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

Our film deals with rather controversial and specific issues such as racism and gang violence. Therefore, it would be impractical to attempt getting a large studio company to distribute our film. This is because they would dislike the controversial aspect and would instead prefer generic and harmless issues to be present within the films they distribute.

Funding

We researched into British institutions that would provide us with funding for our film. Film4 is what we eventually decided on. They have an independent film funding scheme that intends to promote the creation of films that will represent the British community and challenge controversial issues.

Above is a screenshot taken directly from Film4's website. It explains that they are looking for contemporary stories that push the boundaries of its own film genre and are created by British led talent. Our film, Growing Pains, fulfills all those criteria.

We know that we can provide Film4 with what they want, but other than the funding, why them over anyone else? Below is a list of films that Film4 has distributed and funded successfully:

It is clear that Film4 are extremely resourceful, as they have given commercially successful films, like Slumdog Millionaire and Last King of Scotland, the platform they needed in order to start off. Perhaps they could grace our film with commercial success.

Regardless, all the films in the list above are critically acclaimed, like Submarine, and allowed the producers to get the recognition they deserved, which would be more than ideal for our production company.

Film4 sequence as seen in Growing Pains

Distributing Company

Revolver logo

After intensive searching, we eventually came across the distribution company Revolver. Below is a description of exactly what the company is, taken directly from its website:

Most importantly, Revolver has shown that is is fully capable of professionally distributing our film. Not only are they resourceful and reliable, but they are also very inventive. This can all be seen in yet another extract taken directly from their website:

They are very modern and efficiently utilise social media in order to heighten their impact on the media. They have a strong presence on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, arguably the three most prominent media websites.

Revolver's YouTube page

Revolver's Twitter page

Revolver's Facebook page

Production Company

We decided to create our own production company, appropriately named Pigeon Productions. It's a low budget production company that focusing on bringing heavy British influences to Urban, Indie or Romantic Dramas.

Pigeon Productions as seen in Growing Pains

Due to the fact that we're a small company, there's little to no chance of us getting our film into big cinemas like Cineworld or Odeon. However, British Indie Dramas have a very good network of indie cinemas that they can utilise.

We eventually discovered Picturehouse. They have a number of independent film cinema screens across the country, particularly in London which is perfect.

Screens which would show our film