1. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

2. The Big Six Those are the six biggest corporations:

3. Research I looked at different films within my chosen genre and found out what kind of media institution was used to distibute each media product. The Princess Diaries: Distributors: Buena Vista Pictures (which is owned by Walt Disney) Budget: $37,000,000 (estimated) Opening weekend: 2,537 screens in the USA 396 screens in the UK

4. A Cinderella Story: Distributors: Warner Bros. (which is owned by Time Warner) Budget: $20,000,000 (estimated) Opening weekend: 2,625 screens in the USA 276 screens in the UK Mean Girls: Distributors: Paramount Pictures (which is owned by Viacom) Budget: $17,000,000 Opening weekend: 2,839 screens in the USA 364 screens in the UK

5. The Devil Wears Prada: Distributors: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (which is owned by News Corp.) Budget: $35,000,000 Opening weekend: 2,847 screens in the USA 447 screens in the UK I noticed that all of the companies which distributed those films belong to „The Big Six“. Therefore I am going to chose one of those companies as well.

6. I think Viacom would be a good distributor for my film as it ownes, among Paramount Pictures an United National Pictures, 10 TV stations and gives access to the TV channels MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central. This helps advertising my film because those channels and my film share parts of their target audience.

7. Chick Flicks such as the films I researched are usually given in multiplex cinemas such as Vue or Odeon, so I would also hope to get my film into this kind of cinema. In the USA films within this genre are usually released on about 2,500-3,000 screens, in the UK it varies between 250 and 450 screens, so I might aim for 300 screen in the UK for my film. Mean Girls for example was distributed by Paramount Pictures (USA) and United International Pictures in other countries, mostly in Europe, and was released on 2,839 screens in the USA and on 364 screens in the UK.

8. I will use 'Horizontal Integration' to spread 'word of mouth' about my film. So I will advertise my film on the TV channels MTV, Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, as well as in the Nickelodeon Magazine because Viacom owes these. The Budget of a Chick flick is usually about $20,000,000, so I might also afford trailers on other TV channels such as E4. The main character of a chick flick is often the star of the film and played by a celebrety. For example Lindsay Lohan is the star in Mean Girls and therefore used for advertising. The main character of my film could appear for example on the covers of magazines to catch the attention of the audience.

9. Media 2.0 The internet plays an important role in adverising my film as it is a very cheap and easy way to let people know about my film. Social Networks such as Facebook and Twitter are useful because it does not cost any money to create groups or wall posts to inform people about your film. I could also upload the trailer for my film on youtube, which is for free as well and reaches people all over the world.