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

A media institution refers to the organizations that provide media content and supply the context within which media products are produced. They represent how media is financed and generate profit and the processes of media production themselves. Examples of media institutions include The BBC which is a public service broadcaster which means that they are funded by the government and the tax payers and News International which is a big international media institution owned by Rupert Murdock.

The kind of media institution which would distribute my group’s media product would be ‘Film Four’. This is because Film Four don’t have a lot of money and this would be ideal as my film is a low budget will. They have made films such as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which is about children and poverty in India. It has a gross revenue of $377,417,293 and they co-produced ‘In Bruges’ which is a Black Comedy about Hit men. This shows me that the media institution is open to all types of films for different types of audiences. This is because they are one off the biggest British Institutions and therefore they have a good name for themselves, they have some money to spend and have very good equipment for shooting as well as editing and have the ability to advertise a lot more because they have more money and better resources.

If I could sell my product to an American institution, I would use ‘Lionsgate Films’ because they have made films such as ‘Hostel’ which has a gross revenue of $80,578,934 which is another example of a horror movie. This film had a budget of $4.8 million which is low budget and therefore there are similarities between hostel and ours. Not only in terms of genre but also in terms of money we would want to use on our film if it were made by Hollywood. 'Lionsgate Films' typically target male horror/thriller fans, which conforms to my media product. Due to the fact that they make medium budget features and have more money to spend through the success of the Saw franchise and Hostel they will have more money to spend on press and advertising which in turn could benefit our film as it would have more chance of a success.