This document discusses a low-budget British student film. It was made with a small group of British teenagers as the main characters, without expensive Hollywood-style special effects or weapons. The film focuses on the relationships within a small, rural community and could suggest that small towns in Britain can be dangerous. Due to the very low budget, it is unrealistic for major studios to distribute the film, but it could potentially be shown in local cinemas or uploaded to YouTube to reach niche audiences. The only controversial element is that the main antagonist is mentally unstable.

1. Question 3

2. British Film Industry
Our film is culturally specific, because we had a low budget
and so we didn’t use any over-the-top special effects or
weapons such as guns that are typical in high-budget
Hollywood films. Also, all of our characters are British
teenagers, which makes them more relatable for the target
audience.
We think our film would appeal to the British audience,
because we filmed in a rural area, and the friendship
groups in the film are fairly small, which helps to create a
strong community, which again, helps make the film more
relatable to the British audience.

3. Hollywood
I don’t think Hollywood would be interested in our film, because our
film is not as high quality as other Hollywood films. This is due to our
low budget, which meant that we had low quality cameras, special effects
and actors. Unlike Hollywood films, our film wouldn’t attract a large
audience, as we couldn’t pay for advertising or large scale distribution.
This meant that our film would not make any money, so Hollywood
wouldn’t be interested.
In addition to this, our film only has one controversial theme, so it
wouldn’t get a lot of publicity, and again, less people would want to
watch it. The media wouldn’t be interested in our film, because we are
amateur filmmakers, and our film isn’t controversial or of a high enough
standard to get their attention.

4. British Culture, Studios and Distribution
Our film has no educational features, however it may include some moral statements about British
culture, as all of the characters are obviously British due to their British accents. Our film could
suggest that Britain, especially in the countryside where the film is set, is dangerous and that
nobody can be trusted, including teenagers, which is a common stereotype.
One example of a small, British studio is Hammer Horror. They could take on the production or
exhibition of our film, as our film is a psychological thriller, which is similar to the genre that they
specialise in – horror. BBC Films would not take on our film, because it is not educational.
Realistically, it would be unlikely that any studio takes on our film, due to its low budget and
quality compared to other small, British films such as the Woman in Black, which Hammer
Horror produced.
One way our film could be distributed could be to pay the local cinemas to show it. While it
would only reach a small audience, it would be reasonably cheap compared to paying a
distribution studio. Another way to distribute it would be to upload it to YouTube. This would be
effective because it would be free and it would be available to people worldwide. Due to our low
budget, this is what we decided to do, because we couldn’t afford a cinema to screen it or a studio
to distribute it.

5. Controversial themes, low budget, niche
audiences
The only controversial subject in our film is the fact that the main antagonist
is mentally unstable and is dangerous to the people around him.
Despite our low budget, we used special effects that we added in post to
make it more interesting. We did this with iMovie on the iMacs, which the
school provided, so we didn’t have to pay for this equipment. Effects we
added included sound effects, such as the lightbulb smashing, text effects for
the titles, and an ambient soundtrack. Due to our low budget, we had to act,
film and edit it ourselves. In addition to this, we had to source props that we
already owned, because we couldn’t afford to pay for new ones. This meant
that we had to make do with the props that we had, such as the mask.
We have a niche audience because of our low budget, as we had no famous
actors, and we are not a big studio with a good reputation, as this is the first
film we have made, so the audience has no idea if they will like our new film.