W HAT I MPA CT DID T H E M E DI A

I N ST IT U T IO N FIL M4 H AVE ON
E AC H PR OD UC T ION STA GE AN D
W HY?
PRE –PRODUCTION: RESEARCH AND PLANNING THE
PROJECT

In order for us to create our production, we needed to research into some Film4 having the
social realist sub genre. We found that various films discussed key themes such as aspirations,
violence, sexuality and gender roles. They show various controversial storylines and use
realistic backgrounds and locations.
Being a company such as Film4 using low budgets on creating films helped us as it creates
that more realistic view and not needing to spend to much money on the props and locations
as we used everyday places such as the school hall and the alleyway.
Researching into Film4 helped us to ascertain what should be included such as the specific
themes and conventions. We found that ‘Fish Tank’ in particular helped us as we wanted to
create a production exploring these sort of themes, yet wanting a more varied amount of
social classes and situations, as well as having the main characters being girls as this is not as
common in British social Realist films.
 P R O D U C T I O N : E Q U I P M E N T , L O C A T I O N S , C A S T

Film4 tend to use real life locations and not as well known actors due to the lack of money
available and also the controversial themes, which people may associate actors with if they
are featured in the film, as well as making it unique and stand out.
They do not also spend to much money on the equipment such as cameras, making it look
more realistic and not using many special effects and also natural lightings, not having to
spend money to create the more realistic views.
This helped us as we didn’t need to experiment with different lightings and using the real
locations such as somebodies bedroom and the school gym. This gave an overall feel of
verisimilitude as of the real locations and the way each of the characters were dressed.
Using unknown girls in the film, gives it a more realistic feel, following each of the girls
lifestyles and through different ways. Also using different music genres to help get across the
different personalities of the girls and their lifestyles.
Having the simple equipment helped us to create the basic and realistic view, yet still
capturing the importance and relevance. From the research we had done, we kept relating it
back to British Social Realism, trying to make the themes and situations realistic, the
audience being able to relate back to the film.
 DISTRIBUTION: H O W, W H E R E A N D W H O ?

Film4 usually distributes through home exhibition, via Channel 4, and even online through
Channel4OD, being able to download or watch online, looking to target that niche audience.
Film4 also mainly distribute to Art House’s due to the controversial and diverse themes
discussed. Having this also helps to get more people aware of the films, through viral and
guerrilla marketing. Such as through word of mouth or even social networking websites such
as Facebook where you can found our by joining groups or pages. Film4 rely on these types
of marketing as of the low budgets and its also a faster way of getting the points across,
standing out and being more noticeable as people are more likely to want to go if their friends
are talking about it, giving there opinions.
I would use the distributors below, as similarly they distribute Fish Tank, in which we found
our film relates mostly to out of all British Social Realist films.
IFC Films (2010) (USA) (all media)
IFC (2010) (Canada) (all media)
Kam & Ronson Enterprise Co (2010) (Hong Kong) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
MK2 Diffusion (2009) (France) (all media)
Mongrel Media (2010) (Canada) (DVD)
One Movie (2010) (Italy) (all media)
SP Films (2010) (Argentina) (DVD)