FDA UK Distribution Guide and Film Distribution Questions

1) What is meant by the term 'Film Distribution'?

Film distribution is the term used to describe making a film accessible to an audience, including what media a film is designed to be released on, for example; cinema, TV movie, or straight to DVD, creating a 'buzz' around a film and marketing.

2) What does a film distributor do? 

A film distributor is responsible for deciding how a film is released. UK distribution companies such as Warner Bros, Disney, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Lionsgate all release films in the UK (as well as around the world). They obtain films through one of four sources:

• A third party sales agent on behalf of a producer
• A continuous flow of new content from a parent studio
• A studio or production company with whom the distributor has negotiated an output deal covering a array of titles
• A single title acquired at any stage before, during or after production.

There are also many independent distributors who often handle films made outside of the mainstream studios.
These distributors persuade cinemas to display their films (e.g. they could have a deal for a certain film with the Odeon chain of cinemas), estimating revenue, and developing partnerships to raise awareness of the films presence.

          

3) How does 'reach' relate to film distribution
Reach relates to film distribution as it effects the expected revenue of a film. Distributors could decide to advertise the film to a wide audience, so it 'reach'es lots of people, therefore making the marketing more expensive, but also allowing the film to bring in more money when it is released. A film with a small reach will often only appeal to a small number of people and its profit will be more condensed, coming from this small audience. Having a wide reach, and advertising in every way possible can sometimes be very profitable, but it is risky as a film could flop and not produce enough revenue to cover the costs of its reach. One example of this happening is with the film 'The Green Lantern'. This film had an extremely large reach and featured a big hollywood name, Ryan Renolds, but after reviewing a number of negative reviews from critics, it did not produce as much money as expected. The opposite of this situation is when the large reach pays of, like it did for The Woman In Black, which due to its successful marketing campaign and the non stop promotion of the film by its main actor, Daniel Radcliffe, it made a lot of money.



4) What is meant by the distribution plan?

The distribution plan is made by the management team with the aim of releasing the film to retailers and therefore consumers. This is sometimes done by tactical release dates of films, for example a christmas release date. The films released around christmas are not always 'christmas films', it is tactically done as so people can get tickets for presents, and people often have more money to spend on or after christmas.  They also consider the target audience of the film depending on the genre, and advertise it appropriately (for example, a film about Peppa Pig would be advertised on a children's TV channel such as CITV). The budget for advertising does contribute to how to management team deal with the distribution plan, as if there is a low budget they will be somewhat limited in what they do, whereas a large budget will allow more advertising and  'buzz' to be created. Distributors often sign a contract with producers allowing them to advertise the film on a range of media before the release date.

5) What is meant by the marketing plan?

The marketing plan is designed by the distributors, with the aim to achieve a specific marketing objective within a certain time. This is often began with market research to identify the likes and dislikes of the target audience, and an analysis of the current market situation, including which films are doing well and which aren't and why. The overall aim of the marketing plan is to create visibility, raise awareness and generally create 'buzz' for a film. The marketing plan is often executed through several different media forms including trailers, mobile apps, interactive trailers and websites. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are also often used to raise awareness of the film. Distributors usually get critics to watch the film before it is released, hoping that they will receive reviews worthy of putting on their advertising, often shown as a number of stars out of 5. For example, the poster for 'Sightseers' includes 4 different reviews, each rating the film as 4 starts, with a small quote.



6) What is the difference between advertising, publicity, and promotion?
Advertising tends to be the materials that the distributor decides to market the film with, for example television, radio, magazines or newspapers. Depending on the genre of a film, it will be advertised in different media to access the correct target audience.
Publicity tends to be the ways that a film is made known about to the general public by things such as interviews, premieres, and actors appearing on TV shows to promote the film. For example, for The Woman in Black, Daniel Radcliffe went on several chat shows, including Jimmy Fallon to promote this film.
Promotion is raising awareness of the film through things such as merchandise with the title or actors on it. T-shirts, mugs and bags are all common merchandise for most films. Magazines or newspapers sometimes include this merchandise free in an attempt to promote the film.


7) Find a teaser poster, teaser trailer, main poster and main trailer for a horror film, who was the distributor and how many countries was it released, and how many screens was it shown on on the opening weekend?