CLASSWORK: How would my project would be distributed as a real as a real media text?

How Films Are Distributed?

Distribution, the third part of the film supply chain, is often referred to as 'the invisible art', a process known only to those within the industry, barely written about and almost imperceptible to everyone else. Films have different strategies around sales and distribution, finding out where and how a film is released is an essential part of the economics of a film and to help push it further up the value chain. Currently, the existing model for exploitation of films is the concept referred to as “windows”. Despite films being released in many different windows, distributors usually focus mostly on the cinema performance.

What Film Distributors Do?

Professional film distributers make a movie available for viewing by an audience. These people control the marketing plan for a film as well as the release date, the way people could see it and various other properties. The film could be presented directly to the public either through television, a cinema or other methods which could include personal home viewing. In addition, film distributors work on the film’s promotion by airing adverts and trailers on various platforms.

They also have to decide what elements make the film so they can choose what age to target the film at or genre of the film. In the world of independent film distributors work on a territory by territory basis, an example of this is a UK distribution company will buy distribution specifically for UK viewing. Same applies for different countries, a German company will buy the distribution for Germany and an Italian company will buy distribution for Italy. 

FDA (Film Distributors' Association)

Below is a link to the fda (film distributors' association) and some screenshots as proof that we have studied the role of a distributor. Once we make a movie, it will be distributed by a distributor. To get a better understanding, I researched distribution on the FDA website. The task of a film distributor is to bring a movie into to the market, all of this is mentioned in the videos on the website which I have watched. One factor of the distributors role is to identify the target audience. Some movies are made for an international or global market whereas the UK targets different audiences like "arthouse", "multiplex", and "prestige. In the video Mark Batey explained that "the process of bringing a film to market is fast, highly competitive with each film being different".

http://launchingfilms.com/furtherdiscussions#fragment-2

 

- “It is a business process which is fast moving and very highly competitive”

The Business Of Film - Week 3

 Furthermore we watched a business film on the Open University MOOC course (link and screenshots shown bellow) to get a clearer understanding of the film industry.

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/business-of-film/5/todo/20856

Bharat Nalluri explained that "the big cinema release can still make or break a film" and "it is the distributor who has to make sure that the film's moment in the spotlight is not wasted.

I then watched a video of a film distributer, Alex Hamilton, explaining how there are multiple windows for when a film is released and the job as a distributor is to decide what to do with that film. The first window which you would release it in is the "theatrical release window", which is when you realise it into cinema's for the public to see for the first time. In the UK there are high costs to release films in cinemas, Alex stated that it costs usually seven figures to release in 300 cinemas across the UK. 

About five months later the film will appear on DVD and other various transactional platforms, Alex said that "the film company generates a higher income on DVD sales than when it's in the theatrical release window".

Roughly a year after the theatrical release, the film will then enter one of two windows. The first potential window is paid TV platforms, for example SKY. The alternative window is free television, however it usually takes up to two and a half years after theatrical release for this to happen. Examples of television programs that would broadcast them are the BBC, channel 4, or ITV.

Case Study - The Tortoise In Love

In class I studied a budget indie film called the "The Tortoise in Love". The film was created in a small village called Kingston Bagpuize in Oxfordshire and directed by Guy Browning. Almost 400 villagers volunteered to make the film happen and soon enough Kingston Bagpuize became the setting for the film.

In order to make the film possible the film had to approach the BFI Print and Advertising fund to ask for financial support which would enable them to fund the distribution costs such as supplying the venues with a copy of the film in the correct format, printing cinema style quad posters for all venues, finding a PR company to provide support locally as well as nationally, and recruiting a distribution manager to manage and administer the bookings. Without the support of the BFI, the film would not have been possible. 

Despite it being an incredibly small movie, it still had its first showing at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. The movie was shown around the UK in different village halls which gained it quite a bit of income. It also had a world premiere at Leicester Square in 2012 which the cast and crew arrived to on tractors. They also made a website for the movie to showcase and promote the film. 

  
'71 Case Study

The film '71 tells the story of a British soldier who becomes separated from his unit 

The distributers benefitted from delaying the release of the film after American audiences had seen the Hollywood movie Unbroken featuring Angelina Joline. 

The distribution strategy also involved targeting UK and US audiences who were concerned about the radicalisation of young men. 

Jurassic World Case Study