Institutions

I have looked at a range of films that follow my genre of comedy-drama. Films under the ‘teen’ culture are usually made in America. Distributers of these types of films include: Universal, Paramount and Buena Vista. However coming of age British films are usually made by smaller independent distribution companies such as Channel 4 and Warp Films.

 

 

Conglomerates: Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Buena Vista.

These giant institutions dominate the film industry. In my choice of genre they have made: The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink and Breaking Away. The films are aimed at a mass American market as the companies can use synergy and convergence to market and distribute the films on a range of different platforms. The films made in the 80s are under a budget of 10million and have made box office figures of $45,875, 171 (The Breakfast Club).

 

The Breakfast Club Poster

However analysing the upcoming films of these companies, the films do not include teenagers as the basis of their cast. They have developed their target market and real mid- teen life films are becoming more niche and ‘coming of age’ or American musicals. Another key theme in my trailer is music. Films like High Fidelity, Back beat and The Commitments are distributed by other conglomerates such as Buena Vista and 20^th Century fox. As major companies they are able to deal with the demand of filming live music as they can put a lot of money into organising equipment and replicating a real atmosphere.

 

 

 

 

The Commitments Cast

 

 

However obviously the main challenge with large conglomerates is being able to sell a film to them that the company will want to distribute. My film is not really comparable to recent blockbusters and the story line is more suited to an independent film company as it concerns personal and specific teen related issues. After researching small film companies like Warp Films and G2 pictures I realised that to create a music based film I would have to pursue a company that specialised in targeting a very niche market of live music films.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brassed Off poster

A film company that has distributed music based films is Film 4. Owned by Channel 4, it has produced the film ‘Submarine’ and distributed the music film ‘Brassed off’.  I have analysed Submarine’s trailer, poster and magazine cover because while researching drama films this instigated my thought process for my story line. The director Richard Ayoade liked the ‘depth’ of the protagonist as a teen and I shared this opinion and wanted to look into general struggles of mid teenage life. This would make this film company appropriate as ‘Submarine’ was made in 2010 and is funded by Channel 4 which would give me the potential to experiment a bit more as I could distribute on different platforms including the digital TV, TV on demand, the internet and the cinema. Furthermore Film4 also distributed ‘Brassed off’. This is a comedy drama set during the 80s and uses music footage to underline the brass band element of the community. The experience that Film4 has acquired from their film repertoire and the backing they have from Channel 4 means that the company are able to tailor to smaller alternative and films. 

 

Director Richard Ayoade