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

From research we know we would have to distribute our product with independent film distribution companies. Often films produced and distributed independently have a smaller budget and work with multiple companies, unlike big film companies as they have their own subsidiaries which can work on separate parts of film production and distribution. It is also noted independent films are more likely to explore darker themes which ours does so would be more suited to a independent company rather than a conglomerate. Through film analysis and separate research we have found two possible distribution companies.

USA DISTRIBUTION

Ghost House Pictures is an American horror movie production company that was founded in 2002 by Robert Tapert and Sam Raimi which works with big and independent films. There is not much information about them online however I have observed many of their films and they're films which explore dark themes similar to ours.

Production of note:

The grudge, 2004

Drag me to Hell, 2009

Poltergeist, 2015

When presented with this question I instantly thought of Ghost House Pictures as I often admire their films and they worked with 2/3 of the films I analysed previously. As our film has a specific target audience and very low budget we would most likely work with their subsidiary Ghost House underground.

As our film would most likely appeal to a western audience, a US and Uk distribution company would be needed. Ghost House Picture and Ghost House Underground have previously distributed films in both these country's so would be suited to the job. They are an american company so we may use a different company to distribute in the UK. However, after research and observation of their distribution of 'the Children' in the UK w e feel they would be suited for both countries. The film opened at no.10 in the UK, grossing £98,205 at 132 cinemas. In the weeks after its release, the film dropped to no.13 and then again to no.22.

ONLINE

As our target audience is young adults, the most popular way of viewing in this age group is streamable content, therefor to appeal to our audience we would likely distribute our film with a streaming company. Advances in technology has aloud much more access to a wider range of content, especially indie films as before they would only be able to be viewed on DVD and most likely not aired on TV or in cinemas. This has allowed access to a wider audience range and a larger diversity in popular content.   

NETFLIX

One of the most well known streaming companies is Netflix. Netflix, Inc. is an American entertainment company founded by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph on August 29, 1997, in Scotts Valley, California. Netflix specializes in and provides streaming media and video-on-demand online and DVD by mail.

As well as providing content, in more recent years, Netflix has been known for producing its own series and movies which have been both critically acclaimed and commercially successful. Therefor working with Netflix would be ideal as they have been successful in making quality content that is dark yet appeals to a wide range. Shows such as orange is the new black and stranger things have done well both in the UK and US. Netflix in fact has managed to sign up in excess of 1 in 10 British households. The likely hood of films being illegally distributed online in this day and age is very high. When a film is distributed on Netflix it has been found to decrease illegal downloads therefor increasing profit and motive to be distributed on Netflix. 

illegal download statistics;

"Since the year 2000, the bandwidth used to download illegal pirated entertainment options has increased by over 160%.

In January when he 13, it is estimated that 327 million unique users illegally sought to engage with copyrighted content that they had no right to access.

The percentage of the internet that is used to download illegal content: 24%.

From November 2011 to January 2013, the number of visitors worldwide to direct download cyber lockers fell 8% to 149 million.

BitTorrent websites accounted for 7.4 billion page views, up 31% from November 2011.

Video-streaming sites generated 4.2 billion pages, up 34% in the same time period."

'The combined box office gross for all independent UK films released in 2015 was £136 million (10.5% of the total box office) from 182 releases. The 61 films released by the top 10 distributors of independent UK titles accounted for £131 million, which equates to 96% of the total box office generated by this category (Table 5). For the third consecutive year, the distributor with the largest share of the box office for UK independent films was StudioCanal, whose releases include two of the year’s top three highest grossing UK independent titles, Legend and Shaun the Sheep the Movie. Second in the list is 20th Century Fox whose titles include the second highest earning UK independent film of 2015, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and Far from the Madding Crowd.' BFI yearbook 2015

This shows us the large number of distributors which released independent films, like Ghost Productions which has worked with larger companies and independent companies to distribute films, the releases has increased as well as the gross of independent films with the distribution from larger companies as well as independent.