Evaluation Question 3

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

When we were initially considering ideas for our film and were looking at existing rom-com’s we found that most were produced and distributed by mainstream, Hollywood companies. We therefore decided that were aiming for a mainstream film. We looked at existing films that are produced by mainstream companies, for example Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), distributed by Working Title, a conglomerate of Universal Pictures. This film is similar to ours as the setting, style and storyline are fairly similar and so our film would be suitable for mainstream audiences. Other films such as Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009) also have a very similar storyline to ours and characters that are similar to our own characters. Universal Pictures would be an appropriate distributor for our film as they produce ‘traditional’ style romantic-comedies and ours fits into this genre and this company also aims its films to mainstream, mass audiences. We also considered the overall look of our film when we were thinking about mise-en-scene and we wanted to have an overall Hollywood feel to our film. We looked at the existing films to see what sort of costumes were used and we chose to use an office setting and our characters dressed in a very professional way to show this.



Universal Pictures is the sort of Mainstream Instition that
distribute similar films to ours

Working Title - a conglomerate of Universal Pictures that
distributes films similar to ours, e.g. Bridget Jones' Diary (2001)

Our film does however have elements that cold make it an independent film as we imagine it to be set in London with British actors and comedy elements that may appeal more to a British audience. This could mean that it may be more suitable for a company like Working Title to distribute our film as it would receive funding from the mainstream company Universal but would still be aimed at the appropriate audience. Using a mainstream distributor would also mean that our film could be shown in main cinema companies and could reach the audience we want to target.

Our film would most likely be released for premiere in London and then perhaps later released in other places as this is the setting of our film. If the film were distributed by a company like Working Title, because this is a British company it is more likely that the film would be released in Britain first to reach the right audience. Working Title has made films such as Love Actually (2003) and Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) which both have mainly British casts and have British settings despite being owned by the American Universal Pictures, and both films were shown on tent-pole release, premiering in London. This would therefore be the method of release that would be most suitable for our film as these existing similar films have had success this way.