Evaluation Question 3What kind of Media Institution might

distribute your media product and why?

By Sam Marshall

New Line Cinema is a film distributor created in 1967 by Robert Shaye. Later on it became an independent film studio. However in 1994 it became a subsidiary to Turner Broadcasting System. And then in 1996 Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner and then merged with Warner Bros in 2008

New Line Cinema made “Se7en” a murder mystery film. It grossed over $300 million and won best movie at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards.

Why New Line Cinema?New Line Cinema is now a subsidiary to Warner Bros, one of the biggest companies in the film industry. They have released a wide range of films. A lot of them are dark like Harry Potter and The Dark Knight. Murder Mystery films haven’t been as popular as superhero films or science fiction films which are the “hype” at the moment. So if they distributed Whispers In The Dark it will be a breath of fresh air for them releasing a thriller/murder mystery film.

Dimension Films is an American film production company owned by The Weinstein Company and previously owned by Walt Disney Studios. The studio was founded by Bob Weinstein so it could distribute horror films among other genres. It was originally owned by Miramax Films but became a subsidiary to Walt Disney films due to the fact that Walt Disney films bought Miramax Films. Years later the founders (Bob and Harvey Weinstein) left Miramax Films taking Dimension Films with them. They produced many more films.

Why Dimension Films?Dimension Films are more keen to release horror/thriller films. One of their big films to distribute was Scream in 1996. After that came three sequels and a TV show. To this day they are still producing films which are thriller and horror as well as some “lighter” films like Paddington and Spy Kids. Their films (especially thriller and horror) will help to reach the target audience and popularity for Whispers In The Dark. And if successful can create sequels and perhaps a TV show if it gains enough publicity.

Universal Pictures is a huge company producing films for over 100 years. Carl Laemmle, Mark Dintenfass, Charles O. Baumann, Adam Kessel, Pat Powers, William Swanson, David Horsley, Robert H. Cochrane and Jules Brulatour were the founders of this big company. However they are owned by NBCUniversal. The companies revenue in 2011 was $4.239 billion. Universal Pictures own many subsidiaries like DreamWorks Animation and Illumination Films. Over the century they have distributed so many films with an array of genres.

The thing with Universal Pictures is because they are so well known and popular they couldn’t have a couple film genres or else they wouldn’t be as big. Also having a major company that the majority of the world know about it will be very beneficial for Whispers In The Dark if they distributed it. They have distributed big films like Psycho and Jaws as well as Back to the Future, Jurassic Park and Hot Fuzz. Although they don’t have any major murder mystery films, the genre of Whispers In The Dark is Murder Mystery/Thriller. It can be something new for Universal Pictures which is something they should try.

Why Universal Pictures?

The BBC is not a huge company, nor is it seen as a film distributor but it does. The BBC was founded on October 18th 1922 by John Reith. It is owned by the British Public as it is funded by a licence fee that households pay monthly or yearly. It broadcasts in 28 different languages and is broadcast all over the world. It provides TV, Film and Radio on Television or on the internet by having BBC Iplayer a platform enabling licence fee payers to watch TV programmes and films within the last month and live.

BBC like to broadcast a range of genres. Even though Whispers In The Dark is a film and not a Television Program, the BBC will still broadcast it. They have BBC Films which films are broadcast and bought on. The BBC love to have dark murder mystery products like Death in Paradise and Sherlock as well as Murder and The Missing. Whispers In The Dark will be a good film as it is set in the UK and will give them a more adolescent audience.

Why BBC?

ITV is a British Network that heavily like to broadcast Murder Mystery/Thriller products. It was launched on 22nd September 1955. It is owned by ITV Network Limited. ITV was created after the passing of the Television Act in 1954 wanting to break the monopoly on television held by the BBC. Since then it has become as big as BBC broadcasting many TV Programs as well as films like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. The similarity between ITV and BBC is that they both have other channels like ITV 2, 3, 4 and BBC 2,3,4 both of them mainly used for repeats or less popular shows.

I prefer ITV’s broadcasting of Murder Mystery and Thriller programs and films. Whispers In The Dark is slightly based on Broadchurch taking in the dark theme and background to it and making sure that a small place is hit hard with a specific event. ITV is better with distributing darker genres and apart from the advertisement will make a good distributor for my film. It will attract audiences as it is regional and heavily set in the UK as well as taking in society at the moment it was filmed and expressing the UK showing viewers what life is like instead of portraying it in a fake or exaggerated or underrated form.

Why ITV?