Film Distribution

1. Film Distribution By: Bart Peter

2. f Film Distributor: A film distributor is a company or in rare cases an individual who act as an agent between film producer and the film exhibitor until the end of producer’s film placement on exhibitor’s screen. The primary objective of a distributor is to convince the exhibitor to rent or book each film based on a assumption that his company will benefit financially from showing said film on their screens. The distributor also ensures that enough film prints are struck to service all contracted exhibitors on the contract-based opening day, he also ensures their physical deliveries to theatres and make all the posters, newspaper and magazine advertisement, television commercials, trailers and other types of advertising.

3. Film distribution in UK Distributors have a hard task of advertising in the UK because of increasing number of ways people can watch films ( DVD, on demand, television, cinemas etc.) advertising is absolutely critical for the film’s launch as the first 3 days after the launch is when the film brings most profits and its when the film us usually shown at cinemas, after the 3 day period the public interest in the film starts to decrease and the film starts to be shown on TV, on demand and through internet.

4. Releasing a film • Standard release: firstly a film is shown in cinemas, the advertising campaign to get people to watch it in a cinema is what gets the film its publicity whilst at the premiere and the 3 days post-premiere is where the film generates most profits. Then after approximately 16 weeks the film is released on DVD, after additional number of moths it is released to pay TV and VOD services and after about 2 years after the cinema premiere it is available on free-to-air TV. Simultaneous release: A simultaneous release is when a film is released on multiple media sources such as VOD services and cinemas or cinemas and TV. It’s a great advantage for production studios as they need one marketing campaign for all releases on the other hand it is a great disadvantage for cinema owners as they would be forced to share the opportunity window and it can ruin the “magic” of movie going.

5. Releasing a film Theatrical Window (Cinemas) Originally the cinema windows was about 6 months depending on individual movie but with advance of new technologies and customers needs it has been shrunk down to just over 4 months. Internet Release; Internet releases are still very new and thus almost experimental, it gives customers a great deal of freedom of where they can view the movie but the exact download volume is hard to find but its sources are sometimes even harder to find

6. DNA Films DNA Films is an independent film production company, they are a relatively small production company who realised few films, but they have been successful in the past: • 28 Days Latter (2002) • The Last King of Scotland (2006) • Sunshine (2007) • 28 Weeks Latter (2007) The are currently working along side Fox Searchlight who specialise in independent and British films. They do this for mutual benefit where DNA benefits from FOX’s funds whilst they benefit from supporting smaller companies.

7. Engagement of audience • This happens when a film has great potential and the audience actually do something with it, it is often referred to as “fun-made” and is always non-profit based. It’s possible thanks to new technology's like digital film-making technology and ease of its distribution via websites like YouTube.