Film Distribution

What is film distribution?

Film distribution is basically a process of getting the film ready and available for the audience.

This is a very basic definition of film distribution but here’s the factors that come into play

Acquiring Rights

First of all, the distributer would need to gain rights or be given access to actually show the film.

After this, they talk to the film maker about when the process will start etc.

Release Strategy

The distributer will come up with a plan on how they will, where they will and when they will release the film.

Factors such as holidays and seasons will effect when the film will be released.

For example; Distribution companies will distribute chick flicks around valentines day.

Marketing Strategies

The distributer will make posters and trailers to really make the audience exited for the film that they have taken on.

This includes a lot of interviews, a lot of screenings and a lot of promotion of the film through social media sites (eg. twitter, Facebook etc.)

The Big Six

‘The big six’ is a term used to describe the six biggest film distributers, an example is 20th Century Fox.

They are a very mainstream distributer that has distributed big films, for example; X-Men First Class.This doesn’t go on to say that independent distributers are un successful.

Independent Distributers

An example of an independent distributer is Metrodome. They are not a household name and they don’t take on the very big films, but this doesn’t go to say that they are not successful.

An example of a film they distributed is ‘Shifty’ which was a big success and they aren’t in it for the money, they generally care about the material we show these days.

Who would distribute me?

The film I have made is similar to many other American crime thriller films so I would like to think that bigger distributers would be looking at my film.

With this being said, I think that because we don’t have recognition that other films like that have, we would probably be taken on by a smaller independent distributer such as Metrodome.

Is my audience restricted to the UK?

I think that the audience of my film is not restricted to just the UK, we have many elements in our film that would appeal to an American audience.

We haven't made any barriers or terms that other audiences wont understand or will be thrown off by, So, no I think we have quite a wide audience that is not restricted to the UK

Release strategies for my film

I think it would be best to release my film around about mid October to early November time because this links in with the theme of Halloween.

Also many teenagers will have their half term holidays and they are the target audience of the film.

Self Distribution

I would consider the idea of self distributing my own film, but I think it would be better if I had a company that has experience to distribute my film so that it would get the proper recognition and advertisement that it deserves.