EVALUATION 3

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


The production company holds a pivital role in the process of creation of films.  It is mainly responsible for finding the funding for the production.  Depending on the type of film, this may rely on a parenting company (who own shares in another company responsible for managing productions), partnering company, a national charitable fund, or private investors. 
The production company also organises and supplies the staff and actors, and handles the budgeting, distribution and marketing of the product.

The film distibutor can potentially be of huge importance with regards to a film's success.  Distributors hold the main responsibility for marketing and circulation of a film (i.e. which theatres it is show in, home viewing, television rights, DVD)


They decide how frequently and where the film is to be advertised ( e.g. TV adverts, bill boards etc); crucially important, as this is ultimately how audiences are enticed in.  After this, distributors then monitor the exhibiting theatres to ensure the production is being shown the correct number of times.


Distributors are perhaps most important to small, independent films, as these film makers must rely on distributors to find and gain contacts, and secure viewings at film festivals. 


Based on our research into teen-aimed psychological thrillers, we decided that if Fascination became a full feature film, we would expect to use a mid budget of around £13 million.  With reference to our specific production, we believed that the British Film Institute (BFI ) would aid our funding, as we fit their criteria perfectly, i.e. British actors, British culture, British story etc.   The BFI particularly help to fund mid to low budget films.  


We also thought that StudioCanal, the largest European production company, would work in association with our production, as we noticed that increasingly, they are working with British films,  as the English language is the most widely spoken in the world, and they would therefore have a vested interest. 


As research, we looked into productions that were institutionally similar to our piece, and compared their money earned and critical acceptance. 


The 2004, American, psychological thriller "The Butterfly Effect" was produced by New Line Cinema, our chosen production company.
Although the film received a poor critical response, it actually went on to produce huge commercial success; producing $96million from an initial budget of $13million.  The film won the Pegasus Audience Award at the Brussels' International Film Festival and was nominated for the best Thriller at the Teen Choice Awards. 


Starting with a similar budget, we would love it if our film was accepted and nominated in this manner, as it would provide us with the acknowledgement of our film's success in advertising, and that it effectively reached our target audience of 15-30 years .


We also looked at "Final Destination", the teen Horror/Thriller cross over, again produced by New Line Cinema.  The film opened in 2,587 theatres across the US and Canada and made over $10million in its opening weekend .  Six months later, New Line Cinema released the DVD which included commentaries, deleted scenes and documentary footage. 


The film's huge success brought it three sequels and a prequel, an idea that interested us for our own production.  After this, New Line Cinema produced related novels and comic books.


We decided to use New Line Cinema as our main production company as research proved that they widely produce thriller-esque films.  We also thought that the colour scheme of the production logo, black and dark blue, evoked interesting, deathly images and connotations of misery and fear.  We thought that this production company best represented our production.  The choice of production company is extremely important, as it sets the mood for the feature, and the emotion needed to be created for the scenes that follow. 

The serif font used insinuates a serious tone and professionalism we felt important for our piece.   We devised the production company “Rust Studios”. We discussed thriller-related imagery, but purposely decided to avoid conventional, cliched ideas of 'blood' and 'evil', however we wanted to ensure that the image we chose created an impression that evoked the same feelings of fear and suspense.  We liked the idea of 'Rust' as it creates a sensation of decay, and the colours, browns, reds and oranges, connotes danger, blood and fear.  We too used a serif font to reflect a modern and dynamic production company.

The title design at the beginning of a film is and always has been a key part of any motion picture.  Before computer and graphic designs, they were originally motionless pieces of artwork called “title art”. 

Because it is seen as an 'art form', there is no set sequence in which the production companies, crew, actors, editors and directors are named, however most follow a similar pattern.  After the production logo(s) which appear at the beginning of the film, they are generally reinforced by another title, of for example “Miramax and Big Talk Productions Present” to emphasise the vast amount of work and money that these companies have put into making and / or creating the film. Then is then followed by either the opening establishing shot or in the case of some thrillers, for example 'Sixth Sense', the main full screen titles continue.  Such titles consist of the Director's name, Editor's name, the Director of Photography and the main actors' names.


 The way in which these titles are presented vary from film to film, for example, in Face/Off the Director's name is presented as 'A JOHN WOO FILM' whereas in others it may be 'DIRECTED BY..'.  This decision is largely due to the Title's designer.  It is also the designer who decides whether the titles overlay, and the animation of the credits.