This document compares the differences between distributing an independent British film versus a Hollywood blockbuster. Small independent films typically have budgets around £1 million, which makes widespread distribution challenging, as they cannot extensively advertise or show in mainstream cinemas. In contrast, blockbuster films like Star Wars have budgets over £140 million, allowing for massive advertising campaigns, theater releases over a year in advance, and hype building around big name stars. However, the document concludes that the film being discussed would be best targeted at a niche audience in order to maintain its storyline and genre distinction, rather than altering it for mass distribution.

1. MEDIA
EVALUATION:
QUESTION 3
By cerys gratton

2. ■ When looking at what kind of media institution would distribute our film, there are
two categories we need to consider and compare. Firstly is it a small British movie? Or
a Hollywood blockbuster. Both have differing areas that would place our film into one
of the two.
■
■ Firstly we would need to look at what type of distribution our film would need. So for
instance if we wanted the film to be shown in cinemas, we would need to be producing
trailers and posters. Maybe even producing advertisements to be placed in popular
magazines.WouldTV companies such as the BBC or ITV do small interviews with
members of the cast? Many of these forms of advertisements can be linked with larger
Hollywood films, since independent British films don’t have the extra money to then
launch large campaigns after the film has been produced.

3. ■
■ So let’s compare, to qualify a film to be a Hollywood blockbuster. For instance the recent release of
the blockbuster film StarWars has just released that there overall budget for the making and
distributing of the film came to a whopping £140 million! With this vast amount of the money it gave
them the power to do multiple target audience researches, release the dates for the upcoming at
least a year in advance. Another benefit to have such a large budget it meant they could create hype
for the film pre and post production, by slowly releasing snippets of the film in the run up to release
and members of the upcoming cast.With so many huge stars starring in the previous films it created
even more excitement around the release since the public wanted to know what happened to their
individual characters after the last story had finished. Another benefit meant that many of the actors
have huge followings when meant they could create hype around them starring in the film.
■ However Hollywood films normally have the backing of big media conglomerates such as warner
brothers and Lionsgate films which help back the film and their distribution.
■

4. ■ All of this information put together means that smaller independent British films have
a much harder time producing and distributing a successful film. Many independent
film companies will only have a budget of £1 million, to produce and distribute the film
in its entirety.This means its a lot more difficult for the film to be shown in mainstream
cinemas, which means its probably shown in small select cinemas. It can’t advertise
thoroughly which means that most of the public don’t even know it exists! Most of the
time when an independent company produces a film it means they are only producing
for a niche audience with a select interest so mass distribution can be unnecessary.
■

5. ■ When looking at the research I have conducted and comparing it with our film
opening. I feel that or product could divert in both directions. I feel that with the
director and maybe changes in the overall story line it could be possible to market this
as a main stream blockbuster produced by a conglomerate. However there is then the
issue that this might cause the audience to categorize this as a horror instead of a
thriller.Which then brings me to the idea that maybe it would be better suited to a
niche audience that will understand the plot but also be able to differentiate between
a thriller and a horror. After reviewing this I finally think that our product will be best
suited to a niche audience because it means that we wouldn’t have to make alterations
to the story line in order for a wider audience to be able to follow the overall plot.