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{ Evaluation Activity 3 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

Transcript of Evaluation Activity 3 Finished

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Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

Evaluation Activity 3

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

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The name of our production company is ‘Dynamic Productions’. We decided to choose this name because we felt that the word “Dynamic” had an obvious appealing nature. Essentially, “Dynamic” means change, and that is what we want our audience to think of us. We want them to think that we are able to adapt our ideas and that we are willing to try current ideas in order to keep up to date in the modern market for film and media.

We chose to have water as the main aspect of our logo. We believed that this fitted with the idea of, ‘Dynamic’, meaning change. We thought that water has obvious connotations of being adaptable and timeless. Optimistically, we assumed that water is known as a life source, so our target audience would want to keep coming back for more when it came to viewing our work.

The production company name and logo plays a crucial part when it comes to the marketisation of a film or media product. When a person sees that a film is being released that has been made by a major production company such as, “20th Century Fox”, they are likely to go and see the film. This is because they may have seen a film produced by them before, and will therefore assume that the new film will reach their high expectations.

Our Production Company Name and Logo

Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

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A production company basically assists in the making of a film. This includes aspects such as budgeting, casting, scripting and marketing. They are judged mostly on their funding, and the past productions that they have completed. There are six major conglomerate production companies today. They are, 20th Century Fox, Universal, Paramount , Warner Bros, Sony’s Columbia pictures and Walt Disney’s Buena Vista Motion Picture Group. As production companies are ranked by the amount of money they have, they contribute significantly to the budgeting of the production. They oversee the budget of the film and decide what amount of money goes to each department. This is generally not a problem for major production companies but smaller production companies will find that they will have to limit their options. They cannot give complete creative freedom to the director and they may have to adapt the script in order to find the cheapest locations, props and costume that they need for the picture. They also help choose the actors that will play principle and ensemble roles. Usually, a major production company is associated with popular actors and directors. Nonetheless, a smaller production company will have to create ‘open’ auditions for its search to find a cast and crew in order to find new talent that would benefit their production.

What does a Production Company do?

Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

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Occasionally, a production company assists in the scriptwriting for a production. They usually just oversee the location choices in order to plan ahead to make cost efficient decisions. In terms of marketing, production companies frequently attract their target audience by highlighting the image of specific actors or directors. This entices their desired audience because they are approaching the fans of that particular artist. Therefore, the fans will be more likely to want to see the film that their favourite actor, actress or director has been associated with. For smaller production companies, they have to rely on marketing devices such as posters and low-budget trailers. Currently, they are able to use social networking to attract their target audience to a greater effect.

Production companies play a vital role when it comes to the production and distribution of a film. Dissimilar to other businesses, production companies do not have a secure monthly salary; they have to make their money from on-going investments. Consequently, their only source of income is from the profit that their productions produce.

Production Companies continued

Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

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A distributor is mainly responsible for the marketing of a film. Some popular distributors include American company Lions Gate Entertainment and United Kingdom company MGM-EMI. These companies are also major production companies that are officially now known as entertainment companies. They set a release date for the film, how it is able to be viewed, confirm legal approval and explore advertisement strategies. To set a release date, they must work closely with the production company to keep up to date of the latest schedules for the film. When they have decided on a release date, they must decide how it will be viewed by awaiting audiences. For example, they will have to organise the budgets for each film and decide whether the film will be released straight onto DVD or if it would air in global cinemas. After this, they must decide how the film would progress to home viewing, whether that be, DVD’s, Sky Movies etc. To set the legal requirements for a film, they must issue a suitable BBFC rating. Failure to do this, they could come face to face with executives and receive a fine. Furthermore, if the word got out that the distributor made a crucial legal mistake, they would lose their credibility and reputation, making viewers apprehensive about watching their future releases. In terms of marketing, major distributors would want to appeal to a global audience but smaller companies must be more specific.

What does a Distributor do?

Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

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Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

Ideally, we would like our video to be distributed by one of the major companies such as 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros or Paramount. These companies are all known for their previous productions and the success that they created. In terms of thrillers, we would want our distributor to be 20th Century Fox because they have released thrillers including Alien, 1979. If we could grab the interest of this major distributor, they would release our video to a global audience to attract as many viewers as possible.

However, our film is of low-budget, so we would have to set more realistic goals when it came to finding a distributor. “Vertigo Films” are a low-budget British film production and distribution company. On average, they produce and distribute four films a year, these include, ‘StreetDance 3D’ and ‘Monsters’. This company would be a more achievable goal because they will understand funding issues and try to distribute our film to as many viewers as possible. Moreover, they will probably distribute our film in a DVD format instead of viewing it in cinemas. This will be more cost efficient for us and we would still build our name with the right marketing strategy.

Who will be our Distributor

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When creating a low budget film like ours, finding the resources and funding can be very tricky. There are a few ways that can help and one of these ways is through a website called Kickstarter. This website was set us to allow low budget producers/directors to ask the general public for help in funding their film. When it was created in April 2009, directors were able to portray their ideas online. The website isn't just for film promotions, it also helps in finding funding for music, stage shows and comics/magazines. When the public enter the website, they get to read and watch about the film they could possibly start backing. Depending on how much they want to pay towards the budget of the film, depends on what gift they get at the end. It shows the backer what sort of budget the director is looking for and what you will get when you pledge an amount of money. To find the target that is needed to produce the low budget film, the director would go to a large company, like Universal or Sony and ask how much it will cost them to be able to produce their film using their facilities.

Where might the money come from?

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The budgets sometimes seem very unrealistic but sometimes it will cost more for all the resources and equipment needed to be used. I think that this will be a good way to get money for a low budget film like ours because it is quick and easy to get onto, easy to use and also it doesn’t take to long to pledge some money which sometimes puts people off. I think the thing that attracts the public more is probably that they get a gift at the end of it, but only if the target gets met. The gifts can range from getting a copy of the DVD that is signed by the actors to getting your name on the credits and being treated like an executive producer. There is a time limit on the funding as well so if the public like the look of the film that is going to be produced, they will have to back it fast because if the time runs out and the target hasn’t been met, they would have missed out on the opportunity to get what could be a very successful film into the cinemas.

Funding continued

Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

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Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

The importance of the credits at the beginning of a film is so that the audience can see who produced, directed, filmed and starred in it. In our thriller film, we chose to put the director first because we agreed this was one of the most important roles in the entire production company. You could say that they make up the base of the production company alongside the producer, marketing director and crew, the director makes a huge impact into bringing the film to life. They are there to make sure the actors say the right lines at the right time, are in the right places when they should be and generally to give constructive critism towards the actors and put their opinion across about whether anything needs to be changed or moved around. Their most important job is to make sure the production process is running smoothly and make sure that no one is ever without a job. By putting the name of the cinematographer into the credits after the director, not only shows their importance to the making of the film but it helps them get noticed by other directors.

Why are the various people named in the title?

The importance of the credits at the beginning of a film is so that the audience can see who produced, directed, filmed and starred in it. In our thriller film, we chose to put the director first because we agreed this was one of the most important roles in the entire production company. You could say that they make up the base of the production company alongside the producer, marketing director and crew, the director makes a huge impact into bringing the film to life. They are there to make sure the actors say the right lines at the right time, are in the right places when they should be and generally to give constructive criticism towards the actors and put their opinion across about whether anything needs to be changed or moved around. Their most important job is to make sure the production process is running smoothly and make sure that no one is ever without a job. By putting the name of the cinematographer into the credits after the director, not only shows their importance to the making of the film but it helps them get noticed by other directors.

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Directors who what the film will be able to know what skills this particular cinematographer has and maybe if that like it, incorporate their skills into their future productions and films. We decided that putting the names of the actors who star in our production last wouldn't make a difference because they will be in the first of the credits at the end of the film which the audience are most likely to see. We still added them into the beginning credits even though it was just at the end. We put them in alphabetical order so that it doesn’t give anything away to who is the main character and what happens to who. Looking back at the order that we put the titles in, I think we made the right decision because we sorted them out into order of importance, don’t give away anything and include all the important people in the production company.

Other credits we included

Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

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Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

One very popular film that could have been released the same way as ours is Paranormal Activity. A success around the world and it only had a budget of $11,000 to make. Director Oren Peli marketed the film as ‘one of the scariest movies of all time’ and it only really used two important elements to make it. A single location and a handheld camera. Peli didn’t even have to pay to hire out a location, he used his own house for all the shooting and didn’t even have to spare the cost of a camera crew as he left the camera on a tripod for most of the filming process, increasing the storylines believability and is one of the easier ways to film. Thriller films have to connect with the audience so they have to be able to focus on the things that are most feared by the audience. This film in particular focuses on the ‘scare factor’ rather than blood and gore. This helps because then it is within the budget set because you wont have to pay out for all the effects and makeup to be applied and also to use someone’s facilities to edit it to make it fit the genre more.

What our film is similar to ‘Institutionally’

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Ellie Stephenson and Rosie Smith

By filming it in a house, not only is it cheap and helps the budget to stay low, it creates a sense of familiarity throughout the audience and makes the tense and shocking parts of the film even more interesting. It also scares the audience more when they think all these scary things are happening in the place where they are meant to feel safe and secure. Paranormal Activity is just one of the films that can be compared to ours. It relates well because Peli had used locations that are easy to get to and don’t cost anything to hire, his budget stayed low throughout and he didn’t have to pay out for any makeup or other facilities such as costumes. As mentioned before, he filmed it all himself, either with a handheld camera or by placing the camera on a tripod in the corner of the room. We seemed to have the same idea as Peli on the side of focusing on the real fear of the audience instead of using all gore and blood. It didn’t cost him anything and it also makes the film into more of a physiological thriller, making the audience ask questions.

Paranormal Activity continued