CCR2: HOW WOULD YOU DISTRIBUTE YOUR FILM?

DEADLINE for COMPLETION Monday 22 March

2. How does your produce engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

We are getting ahead with the second part of the second Creative Critical Reflection in this session. It is a stand-alone task that does not depend on having finished your film. You will add the front end when you've made your film opening.

From the CIE Handbook:"An excellent application of knowledge will be apparent in: the blog, the finished product and the creative reflection and these are likely to show some originality/flair.The use of digital creative tools are also used to excellent effect in the creative critical reflection. Evidence of research will be extensive and increasingly relevant to the production; this will be evidenced in the blog, drawn on to inform the production and explored in the creative  critical reflection." CIE student work here. We have examples on our student blogs.

So: you need to show that you know 

• how an independent, low-budget film like yours is distributed; 
• to show the research that you did to find this information; 
• what your actual specific strategy is
• and to present all this with creative digital tools, like Canva or SlideShare

In mid October, you researched a Hollywood major's marketing campaign and distribution strategy so you know about the big-budget solutions. Draw on your distribution collage to make a list of the elements that you think you could use.

Start a blog post DISTRIBUTING MY FILM to make a list of your slides. You will present this on Visme, Slideshare or Canva.

1 : FILM DISTRIBUTION I have researched a distributor's marketing campaign for a Hollywood major (add your hyperlink)

2 :  INDEPENDENT FILMS DISTRIBUTION Film website like BAIT with film festival screenings; BFI London Film Festival; poster; screenings listed; apply for funding; Tortoise in Love

3 :  INDEPENDENT FILMS DISTRIBUTION Film website like Sorry We Missed You lists screenings and makes it easy for audiences to find screenings; other strategies like #viral marketing

4 : RESEARCH USING THE FDA WEBSITE "I researched what film distributors do from the FDA website and its resources..."

The Film Distributors Association (the FDA) helps our research in this resource. You will need to pick out the names of key experts and what they say. (Note that Mark Batey was the FDA head until 2019 and the FDA CEO is now Andy Leyshon).

COMP LIST

Kezia Williams outlines how useful it is to make a 'comp list' of comparable films. 

"Three films that are comparable to ours are ....."

I suggest a slide of 3 film posters side-by-side listing simple points underneath that identify 

• the film's genre
• its target audience (age, M / F)
  
• its USP
  

So, TenPin Productions identify Gone Girl (2014), Galveston (2018), Shutter Island (2010)

Data about audiences can be seen on the FDA Yearbook 2020

It is very useful to look at real low-budget films like Bait as well as on Film Festival websites to have realistic ideas about how you might distribute your film.

7 (the number is approximate) : UK FILM DISTRIBUTORS 

In the world, of independent film, distribution companies tend to work on a territory by territory basis.The material below is take from the FutureLearn course The Business of Film, created by the Film Distributors Association and the Open University.

So, for example, the UK distribution company (also known simply as distributor) will buy the film for the UK. That means the distributor will have the right to arrange for distribution in all media (cinemas, DVD, video-on-demand [VoD], television, airlines, etc.) in the UK only. A French company will buy the film for France. A German company will buy for Germany. This continues for all the territories around the world.

The distributor makes decisions (subject to contractual arrangements with the producer) as to when and how it will release the film, what sort of marketing campaign it will create and how much it will pay for marketing expenses, which are known as P&A (for prints and ads) in the case of territory distribution. The distributor is responsible for the financial success of the film in its territory.

In actual fact, the distributor is usually not making an outright purchase of the film. The distributor will be entering into a license agreement whereby the distributor has the right to distribute the film in its territory for a particular length of time – usually known as the ‘term’. However, everyone in the industry often speaks, loosely, of the film being ‘bought’ for the territory.

Entertainment One UK  is one of the more significant independent film distribution companies in the UK, with operations all around the world.- On the FutureLearn course The Business of Film, Alex Hamilton, formerly Managing Director (now with StudioCanal), describes the process of distribution as organizing a series of 'windows' to extract the maximum value throughout the life of a film, starting usually with cinema exhibition, moving through DVD and so on, although disruptors like Netflix have challenged this system.

 

EOne

Verve 

 

Warp

8 (the number is approximate & depends on how many slides you've done) : AUDIENCE RESEARCH I conducted audience research via a questionnaire

• state that you used Google Forms and why it is so useful
• explain what was the aim of the questionnaire 
• comment on the kinds of questions that you asked, drawing attention to the fact that you wanted to research the target audience for the kind of film that you yourself and your production team were planning to make, in particular, the target age group
• "Through the use of Google Forms, I was able to collect data that I will be able to present in both graphical forms and words, as I asked questions that yielded both quantitative and qualitative data."
• Use Bit.ly to shorten links. Open Bit.ly and paste your long hyperlink. It generates a nice short one

9 (the number is approximate) : DEFINING MY AUDIENCE will shape my decision about how to reach them.

10 (the number is approximate) : THE ROLE OF FILM FESTIVALS

Film festivals provide the opportunity for a new film maker like our production company to make contacts and seek distributors. Indie production teams use Film Postcards to advertise their films.

We’ve all heard of the Cannes Film Festival, which takes place annually in May. Other well-known international festivals include those at Berlin, Venice, Toronto and Sundance in the US. But have you heard of the Tallinn Black Nights Festival? The Los Cabos 6 International Film Festival?

Thousands of film festivals are organised around the world each year. Some are devoted to specific genres – documentary, horror, animation, short films. You name it and there’s probably a film festival dedicated to it! Some are ‘trade’ events, while others (such as the London Film Festival in October) are directed largely to the public. Have you ever attended a film festival?

From a distributor’s viewpoint, festivals can present particular opportunities for certain films. A festival screening can raise the profile among important trade audiences such as critics, cinema screen bookers and distributors (i.e. potential acquirers) in other countries. Not only finished films are screened, sometimes ‘promo reels’ are compiled to promote a film which is still in production.

 FILM POSTCARDS

11 (the number is approximate) : MY MARKETING MATERIALS

 

Distributors understand how social media has vastly increased the ways in which we can share our opinions of films – through Facebook, Twitter and other networks. Social influencers can hold the key to a film’s success or failure, spreading the word in just a click.