FILM DISTRIBUTION By Isaac Eze

WHAT IS FILM DISTRIBUTION?Our appreciation of film is formed by our experiences at the cinema.

Distribution is the third part of the film supply chain, this process is only usually known to those within the industry and is often completely imperceptible to everyone else.

However, ironically, distribution is the most important part of the film industry, where completed films are brought to life and connected with an audience.

Distribution is process of making a movie available for viewing by an audience. In the practice of Hollywood and other forms of industrial cinema, the phases of production, distribution and exhibition operate most effectively when they are all integrated, this is when all three stages are seen as part of the same larger process, under the control of one company. In the UK, distribution is very much focused on marketing and sustaining a global product in local markets.

In the independent film sector, this type of integration does not operate as much. Producers tend not to have long-term economic links with distributors, who likewise have no formal connections with exhibitors. Distribution often acts as the ‘middle man’ within collaborative process, requiring the materials and rights of the producer and the cooperation of the exhibitor to promote and show the film in the best way possible. In this sector, distribution can be divided into three stages - licensing, marketing and logistics.

ESSENTIAL POINTS ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF FILM DISTRIBUTION Split deals

Cost of putting your film into the cinema

Service Deals

Bigger the deal, the less control you have

Capping expenses

Monetary transactions

The “Middle man”

No guarantees

R.O.I & Networking

SPLIT DEALS ARE BECOMING MORE COMMON WITHIN THE FILM INDUSTRYWithin modern day filmmaking, it has become extremely rare that Multi-Millionaire industries such as: Warner Bros. or Universal will offer you an all-media buy out.

There some exceptions such the Fox Searchlight’s acquiring Another Earth at Sundance 2011, but it will foolish and hopeless to hope that a global deal will come your way.

Distributors now often cherry pick territories and then decide which national rights they want. For example, they are interested only in TV, or DVD, leaving the other pieces of the distribution window to the producer to try to max out money-wise. This is due to risk of money loss through hefty investments, therefore they only invest in specific aspects of the film.

COSTS OF PUTTING YOUR FILM INTO THE CINEMA

Promotion your film can often become a lot more expensive than anticipated, this is largely due to the excess demand limited promotional ‘slots’. For example, Booking ad space in newspapers and magazines has become very costly. Add to that the cost of social media assets (such as Twitter and Facebook) scause an significant increase in pricing. Furthermore, the exhibitor (theatre owner) takes a fair whack, and the distribution company will take a third off the top, and the amount left in the pot from all those cinema admissions starts to shrivel. From the ‘profit’, the distributor then deducts the costs associated with the release.

In order to maximise proft ( Or in somne cases prevent loss), distributors commonly write an a cross-collateralization clause meaning they can balance theatrical losses against profits.  The process/concept of this clause is that it provides release guarantees critical notices in all the main newspapers in the country it has been released. This brings the film to the public’s attention, and creates an increased perceived value for the film when it is available in other formats, such as DVD or online streaming through a portal like Netflixs, Lovefilm, or Blinkbox.com, basically helping to effectively promote the film.

SERVICE DEALS

Within service deals, filmmakers hire a ‘specialist’ who often has the necessary Promotional, Marketing and Sales skills needed to take over the distribution process for a specific fee. Preview screenings are set up for cinema booking agents and then booked. Advertising and publicity campaigns are designed and launched, and the money is returned to the filmmaker less the money spent.

Service deals can offer a greater amount of flexibility and control to the filmmaker. Essentially, the distributor is working for you. Generally, the more engaged and involved the filmmaker is in the campaign, the greater the rewards.

BIGGER THE DEAL, THE LESS CONTROL YOU HAVEIf an global organization invests to your newly produced film, it is common that you minimal control of what actions are taken on the distribution of the film. If you have dispute with the ‘Big Boys’ then you will often lose, as there main concern is how to best maximize the return on their investment, and of course, the customers always right. And if they don’t get it right by your books, and screw it all up, you can pretty much kiss your movie goodbye. The gain pretty much all control over the production and distribution of the film without consulting you. Therefore it is essential that you ensure your contract is very clear on what the approval process is for key marketing decisions.

CAPPING EXPENSES

Any marketing campaign is expensive. If your deal calls for a split of profits after expenses, make very sure you have capped the expenses, or any profit will simply melt away.

  

MONETARY TRANSACTIONS

Money from your film can take an extremely long time to arrive don’t forget that the distributor has to wait to get the money from the exhibitor (theatre owner). From DVD sales the wait is even longer. Delays of upto15 months are not uncommon. This is because retailers often place a holdback on cash owing to account for unsold items.

For digital sales to sits such as Lovefilm and Netflix, reporting to filmmakers is virtually non-existent. Once you have piqued their interest to the point that they want you, it would be prudent to expect nothing more than the initial license fee they offer you. and that often can be very small. London filmmaker Chris Jones was offered $75.00 for each of his first 2 award winning features.

THE “MIDDLEMAN”

Certain middlemen exist to represent slates of films by newcomers on the premise that they have an excellent filtering process through which they cherry pick the best of the new, raw, undiscovered talent to prospective distributors.

This becomes much more formal in the digital world. These middlemen, or aggregators, perform two functions: They prep your film for digital distribution, encoding it into a wide variety of CODEC’s for everything from Playstation to mobile phones to web viewing. Then they do the actual selling to large platforms like iTunes and Netflix. They charge additional fees for this, and the filmmaker can end up with a fraction of the total revenue once the platform and the aggregator have taken their whack.

As the large platforms only deal with a small number of aggregators, you are pretty much stuffed. Do watch out for this: Some aggregators and platforms try to get exclusive contracts. Signing anything BUT a non-exclusive contract would be, in my opinion, pretty dumb.

NO GUARANTEES

Nothing can be guaranteed, all relationships in life grow and develop. An effective method of creating a commercially successful film, it is vital the filmmaker will often sign a distribution deal in which the filmmaker can leave the distributor if minimal revenue stream has not been reached. It is also common to draft it into your distribution agreement to avoid clause should your film not be released within a certain time frame.

R.O.I’S & NETWORKING

All films have a revenue potential. The trick is to understand what the revenue potential for your film is, and then make your film for less than the amount you expect to earn, in order calculate pure profit. Get good at this, and potential investors will start to trust your acumen and start investing in your next project.

The more you network with fellow filmmakers, the more you will learn about the positive and negatives the film industry.

WHO WOULD DISTRIBUTE OUR FILM COMPANY?

The film company we have created is named ‘Fractured Films’, We wanted our film ident to represent a horror genre through professional looking ident whilst providing quite a raw and sinister feel through the chalky sketches and dim lighting. Therefore I believe media instructions such as Lionsgate and Paramount.