, as they are a branch of the BBC. Pathé are an
independent distribution company who rely on below-the-line
marketing due to the small scale of the productions that they
distribute. This means that because we would get limited funding, we
would not be able to afford saturated and/or above- the- line
marketing, despite using cross-media methods.
• Some of our methods of distributing our product would be to use web
2.0 that will be seen by digital natives on converged devices and
create Facebook pages and/or Twitter accounts which will be
regularly updated to raise awareness of our product.

28. DISTRIBUTION (CON…)
• Technology and the internet have become evermore popular and
available to people of all ages, and as our company/ product is seen as,
in terms of “Anderson’s The Long Tail” near the bottom of the tail due to
our product being for a niche audience, it is therefore essential to use
below-the-line marketing.
• This is mainly due to the theory of Wikiomics (Tapscott and Williams) which
states that “if companies do not adapt to audience power and web 2.0,
they will fail.”. This then relates to the “Making and doing theory” by
Gaunlett, which states that “Web 2.0 has empowered the audience to
make their own product”, as the these theories suggest that using web 2.0
is essential to market a media product to the digital natives of today’s
society.

29. HOW ELSE WOULD WE
MARKET/PROMOTE OUR PRODUCT??
Examples of
synergy
marketing firms.
In addition, we would use synergy marketing. This is
because as our media institutions (especially BBC)
are horizontally integrated and the soundtrack for
our production is a rendition of a rendition form a
song from the recent film ‘Fast and Furious 6’ (2013)
we would be able to promote our soundtrack and
the film simultaneously using the tie- in method ( as
our lead actor Rosie features in both the film and
soundtrack!
Other methods of promoting our products would be
to create a website dedicated to “JEE Media
Productions” and “The Longing” that include blogs,
videos and galleries associated with the product to
raise awareness. Furthermore, we would use YouTube
as another method of below the line marketing and
regularly update the channel with news etc.

30. EXHIBITION/RELEASE
PATTERN…
• This process will involve the film being released and showcased to
independent film critics, rewards and review companies, such as the
BAFTA awards and the film would be showcase in theatres/ cinemas and
in small area of England (most likely urban areas) via exclusive/ limited
runs.
• The reason why this would be the most applicable way of exhibiting our
product is that other products such as “This is England” (2006) have gone
through a similar process in order to gain the success that Warp Films
have achieved from the film.

31. FOLLOWING FROM THIS... HOW DOES SOME
OF OUR MARKETING FIT THE ‘AIDA’ SCALE?
• The AIDA scale is used in marketing and advertising that describes
the usual sequence of events that tend to occur when a consumer
engages with a, in this case, a media product! But, how does our
media product’s marketing fit the AIDA scale?
•Attention: Via the use of synergy marketing (as Rosie plays our main
character Laura and also is the main feature of our soul/chill-rap)
and the online distribution and marketing of our product through the
use of web 2.0 on converged devices, our audience will easily
become aware of our production and what it involves.
•Interest of Consumer: As a result of catering our production to those
15 and over, despite our media product being aimed at niche
audiences, our product is still available to the masses. In addition via
the use of brand identity (movie posters, video updates and even
independently produced trailers-although unconventional to
independent co-production) being distributed online will gain the
interest of our consumers, especially as society nowadays has
become a ‘making and doing’ culture, according to Gauntlett.

32. CONTINUED...
•Desire of consumers: This could simply be satisfied by using
persuasive language when distributing the product. However, we
could also show snippets of our whole media product (if it was to be
released in the real world) so that audience members are intrigued
and almost feel obliged to watch the film. In addition, exhibiting our
film via exclusive/ limited runs will allow our target audiences to gage
whether this is the type of film that they will be able to satisfy their
needs (i.e. According to Blumer and Katz uses and gratifications-
personal identity, social interaction etc. And also Maslow’s hierarchy
of needs- morality, self-esteem etc.
•Action: After viewing updates and promotional material from social
media and web 2.0, alongside the utilisation of synergy marketing our
audience should hopefully feel inspired to engage themselves with
the (almost too) stereotypical representations within our opening
sequence and therefore feel the longing (!) to watch the rest of the
film, if it was to be released in the real world.

33. EXCHANGE…
• Keeping our “Web 2.0” theme one of the best ways
to distribute our products to our audience is by
digital distribution on online stores such as
“Amazon” and “Netflix”. This is so that sales of our
product are not limited due to inadequate shelving
space in shops.