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

PLANNING: TREATMENT

A train returns from London and we see a man in a suit sitting in the train whilst the camera is in a close up of his face. As he stares forward there is a close up of a briefcase or mysterious package he is holding in his hands. There is then a flashback to the same man standing outside a skyscraper in London. He is then seen approaching a spy who is holding the same package and murders him, taking the package and running off. This then cuts back to the train as it reaches the protagonist's stop. The camera then follows him out of the train and down a street until he is stopped by mire government agents who corner him and force him to get into a car which pulls up to Claremont. As the protagonist is forced inside the Mansion he is dragged into an Office with a very important member of MI6. The senior executive then asks him what he thinks he was planning to do with the case. He refuses to answer. The executive forces the bodyguards to write a tally into the protagonist's arm. After a small conversation about the package, the protagonist is knocked out and wakes up on the same train going to the same platform hours earlier as if it were a dream. He then looks down, but sees the tally on his arm that has been marked on his arm hours in the future.

RESEARCH: THE BUSINESS OF FILM

In the UK, the BFI and its predecessor the UK Film Council, have published a number of reports on the economic and cultural value of film. Recently, they made a report on economic impact which found that film contributed £3.67 billion to the UK economy. Studies on the cultural impact of film have shown how films, can be extremely significant for people, giving them insight into other people's cultures as well as making them generally aware of both current and past issues around the world


Many films perform well at award ceremonies, including the BAFTAS as well as the more popular US Academy Awards (also known as the OSCARs). This is a source of pride for the UK, and is one of reasons that there are so many Hollywood stars that are British because their high talent gets recognised through award ceremonies such as this. Another increasingly important aspect of film and screen production is tourism. Film tourism is defined as "visiting a place that features in a film or television programme", and is becoming more popular with the increasing number of films produced Approximately £840 million of tourism spending by overseas visitors can be attributed to film-induced tourism. An example of successful film/tv tourism is through Game of Thrones, which shoots on location in Northern Ireland. Locations from the show are advertised through tourism agencies and has raised £8.6 million for Northern Ireland's economy.



The benefits of inward investment include that there is a knock on effect for individuals working on a film from producers to camera crew as more money is being made through the investment. The fact that many films are funded by the lottery means that they can easily obtain the money to successfully train crew members of a film as well as using more money for distribution, thus reaching far more people who are abroad.


In the film industry, the term ‘value chain’ is used to describe the series of steps that run from the first creative spark that starts the film-makers thinking about the project to the end of the commercial life of the completed feature film. The value chain is extremely important in the production of film, and it consists of development, finance, pre-pre production, production, distribution, exploitation.


Development - Hire director, option agreement, hire casting director, certify as british
,premilinary budget, secure key cast,hire writer
Finance - Secure development finance, prepare estimates
Production - Secure rights,pre-production, principal photography, post-production
Distribution - Broadcast license, Video/DVD/VoD licensing
Concept Origination - Find ideias.
Exploitation - Download to own, Cinema exhibition, DVD rental and Sales,
Creative Packaging - Marketing campaign