Evaluation: Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Since our film is an independent film which challenges general stereotypes, it may not have a large target audience. Therefore we need a distributor who would be willing to finance our film knowing it most likely won't make a large profit like Hollywood blockbusters, such as Star Wars.

The Walt Disney Company (TWDC) had a $200 million budget for The Force Awakens allowing them to have a lot of special effects and marketing. This won’t be necessary for our film since it doesn't need any special effects; however our film will need a substantial amount of marketing to allow our target audience to be aware of it. Our film also won’t have a saturated release, like Hollywood blockbuster films, since it doesn't have a large target audience, therefore it will most likely have a limited release to cinemas across the UK and maybe a few in other countries.

Independent films usually have very little marketing, for example Four Lions didn't have much marketing, it mostly relied on social media and publicity from articles and reviews. Their distributor was Optimum Releasing which gave them a limited release (115 screens in the UK).

Due to this, I decided that Working Title Films (WTF) would be a good choice as a distributor for our film. WTF distribute 4-5 films a year, 2 of which are "high risk" films, such as our own. WTF are able to get global marketing due to being owned by Universal which means our film will at least get enough marketing in the UK. They are also given $35 million budget by Universal for each film, this would most likely be a high enough budget for our film which makes WTF an eligible distributor for us.