2. What is an Institution and how do film
distributions work?
• An institution is an organization or company, public or privately owned that produces and/or distributes
media products. In America bigger companies such as conglomerates dominate the world of media. A
conglomerate is a company that owns large numbers of companies in various mass media such as
television, movies and the internet. These include companies such as Walt Disney, Viacom and Time
Warner. Disney, for example is worth 42 million dollars and is the second largest conglomerate. However
Disney would not make our film as it does not fit into their normal category of kids and family films and we
do not have any famous actors.
• A film distribution works by someone having an idea for a film, they create an outline and use it to
promote interest in the idea. After this, a studio or sometimes an independent investor decides to
purchase the rights for the film. Once this is completed people need to make the film so a producer,
director, cast and crew and needed and the film is completed and sent to a studio, the studio makes a
licensing agreement with a distribution company to decide how many copies to make and shows the films
in screens to show buyers who represent all of the cinemas. Once a price is agreed the film is sent to the
cinema and it gets shown for a few weeks and people watch the movie at the end, the cinema sends the
film back to the distribution company and makes payment of the lease agreement. In the UK many films
companies do not have the finance to distribute, only the finance to produce. Therefore they have to sell
the film or license it to another company as such the company who produces our film may not be the
company who distributes it. An example is Warp, they distribute films such as This is England.
3. Film Synopsis
• Our final idea for our thriller is called The Assassination. Our film is about an MP
who discovers a global conspiracy. He comes to talk to a school to speak to a group
of teenage students about his policies and beliefs as he is an ex-student at the
school, he makes the mistake of making himself known to the public when he has
such as big secret, a group of assassinators find out about his conspiracy and want
him dead. So during this supposedly peaceful and quite casual talk at a school the
MP is assassinated using a rifle. The film shows the lead up of this and when it
actually occurs. The whole film is set in a school.
4. Films that our similar to ours
• The International: The Interpol Agent Louis Salinger and his partner are
investigating the International Bank of Business and Credit (IBBC) in a two hundred
million dollars illegal business of weapons trading. When the politician is murdered
by a sniper in a political rally, Salinger and Whitman head to New York following
the killer and they risk their lives, the bank will go to all lengths to fund terror and
war. This is similar to our film because it includes the murder of a politician
• JFK: On November 22nd 1963, President John F Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas,
which causes for an investigation to be carried out. This is similar to our thriller
idea as someone important such as a President, although ours is an MP and it
shows the full uproar of such a crime which is the kind of tone that we would like
to show, producing tension
• Vantage point: Vantage Point is a political action thriller, directed by Pete Travis.
The story is about an attempt to assassinate the President of The United States
during a speech in Spain, the film is seen from different peoples "vantage points,
the scene replays over and over just in the different views of different characters
involved. This film is similar to ours as it includes the assassination of an important
person, our aim is to build tension as is in this film
5. Hollywood Conglomerate
• A conglomerate is a company that owns various large companies in mass media
such as movies and television. An example of a Hollywood Conglomerate is Walt
Disney or 21st Century Fox, these big Hollywood Conglomerates who are worth
billions would not make our film for several different reasons. Firstly we are first
time film makers, this means that our film has no pre-sold elements. This includes
films before the one we are making, such as Harry Potter 1,2 etc., there is no
merchandise or posters to make people want to see the film it will be completely
unknown to the general public. Therefore the company will have no profit if the
film does not sell. We have no big name actors, these Hollywood conglomerates
use big actors such as Johnny Depp. By using big actors it makes people want to
see the film more as their favorite actors are in it, due to us being first time film
makers it is impossible for us to get big name actors. Another reason why
Hollywood Conglomerates would not make our film is although it is a thriller and
we can make it tense and are able to create suspension, we have no glamorous
locations or stunts to create excitement therefore the big companies would not
want to make our film.
6. Releasing Our Film
• When creating a film and making it, the whole point of it is that you ensure that as
many people can see and enjoy your film as possible. As first time film makers we will
release our film by ourselves, due to not having the money it will be hard to create
merchandise and adverts so to promote our film we need to use social media.
• To release our film we can use, film festivals. When entering our film to a film festival
we can put on websites such as Facebook, twitter where a lot of teenagers and adults
spend their time a message that our film will be shown at the film festival and get them
to come along and watch it and tell their friends, the more the people speak about it
the more it becomes known. A positive of releasing a film at a film festival is it is a
known place for film lovers and it looks very professional. We can also release our film
on you tube for a small fee, as first time film makers this is good as it is not too
expensive but almost everyone looks on YouTube so it will ensure that a lot of people
will see it, once it is on you tube you can share it on social media sites such as Facebook
where others will share it too their friends and it will go round, you can post it as a
short video on integral to make people want to watch the rest of the film or Snap chat.
If we put in on iTunes, millions of people have an iTunes account to buy it, it will also
allow us to make money from people buying it.
7. British Film Company - Vertigo
• Vertigo Films is a UK Film and Distribution company founded in 2002 by Allan Niblo
and James Richardson. It varies in genres from thrillers to family films. Examples
that are similar in genre to our thriller. Vertigo would be a good film company for
our thriller because it is low budget, it is not a conglomerate so would not be
expensive for them to film it. It ranges in different genres, Vertigo does not specify
in the film type that they make so it creates a variety of films which would allow
our film to be available for a variety of audiences and would be professional in the
genre it fits in.
8. London To Brighton
• The film starts in a London toilet with a woman and a child bursting in. One is crying and the other has a
black eye. It is clear they are running from someone, once Kelly gets on a train to Brighton. One of the
girls, Joanne is an eleven-year-old runaway who is influence by Kelly into having sex with an older man, it
then goes horribly wrong when the older man is killed, presumably by one of the girls. The film follows
Derek’s son, Stuart, attempting to find the girls on the duo flight from London.
• The film is a thriller as is ours with crime involved as well as in both someone is murdered, and is similar in
target audience as it is an 18, our film would be around that target audience as it is aimed at teenagers-30
year olds.
• The genre is similar to ours because in our thriller we see a suspicious murder occur, however ours is the
murder of an important figure in London to Brighton it is not
.
This film achieved £6,700 on the opening weekend
£6,382 total domestic gross
£449,681 – worldwide gross
The film won a British Independent Film Award for Best Achievement in Production. This suggests that it was not
successful internationally
9. Point Blank
Point Blank is a film about a couple where the husband is nurse and the wife is expecting her first
child. They are a happy family until his wife is kidnapped right in front of his eyes. The genre of
this film is a thriller as is ours. However they are different as ours does not involve a kidnap and
there are no important figures involved in the crime. The target audience for this film is similar to
ours as it is for teenagers.
• Budget :€10.8 million
• Box office:$9,230,157
10. Our film release
• If a film company picked up our film and it was going to be released, it would be released on
all formats including, independent cinemas, straight to DVD via amazon and digital download
via itunes. This is because it allows everyone to see the film, which will boost views. For
example people may be too busy to get to the cinema and will have to wait until it comes out
in other formats and by then the film may be forgot about, people cant always afford to
spend money on the cinema so it will be cheaper for them to buy a DVD or download it on
itunes where they can watch it more times. The more formats a film is released on the more
people will be talking about it there fore it will have high viewing. It allows people who enjoy
the cinema to still go and watch it there.
• For example, A field in England was released through all formats including 17 cinema screens,
DVD blue ray and free on television. The film averaged a 367,000 viewers during a film 4 free
screening and combined blue ray, HMV and amazon DVD the film sold 1,462 on Friday and
Saturday which shows that this method of release is very successful
11. American Film Company
• If our film became a success in the USA we would use Magnet and Magnolia as a film
company to release our film. They release a variety of films but mostly in horror, action and
horror films so would be very good for our film as it is a thriller that includes action. Magnolia
is a home distribution company in America, they would release our film as they specialise in
our sort of film but also, they are not that big like companies such as Warner Brothers, which
means that it would not be as expensive and would also more likely sell better when
released.
