Question 3WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

What are film distributors?

A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for the marketing of a film, this could include:

•Setting the release date of the film

•Choosing the method by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing (eg. directly to the public either in cinemas or for home viewing)

•Deciding how much the film should be advertised

•Deciding how many cinema the film will show in and for how long

•Determining how many copies (prints) of the film to make

•Showing the movie (screening) to prospective buyers representing the theatres

Institutional framework for distribution:

The path which a film takes from production to release:• Someone has an idea for a movie.• They create an outline and use it to promote interest in the idea.• A studio or independent investor decides to purchase rights to the film.• People are brought together to make the film (screenwriter, producer, director, cast,

crew).• The film is completed and sent to the studio.• The studio makes a licensing agreement with a distribution company.• The distribution company determines how many copies (prints) of the film to make.• The distribution company shows the movie (screening) to prospective buyers

representing the cinemas.• The buyers negotiate with the distribution company on which movies they wish to

lease and the terms of the lease agreement.• The prints are sent to the cinemas a few days before the opening day.• The cinema shows the movie for a specified number of weeks (engagement).• People buy a ticket and watch the movie.• At the end of the engagement, the cinema sends the print back to the distribution

company and makes payment on the lease agreement.

Our Production CompanyOur group, Sophie, Grace and I, decided to created our production company, ‘TFN Productions’. We decided to incorporated the first letter of each of our surnames into the production company names as we wanted to make sure that we were each equally a part of it. Our logo helps to portray the genre of films we will be producing as we think the background picture of the people jumping helping to get across the drama, comedy and romantic elements of the genre of film that the company will produce.

Genre and Target Audience Our film we have made is a dramedy (dramatic comedy), which we helped to come across in the title sequence by including an upbeat soundtrack which worked well with the quick cuts between the parallel storyline. As well as including comic and dramatic elements.

The target audience of our film is 14-25 year olds, it is aimed mainly at the female population due to the romantic aspects of the storyline however we have made sure that our film could potentially appeal to both genders by making sure we included comedy and drama elements in the storyline.

Importance of Film Distributors As a production company we know it will be essential for us to have a film distributor in order to get our work into the cinemas, the main focus of us as a production company is the creation of the film and all of the processes that go with it whereas distributors will have the invaluable experience of the best way to get our film marketed. The distributor will organise all of the advertising and promotions of our film so how well publicised our film is will be completely down to them, they will work to get the word out about our film and to get people interested in it. Having a film distributors will be even more important for us as we are a small, independent films because we are not as well known and our film doe not contain any big name stars that studio pictures do therefore it is crucial for distributors to get the word to get out for us. A distributor will also be able to use the genre and target audience of our film to make the advertising appropriate and identify the best places/ways for our film to be shown. So although the success of a film is largely down to is quality, it could arguably be equally down to how well it is marketed by a film distributor.

Choosing a Film Distributor I researched a number of different institutes to see which would best fit the genre and audience of our film. There are a number of distributors who have successful dramedies that they have released such as Universal and Warner Brothers which therefore made it a hard choice, however I have found Lionsgate would be the distributor that would produce our film. This is because they have distributed a number of award winning dramedies for example Juno (Academy Award Winner) and Happy-Go-Lucky (Golden Globe Winner), this means that Lionsgate has good experience in how to produce and promote a successful film in the dramedy genre however they’re not distributing so many dramedies that our film would be lost in the institute. So because Lionsgate produce a wide variety of film genres it means ‘A Perfect Coincidence’ has a greater chance of standing out and being a success. Due to Lionsgate being such a big institution it means our film would be exhibited in a number of big cinemas such as Vue, Odeon and Cineworld who all have a lot of cinemas in a variety of locations across the country. This would mean our film would have good access and would be available for a lot of people to watch it.

Ways in which our film might be distributed:

Initially our film will be shown in cinema across the country, such as:

After a period of time when the film has started to lose popularity in the cinema it will be released on DVD and Blu-ray

It will also be made available on Netflix and Lovefilm, services where people pay a prescription to rent films or watch them online, this will be a continued source of revenue when the film has been released for quite a while