On average, the distributor will receive 40% off of box office revenues, 30% of which is spent on marketing, promotion, prints, certification and administration. It's the role of the distributor's to do one or more of these following tasks (and more):
- Acquire a film
- Acquire DVD distribution rights
- Arrange promotional partnerships
Distribution can be divided into 3 groups: publicity and marketing (promotion), film sales and circulation (copies to cinema). It's up to the distributor to decide whether a film needs a saturation (700-1000 prints) or an art house release (20 prints). They also need to consider when the film should be released. This can depend on the target audience. For example, if the film being promoted/distributed is aimed at families, ideally the film would be released in the summer holidays. However if the film is intended to be seen by adults then the award season would be a more beneficial time to distribute the film (Jan-March).
For something to be distributed it can be done in several ways: through television (airline, digital etc.), theatre, the internet and physically distributed. With regard to the theatre, a film, and short film alike can be distributed through being previewed at film festivals, community screenings, within art-houses and/or cinema chains. As for the internet, websites promoting the films are created, as well as apps, streaming sites and subscription platforms are all available where the audience has direct and instant access to your film. Finally with physical distribution, dvds, books, comics, posters, merchandise, bluray, and flash drives are all other options which the audience can choose to find out more about about a film and is yet a selection of ways a film can be distributed, promoted and therefore seen by more and more people worldwide.
Case Study
On the website, Short of the Week, I stumbled across a case study for a well distributed short film, promoted with surprising success, and only achieved through patience and determination. The film, The Thomas Beale Cipher by Andrew Allen and Jason Sondhi was an award-winning film. Distributed both online and at festivals, the makers collated the analytics from both to find out what gained them the most attention and secured business and distributor interest from established companies. These can be found here with further information on the case also.
At the end of it all, it proved that in fact distributing the way they did online, afforded them more attention both from the target audience and industries who had interest in the film. It also cost them nothing to do all of this, something that had enabled them the greatest viewer-ship of all, providing the most benefits. Although this is a 2011 case study, already back then the internet was growing in importance and popularity. Now however it is a fundamental asset to distributing a film. To see that it had such a huge impact on this short film, even back in 2011, just shows that despite distributing for festivals like most full length feature films do, for a short it's just as important, if not more, that a film is distributed/ promoted online.
For something to be distributed it can be done in several ways: through television (airline, digital etc.), theatre, the internet and physically distributed. With regard to the theatre, a film, and short film alike can be distributed through being previewed at film festivals, community screenings, within art-houses and/or cinema chains. As for the internet, websites promoting the films are created, as well as apps, streaming sites and subscription platforms are all available where the audience has direct and instant access to your film. Finally with physical distribution, dvds, books, comics, posters, merchandise, bluray, and flash drives are all other options which the audience can choose to find out more about about a film and is yet a selection of ways a film can be distributed, promoted and therefore seen by more and more people worldwide.
Case Study
On the website, Short of the Week, I stumbled across a case study for a well distributed short film, promoted with surprising success, and only achieved through patience and determination. The film, The Thomas Beale Cipher by Andrew Allen and Jason Sondhi was an award-winning film. Distributed both online and at festivals, the makers collated the analytics from both to find out what gained them the most attention and secured business and distributor interest from established companies. These can be found here with further information on the case also.
- The plan for distribution across the web was put into several steps sure to help the makers finally reach a standard where their film would grab the attention of industry experts. The first of these was to publish the film on Vimeo. YouTube was likely to afford them more viewers, however Vimeo would ensure the right viewers would see the film. Since this article was published in 2011 it's not as likely that this case stands today, since as we know, YouTube is becoming a major video-based site where people will look to find short films and promote them, simply because of ease.
- Secondly, posting a film early was likely to give the film a full day to gain lots of views and is something that this film was posted with in mind (Monday morning).
- Allen and Sondhi used Short of the Week to enable their short film to be shared to a viewer-ship of similar film makers and industry experts, looking to distribute and promote the next big short films.
- Social Media. It was important for the crew to get together and share this film across social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter since it was on these that a film's popularity could really grow. Today it is even more useful and important that films use these, as when one person sees the film, they will share it to friends who we share it to other friends and so on-meaning the film can be noticed globally and therefore retain popularity on a global scale.
- Targeting key institutions/ bodies. Through emailing individuals of companies or companies directly themselves who might be interested in the film, it was important for Allen and Sondhi to get them to adopt an interest in the film so that they might share it. This is also the case for blogs with major view counts. If a film can be shared this way then it is more likely industry experts are to take an interest in the film and that a film will be available to a wider, global audience.
At the end of it all, it proved that in fact distributing the way they did online, afforded them more attention both from the target audience and industries who had interest in the film. It also cost them nothing to do all of this, something that had enabled them the greatest viewer-ship of all, providing the most benefits. Although this is a 2011 case study, already back then the internet was growing in importance and popularity. Now however it is a fundamental asset to distributing a film. To see that it had such a huge impact on this short film, even back in 2011, just shows that despite distributing for festivals like most full length feature films do, for a short it's just as important, if not more, that a film is distributed/ promoted online.
No comments:
Post a Comment