The document discusses different options for distributing an independent film project. It describes various film distribution companies and strategies. Based on the genre of the student's psychological thriller film project, an appropriate distribution partner would be Stage 6 Films, an independent company that specializes in low-budget films. Stage 6 distributes 10-15 films per year, making it a good fit for an independent student project. Marketing strategies like film festivals, posters, and social media could help get the film noticed by its target audience. Overall, an independent distributor is recommended over self-distribution due to the distributor's experience and resources.

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

2. What is distribution
Distribution is when you try to get your film as noticed as possible to achieve the greatest amount of coverage and
success to your target audience, it is usually followed by when, how and how much money will be possibly
spent/spent on the film.
Each and every film is distributed differently as they could be a Big Hollywood film or a film from an independent
company or even just a smaller film.
The producer(s) receive the money to finance the film and they then control the budget for the film, if it is a big
Hollywood film then obviously there will be more people to control the finance of the film as it will be bigger.
In order to get funding you would need an investor so that you can use that money to advertise your film and so
that you can get the audience awareness of the film higher.
By getting your film more advertisement it increases the audiences awareness of your film.
Films that are made by big Hollywood companies usually have their own distributing sections along with their own
film companies.

3. Types of Distribution that a company could use would be: TV , radio, trailers, posters, premieres,
interviews, press previews and line campaign
Most marketing funds are more then the actual film fund and the objective is to get as many
screenings across the country a the same time. This strategy is known as 'Saturation release'.
Low budget films would need to find their own distributer e.g. at a film festival as they wont be
able to distribute the film through most advertisement e.g. TV adds, so they would need to use
more of the advertising that could still reach the same amount of people but is cheaper or free
e.g. Posters, Internet
Every copy of a film costs money so in order for them to get the film to the audience they would
need to choose to show the film in key areas around the country and hope that they audience
would have a positive view on what they saw. If they get a positive review then they would be
able to get a wider release later on. This strategy is known as 'Platform' release.

4. Most independent distributers have a specialty in a particular genre/style so that they mainly
focus on making specific films for that genre in their own style.
In British filmmaking they would be able to look for multiple types of funding but because of the
lack of income from the British film industry funding is rather scarce as they tend to make less
money then
other films.
The different types of funding a British film could get could be:​
The government as a limited amount of money can be given to the film company, but it will never
go over 30% of the films actual budget as not that much of the public finances would actually be
used.
The Lottery is made available through the UK film council and the total budget would be £20
million which would then be replaced by the BFI also known as the British Film Institute.

5. The Lottery is made available through the UK film council and the total budget would be £20
million which would then be replaced by the BFI also known as the British Film Institute.
There has been multiple issues of both of these types of methods as the majority of the film
either fail or they bring in less money and are poorly received by the audience.
With these films they mainly focus their money on the production and not the distribution which
is where the problem is as the distribution get the attention that the film needs to succeed.
The Television companies used to be a huge funder for British films e.g. Film Four until they had
to withdraw due to the fact that of spiraling costs.
If a British film where to want to get funding from a American Major company they would need a
big start name that would get the film recognition along with the audience behind that start as
well as, a popular genre, a well known director, based on a book or TV series or comic.

6. Examples of Distribution companies
• 20th Century Fox
• Fox SearchLight Pictures
• Paramount
• Sony
• Time Warner
• Universal
• Disney

7. • For psychological thrillers a specific distribution company that distributed a film that we researched would be
Fox Search Light Pictures which distributed The Black Swan which is one of the films that we took inspiration
from along with Don’t breath which was distributed through Screen Games and Stage 6 Films. Even though
Don't Breath is a thriller we used the idea for editing and camera work as to us it seemed that there were codes
and conventions of a psychological thriller within the movie.
• An example of this would be that during the film they mainly focus on the camera work so that the audience
would feel as though they themselves were in the movie, we then tried to do the same so that the audience
would somehow feel connected to the character.
• Another film that we took inspiration from was Memento and this movie had four distributors which were
Pathe, Entertainment One, New Market Films and Summit entertainment.

8. From looking at the distributers that distributed these films I would think that either Fox
searchlight productions or stage 6 films would be our distributer and this is purely because of the fact
that they both are into different genres, but Fox is further established within the film as it being one of
the biggest well known film production companies, whereas Stage 6 films I had only just heard of for
films.
Realistically I think we might be able to get an independent distributer/funding for our film/opening,
from looking at all of the distributors and from knowing about some of them, I have gathered from my
research that we would need a distributor well known within this type of genre and within the film
industry.
I think that with our genre being Psychological thriller the best option for us would be with Stage 6
productions which is actually one of Sonny Pictures Entertainment companies that deals with
producing and distributing.
As Stage 6 "produces and distributes 10-15 low budget" films every year I think that we would be able
to appeal to their requirements for taking a film.

9. The reason for this being that we have shown through our work an idea that we have turned into an
actually project that does work.
Although there are flaws within our work our variety of codes and conventions of a typical psychological
thriller can be seen.
For example we used a mirror which is generally seen throughout psychological thrillers along with the
stereotypical codes of mise en scene, such as the protagonist wearing light colures to suggest purity and
innocence whereas the antagonist is wearing black to show the "darkness" within his character.
I think that our film will appeal to UK audience along with worldwide as it was aimed at a target audience
of teenagers to late thirties, of both genders but seeing as we didn’t follow the stereotypical idea of the age
of the protagonist in psychological thrillers this might bring the audiences age down as the older
generation might not feel "connected" to the character as they have nothing to relate with them.
Apart from this I would think that our target audience would want to watch this film as we have tried to
appeal to what they would like to see within a psychological thriller.

10. Marketing strategies that we could use to get our film better noticed, could be:
• Posters
• Film Festivals
• Internet
• TV ads(depending on the budget)
• Do something that will get the audiences attention so that they will remember the film trailer
• Create social media accounts for the film
• Go to places that you would think would have a higher amount of target audience and
advertise
• Get some of the target audience involved within the marketing by creating a video that others
could see
We could use these to get our film noticed more as these types of marketing strategies are more
to do with connecting with the target audience and making them see your film and be more
interactive within the marketing.
(https://www.ventureharbour.com/ultimate-guide-marketing-films-tv-shows-online/)

11. Self-distribution
• Self-distribution is where you physically go around try and sell your film independently
• This common with indie films
• The easiest way to do this is to go to a film festival and meet people and discuss your film along with talk about
what your film is and what you hope to happen
From looking into self-distribution I can tell that it is rather difficult to do, especially if you want to get your film
noticed by your target audience.
Although there are risks with other distribution techniques this in my opinion seems to be the most unlikely to
work for people who are impatient and want their film to immediately get the attention that it needs to be
successful. One of the risks that comes with the both types of distribution would be that if the film doesn’t work
you have wasted your time, money and efforts on a film that you didn’t distribute in the right way.
With our film I think that this could possibly work as I feel that our film has an indie feel to it and I think that with
using the other types of marketing we would be able to get our film to our target audience. I think that in order for
it to work we would need to make sure that we are well prepared to go and learn the ins and outs of what to do
and what not to do whilst self advertising our film. Although this might work I still have my doubts on whether it
might work with us because I would rather go with the safer option of having a little more knowledge on what
might actually happen to your film. However from looking at both sides I think that if we were to use a variety of
advertising options we could get our film to our audience.

12. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why ?
The kind of media institution that might distribute our media product, in my opinion , would be an
independent distributor because from looking at all of my research it would be the best option for us as our work is
more of an indie film and I do not think that our work would do well within a bigger well known distributor.
Overall from looking at distribution I think that we will be able to distribute our film to out target audience as there
are multiple ways in which we could do so. Although it might be difficult to do, I still think that by using both of the
strategies that I have gone over we would be able to get funding from an independent company.