1. Question Three
What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and
why?
Rachel Gascoigne

2. I looked at various different media institutions that distribute romantic
comedy films during the research period of this assignment, and found
many that may be suitable for the distribution of our own product.
Looking on reliable sites such as The Numbers.com and IMDb it was
easy to find many film companies that distribute romantic comedies
regularly. I chose three incredibly popular companies who have all
distributed really popular RomComs, that could easily distribute our
product as they have all distributed something similar to it over time.
On the next slide there is a screenshot from the website, The Numbers.
I have highlighted only some of the films that have been distributed by
the three companies I identified. All of which are popular and have
made good domestic gross.

4. I think Universal Pictures would distribute our film because of its
extensive list of romantic comedies the company have distributed.
As well as distributing many other genres, the general type of film
is in fact Romantic Comedy. For example, Leap Year and The Five
Year Engagement.
Our film opening, being part of the RomCom genre will appeal to
Universal Pictures usual audience, that enjoy comedy drama.
Although it is hard to define a specific target audience for
Universal because of their widespread film list, with differing
genres.
I believe our film will appeal to Universal as the narrative has
similarities to the storylines of some films they have
distributed, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall, a film from a males
perspective much like ours.
Click for trailer ^

5. Universal are famous worldwide, and are well
known for their international success. They’re
one of the oldest movie distributers, being
founded in 1912!
They distribute their films digitally and
conventionally, meaning they not only screen
the films in cinemas worldwide, they also sell
DVD and the newly popular Blu-ray versions of
their films too. By doing this they have
proliferation in sales and are also keeping their
audiences happy, as they can watch their
favourite films whenever they like.
They also sell clips and full movie versions of
some of their more famous films on the
NBCUniversal Archives.
Universal not only distribute films, they also
distribute TV shows using their subsidiary
NBCUniversal Television Distribution.
Along with all this, they have two major theme
parks, much like the DisneyWorld ones in
Florida and Paris. Universal Studios parks are
situated in 4 places, and feature rides based
around their films and lifelike film experiences
for all ages.

6. All Universal films each have their own trailers made to advertise the product. The
trailers are produced and publicised near the time of the films release. These
trailers are then distributed all over, in the cinema before a main film is played
(typically one similar to the same genre as the trailer), on TV as adverts, billboard
posters or posters in bus shelters, and sometimes even on the radio, taking audio
from the film instead of video clips.
In the cinema when watching a trailer distributed by Universal, the infamous ‘world
logo’ is shown and immediately the audience recognise it, this is then attracting
the target audience.
Universal use technical convergence extensively!
The majority of the films Universal distribute also have their own interactive
website. The sites often include the various trailers that have been made for
advertisement, a ‘Meet the characters’ page, where you can find out a little more
about the characters within the film, usually in a fact file style format, a page
describing the movie, telling you the ins and outs of the story and sometimes still
shots of some of the footage.

7. Looking back on the research I did
into distribution companies it is
clear I could have put a little more
effort into it, especially looking into
the company and their distribution
of the romantic comedy genre.
I looked at the company Twentieth
Century Fox because of its
popularity and the amount of films
I had heard of that had been
distributed by them.
I feel I should have researched the
type of films they produce in more
detail, especially with regards to
our film openings genre, this would
had perhaps aided the planning
and preparation of tackling this
evaluation question.

8. I believe Universal is the right distribution company for
our film. The company have experience in distributing
films of the same genre as our film opening, all of
which have done very well for themselves.
Their target audience is very broad, depending on the
film genre/type, but the audience are
mainstream, which allowed us to take the film in any
direction and make it stand out, but still remain to
keep originality, so it can appeal to anyone.