Film Distribution

1) What is meant by the term film distribution?

This term refers to when the film is released to many cinemas for screening. Distributers determine how best to sell the film to an audience, which includes advertising. The aim of distribution is to let it reach as many of the audience as possible.

2) What does a film distributor do?

Film distributors identity the largest possible audience for a film and complete marketing to entice an audience to watch it. They do this by identifying the audience through psychographics and demographics. After identifying their audience, they will then estimate the revenue across every format. The film distributor essentially wants to get the film screened in as many cinemas as possible. Methods of distribution can vary depending on the company’s preference.

3) How does reach relate to film distribution?

Reach refers to the advertising of the product (the film). It is how many different people will be exposed to the advertising campaign, how many media platforms are used, etc. If a big reach is used and it is successful, such as 'The Woman in Black' campaign, it can massively benefit the film and the profit made.

4) What is meant by the distribution plan?

The distribution plan is all about finding out when and how a film should be released in order to optimise chances of a high revenue. To understand this, a distribution company conducts market research, commercial experience, statistics and then a professional evaluation on the results. Help with this comes from understanding the genre and looking a similar films in order to work out the target audience. The release date is also a confounding factor because they don't want it to clash with other films or be at a time when a lot of their target audience won't be going to the cinema, e.g. Christmas Day. When conduction distribution research the company will consider the following;

Distribution risk - Creating a film that will be a hit is difficult because the population's opinion can change so rapidly that it could be popular on week and not the next

Focus on Audience - By researching the target audience, the company can have a better understanding of how to present their product and where it will gain most recognition

Competition - Other films being released at a similar time is a major factor in trying to out-do profits and popularity of other films

Satisfying Anticipated Demand - If the film is having a huge release, has to be available everywhere once released in order to be easily accessed by the audience. However if it is a small release, screening in some cinemas rather than the majority could be a better way to build up hype before expanding to others

Digital Transformation - This means allowing old films to be shown in cinemas again which attracts an older audience  but gives the youth the opportunity to experience big cinema hits from many years ago

Budgeting the Release - The distribution company will have reviewed the finished film and the release plan as soon as possible. Contemplating every aspect of the film, they will draw up a detailed budget to cover the launch of the film and sustain the film after release

5) What is meant by the marketing plan?

The marketing plan sets out how the film will be promoted to particular audiences. There are a lot of factors to consider when making the plan, these include the following;
Posters - featuring on billboards, shop walls, cinema poster boxes, in magazine, etc. and therefore will receive a lot of attention. The poster has to be effective to make the audience want to see the film. It should grab the attention of passers by, portray the genre, include the names of famous actors who are in it, credits, the film's tag line, etc.

Trailers - The trailer often appears online along time before the release of the film. People have free easy access to trailers, through TV and sites such as YouTube, which provides quick, free advertising. Trailers can also be viewed through the film's social media pages with links to a website, before other films at the cinema, and other sources. There is quite often more than one trailer, in the form of a second trailer or teaser trailer, in order to provide more information.

Online and mobile - Films usually have their own website which includes clips, links, a list of the cast and crew, soundtrack, pictures and behind the scenes information. The helps to build up hype about the film and creates a more involved fan base after release. It will include 'exclusive information', have links to buying tickets, and provides an easy source of reliable information about the film to hopefully encourage bloggers to write articles and good reviews.

Social media - This is one of the most popular, successful and useful form of marketing because it is free for the consumers and marketers if they share, post or tweet about the product. Films will often have their own pages on many different popular sites.

Broadcast and print media - Marketing films uses many different platforms and materials from radio, to TV, to posters. All attract the attention of the audience in their own unique way and provides slightly different information or insights about the film.

Publicity - Film critics, Bloggers and Journalists are very important for films because their reviews have to be good in order to attract the audience. Also getting air time and interviews will the cast is a very popular way to increase publicity and popularity around the product.

Promotional partnerships - Marketing companies will often form promotional partnerships with shops, restaurants, clothing companies and other businesses in order to increase publicity. For example, McDonald's often partners with children's films by creating toys from the characters of the film in their happy meals and makes the kids love the character and want to see the film with them in it.

Merchandise - This includes clothing, key rings, mugs and other kitchen items, bags, jewelry, etc. It is a brilliant form of free advertising because people will walk around displaying the product and other people will be exposed to it and will want to fit in with them.

Premieres and experiences - Exclusively showing the film before the general release date helps to build up the hype, excitement and anticipation surrounding the film and is a great way for fans to meet the cast.

Festivals - Attending film festivals can build up awareness of the film to huge film and cinema fans, bloggers, journalists and the general public.

Inspiring young audiences - Some films and cinemas will make deals with schools, colleges and universities so that they can have free trips or reduced price on the tickets. This means that more people will watch it and then hopefully talk about to friends and family, join the fan base, buy it on DVD, or buy merchandise.

Accessible cinema - A key factor of marketing is making the film accessible to everyone. This means that creating screenings with digital subtitles for the hearing impaired or supplying kits for those visually impaired.

6) What is the difference between advertising, publicity and promotion?

Advertising, publicity and promotion are all used to encourage the audience to watch the film. They have a similar purpose but use different methods to achieve this;
Advertising is what the film company does to bring the audience's attention to the product, Publicity is out of the company's control because it is the media's reaction to the film so it can be good or bad, but either way the film is still being promoted, and Promotion is used to attract an even wider audience to the film, therefore making it memorable.

7) Find a teaser poster, teaser trailer, main poster and main trailer for a horror film and them them on your Blog - Who was the distributor and in how many countries was it released? Can you find how many screens it was shown in on the opening weekend?

 

The posters above are for the recent horror success of 2013, 'The Conjuring'. The left poster is the original poster and the right is the teaser poster. Both give very little away regarding the film but the title is very self-explanatory so gives a major clue as to what the main event of the film is. The images therefore don't give away much information and add a certain mystery which helps sell the film. Both posters give us the same information but the main poster also tells us the release date which lets us know it is the main one.

 

The two released trailers show two very similar but slightly different takes on the film's plot. The main trailer gives us a lot more information about the family whereas the teaser trailer reveals that there are paranormal researchers involved in the film. The effect of these different takes on the film plot makes the audience feel more scared as it makes them believe the case is more serious and realistic, making them more inclined to want to watch it. Furthermore, the main trailer has more jump scares including creepy voices and faces that pop out. It also gives glimpses of the evil spirits that are haunting the family. On the other hand, the teaser trailer is more gripping, leaving the audience on the edge of their seat, waiting to be scared and therefore successfully drawing them in to watch it on the release day. 

Using both of the posters and trailers enabled the distributors to increase the film's profile and attract more attention to it. The main distributors were the Warner Brothers. This film was released in three different countries on around 3,000 screens on the opening weekend. Afterwards it expanded to more countries and cinemas, making it a worldwide success.