Distributors

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Failure to find a distributor

Budget

Failure to find a distributor for an micro-budget indie film isn't unusual. For example "The Fantastic Four". They held of distributing the film to keep commercial rights. Only trailers were ever released to the public. However the film still got $154M in NGP with an estimated budget of $100M. This gives indie films such as our film "Neighbours" hope that our film will do well even if there is failure to have a distributor invest in a micro-budget film. Indie films can also distribute their own films by using social media to promote their film to their primary and secondary audiences.

"Neighbours" is a micro-budget indie film with no establishing actors. In the serious film industry our film would struggle to be distributed due the fact that there are no establishing actors enticing our audience in. However on the small scale - friends of the actors will be interested in seeing their friends in a film. Films such as "The Nightmare On Elm Street" involed actors such as Johnny Depp and Robert England. Who weren't establishing actors when the film was released in 1988. The film was there breakthrough film and they are best know for their role in the movie. Even though Depp is now an establishing actor at eh age of 17 and it being his first film - many people will not have heard of him however the film made a NGP of $25.5M.

Who would distribute Neighbours

How Much would "Neighbours cost

A handheld five day shoot (Warp Films) cost £48K.

Neighbours is a micro-budget film in which me and Niamh wrote, directed and I edited. Based on other distributors i would come to the conclusion that a distributor such as metrodome. Who work with a London based company 'The microwave scheme'. Working with the BFC to let young film makers create a film in under 18 days with a budget of £100,00. In Neighbours we didn't have to pay our actors therefore it wasn't expensive filming in school. However if we took this into a larger scale we would have to pay for more camera equipment and actors. However because it is a dark comedy; not many props or electrical equipment are needed.

Actors who participate in low budget indie films are generally aware that they the pay is poor; they are taking part because they like the script and want to be involved. The pay is dependent on the volume the film reaches. Some films don't receive any studio support - therefore going straight to DVD release. Our film "Neighbours" would go along a similar route. Distributors send people to these large film festivals to view these low-budget films and later bid on the ones that they believe have the most potential for their studio. For example John Hodder made around $2K for "Napoleon Dynamite". Our actors would earn around £1K.

Indie genre VS. Working title

Distributors

Example of low budget indie flim makers that the distributors made money

Comparing an indie film to a macro-budget film; such as "Heathers" (dark comedy and comedy - highschool) shows us how different the two variations do in the film industry. "Heathers" had 27 different distributors to appeal to all the worldwide attention. For the USA alone there was four:

New World Pictures

Anchor Bay Pictures

R+G Videos

Columbia Pictures

The film "Heathers" was considered a commercial failure before it became a cult classic. It earned $177K in the first week. This is allowing us as a micro-budget film to understand the differences of a working title film and a warp film. However not all all films need the studio attention to be successful. "Heathers didn't do well in cinemas due o the distributors failing to market their film.

Evaluation Question 3

Low budget indie film makers - "Le Donk" and "This Is England '89" were both distributed by Studio Canal UK and IFC films. Studio Canal is a French based company; they acquired the distribution company "Hoyts Distribution" and the German distributor, "Kinoweit". From this information we can state that the distribution company "Studio Canal" has made it a international distribution. They have connection around the globe therefore making it easier to distribute their films to a wider audience. "Studio Canal" have distributed "Paddington", which is a typical british film. Then they also distributed "The Immitation Game". This made is to the USA and did very well in the UK. "The Imitation Game was distributed by "Weinstine Distributors" in the USA. "The Imitation Game" grossed at $91M in North America and $136M in other territories; making a total of £227.8M worldwide. Against a budget of $14M; it was teh highest grossing independent film of 2014.

Digitisation

Digitisation is the conversion of an object/image into electronic format. This can be read by computers. Because indie films do not contain as much content as working title film such as "The Theory Of Everything"; they can be converted easily and this doesn't cost a lot. Enabling an indie film to be distributed effectivly. Even if this means hiering someone to manage the facebook profile of your film.

Top 10 Distributors 1995 - 2016

Distributor Movies Box Office (Billion)

What is a Distributor?

Warner Bros

Walt Disney

Sony Pictures

20th Century

Paramount

Universal

Lionsgate

New Line

DreamWorks

$28.8

$27.6

$23

$22

$21

$21

$6

$6

$4

652

515

642

415

422

416

312

205

75

Finance: selection of films - prints and advertising of the film and actors.

Promotion: choice of the release date and organisation of advertising, partnerships and public relations.

Bookings: negotiation with exhibitors and the selection of what cinemas the film will be playing in.

The distributor manages the commercial rights - contract signed by the producer.