What impact did the media institution, Film4 have on each production stage and why?

Pre-production Narrative The narrative had been impacted on by the institutions because there might have been different narratives that didnt show Film4s Ideology, representing working class Britons in their everyday hardships. For example we wanted to have a little more action in our narrative at first, making the protagonist win in the end, but that resembled a typical Hollywood action film so we cut down on the action, thinking more realistically as to how the situation would have ended. Using Fish Tank as an example, at the end Mia doesnt really achieve her goal of becoming a dancer, and we thought that we could have applied that to our narrative, so the protagonist would not win against the drug dealers, getting beat up as well as beating up the minor antagonists. Pre- Production Researching While researching about Film4, we looked at the common themes which were shown, and representations of their characters as well as the budgets of each film. Film4 spend about a half million pounds on each production budget, so there were element that we couldnt theoretically spend a lot on.

Pre- Production Representations/Themes Again the ideologies of Film4 would permit a range of themes, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, themes which represent working class Britons. Most of our characters representations werent affected. Pre-Production Locations While scouting around for locations we had to make sure that they werent from a middle class neighborhood, but a more rundown/working class area. The location we had for the room was actually filled with more things, which we decided in the production wed make the room more bare as it looked small already. The alleyway proved to be a very good location as it was quite vandalized with graffiti littering the walls, and rubbish on the floors which gave the look of a working class area. Also we used locations rather than sets because we could capture the realness of the location.

Production Cast Following Film4s ethos of using new talent in their films, we also used a cast with new actors. Most of our actors were untrained, where they added to the verisimilitude of the production. We didnt exactly have a choice of using new talent, mostly because we didnt know anyone at hand that was an actor.

Production Equipment The equipment which we could use was limited to simple handheld cameras, we were able to get a HD camera to shoot with, tripods, tracks etc. More advanced technology like CGI or Green Screen wouldnt be of any use for us because the narrative didnt have any science fiction, fantasy or extravagant action elements to it. Also that kind of technology would require more money and would cost a lot out of the budget. We used Macs, Final Cut Pro and Live Type to edit the production. Final Cut Pro offered basic editing tools like cuts, which was the most common edit that we used, because it didnt break the verisimilitude. Live Type allowed us to have simple typography for our titles (we used the Helvetica font). The film Chatroom (2010, Hideo Nakata) used simple fonts, for their ending credits, that were faded to the next against a black background. We used this type of style for our credits introducing the main actors, applying an effect that made the text fuzzy and distort because it looked too static and awkward with the loud and energetic music in the background. The rest of the titles after the film title were superimposed, aligned to the right hand side of the screen declining down to the bottom of the screen.

Distribution
Film Festivals Film festivals like Cannes or The Sundance film festivals, would be a suitable place to exhibit the film, because independent films are exhibited there where it would become better known.
Campaigns In our narrative, the theme of drug abuse is a prominent factor that moves the story forward. Campaigns such as (talk to) FRANK could promote the film, as the whole idea behind Straight Edge culture is to not inject things that cause harm to your body, long term and short term, and since the campaign aims to increase awareness about the effects of drugs, they share the same views. Viral Using viral marketing would benefit the production as it is quick and effective and free. Due to small budgets, we cant spend a lot on print ads so viral marketing strategies are more useful. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook are social networks that we can use to increase word of mouth. Film4 have their own twitter account, which offers their followers updates about what new films are being released and the premiers to some. An official website would be made that would also be promoted on Film4s website and a Facebook fan page would be made so people can recommend it to friends. StudioCanal UK The company is one that already releases lots of independent British films, such as Brick Lane (2009) also a Film4 production. They release a lot of different genres, from British and American independent films, to animated Ghibli films.