RESEARCH: DISTRIBUTION

Distribution is the process in which a film reaches the hands of a theatre chain, broadcasters, video stores and video on demand (VoD) operators. The companies that do this are called distributors. In general a producer uses a sales agent to license a film to distributors outside the producer’s own country. As I am making a film opening, I would look to a distributor to distribute my film (but because it is a student film, I will have to use social media) I looked at the FDA website as well as the Business of Film course to learn about distribution, and from these websites I learned that the film business is very heavily product driven. The FDA website laid out the main points of distributors challenge like this:

- identifying its audience

- considering why they'd go and see it

- estimating the revenue potential across all the formats of its release

- persuading exhibitors to play the film

- developing plans and partnerships to build awareness of and interest in the film

- aiming to convert as much interest as possible into cinema visits

 

Essentially, distributors have to make sure that a film reaches its desired audience, which it does by way of digital and conventional screenings,  managing cinema exhibition and DVD sales, releasing teaser trailers and posters, as well as utilising Social Media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter for a film that help to spread awareness of a film to its Target Audience. In order to gain a better understanding of Distribution's role in the Film Industry, I watched an interview given by Stuart Williams, the Deputy Managing Director & Marketing Director of Sony Pictures

 

From my research into the Hollywood Big 6 and other big studios, I learned that big budget films have a wide range of distribution strategies at their disposal. Examples of this include TV spots, theatrical trailers, billboards and prints. I had already noticed from my own interest in film how distributors drew my attention to films, such as London Has Fallen, as I had seen billboards and a trailer. However, low budget films like mine can struggle to find any distributor at all. I did a case study on the distribution of Tortoise In Love, having discovered that the BFI's P & A fund stepped in to help them distribute their film, rather than using one of the Big 6/s distribution companies (as the film was not involved with the Big 6, rather being a microbudget film relying heavily on word of mouth)


Gareth Lowrie of NBC Universal explained the campaign to his audience at the FDA. He taught us that he had worked on the marketing campaign of Jurassic World, which was extremely successful as it turned out to be one of the top 10 highest grossing films of 2015. He explained to us that the importance of Viral Marketing was key to the success that Jurassic World had at the Box Office, as well as through event marketing such as when Waterloo train station in London was filled with props rom the film and was decorated like the theme park depicted in the film in order to reach a large amount of people and fill them with wonder at the scope of the film, thus leading them to go and see it.

After researching many aspects of film distribution, I decided that for my film opening, I would choose Vertigo to distribute my low budget film, as Vertigo's ethos is to "create and distribute commercially driven independent cinema" as well as to nurture new talent, thus making it perfect for my independent character driven film opening