Film Distribution

The first step after producing a film is two get it into cinemas. The people behind this is either an individual film distributor or a film distributing company. They are responsible for releasing films into the cinema, DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc. For the distributors to gain a profit they must secure a written contract stating a percentage of the gross ticket sales that they will recieve. They also have to make sure that there are enough prints of the film at each cinema contracted on the contract-based opening day, check to see that the exhibitors are showing the film and the original prints return back to the distributors. Something else they are responsible fir is ensuring that there is a sufficient  full line of film advertising material so the film can attract the largest amount of audience possible. If the advertisements are not created by the production company then this will be their job.

"In Manhattan, a mother of two preparing for her daughter's sixth birthday party has no idea of the challenges she's about to face in order to pull off the event." is the plot summary for a film that was released in the UK starring Uma Thurman and was called Motherhood. The total UK Theatrical Box Office for ‘Motherhood’ in the opening weekend was $131, which is £86. This is less than ten people in the whole of the UK who actually bought tickets. However, the tax man took 17.5% of that £86 (VAT), the theatre will take 75% of the remaining, as well as the distributor having to recoup many £thousands first, and take their fee for releasing it. A film distributor has explained that: the film isn't very good but it's not terrible, the film was released in one cinema in London and very little PR was done, the limited release could be a tactic to gain exposure and reviews for DVD, VOD and TV sales, the distributor may have been contractually bound to release the film in theatres when in fact it should never have appeared in theatres (but the film maker demanded it) so they did the minimum needed to fulfil their end of the deal, The DVD was released on the same day as the theatrical release.

Metrodome released the film and their very own James Brown gave a presentation at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, this is what was reported on the Last Night With Riviera Blog...
Metrodome's James Brown gave a rambling presentation on the state of UK distribution. He'd just learned that Metrodome's chair had let go of large portion of the staff and was pulling the company out of theatrical (12 films a year) to concentrate solely on DVD (60 films a year), which informed much of his talk. In an hour of constant, roundabout banter, he made only two real points (over and over again):

• The GFC (Global Financial Crisis) has killed UK distribution, which is on life support. Retailers are going out of business. Theatrical is dying. There is no theatrical audience over the age of 35 in the UK. We don't know how lucky we have it here etc.
• In the UK, the audiences for theatrical and video are distinct. This means that, for example, you can make UKP 2.4 million on Broken Embraces at the box-office, but only ship 1,000 DVD's. Or UKP 800,000 on Away We Go and only ship 800 copies of the DVD in the 1st month. Conversely, it means there are massive DVD audiences for films which would not warrant a theatrical release, such as Metrodome's moneymaker for 2009, Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus. (Hey James, have you seen Chihuanhas?)
• His main message: "I'm here to give you permission to make commercial crap to fund your passion project". His next project: derivative WWII action Age of Heroes.

Red One- Filmography

The first film created on the Red One 4k was called Red Canvas which stared Ernie Reyes Jr. It was directed by Steven Soderbergh who also shot the movie Che and with both parts he did it with only the Red One camera. Steven Soderbergh has been quoted to say  "this is the camera I've been waiting for my whole career: jaw-dropping imagery recorded on board a camera light enough to hold with one hand. I don't know how Jim and the Red team did it—and they won't tell me—but I know this: Red is going to change everything" which shows a great enthusiasm from him about the camera. He then went on to use the camera for other films including The Girlfriend Experience, The Informant! and District 9.

Disney's "Mars Needs Moms" - A Flop

A 3D film that could see the end of the success of 3D film making is Disney's flop Mars Needs Moms. This film cost $175 million to make yet only managed to make $7 million in its opening weekend. This was due to using expensive CGI and other digital technology which also cost them lots of money. When compared to films such as The Kings Speech which managed to win Oscars and Baftas on a budget of $12 million dollars, and this 3D film made a loss there is worries about how bad the need for 3D films will get.

3D at the Box Office

After 80% of people decided to see Avatar in 3D it was decided that 3D would take over the usual 2D in cinemas; one of the main reasons for this being how expensive it is. In comparison to Avatar, Despicable Me only made 45% of it's opening box-office revenue came from 3D sales. Another  bad achievement was Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore- it only grossed roughly $6.9 million in 3D in it's opening weekend which is the worst performance in its era.

Many believe that the the publics interest for 3D is slowly dying but studio executives refuse to believe this, even thought there is evidence to prove this.

TRON

Both local and national audiences have been targeted by Disney in their promotion of TRON, and each has been done in very different ways. This was due to Disney lining up an exciting new marketing plan.

The first way in which Disney marketed locally was introducing ‘TRON Night: An IMAX 3D Experience which took place on October 28th. Specific cinemas which could show special 3D and IMAX were selected from around the world and 20 minute sneak peeks of the film were shown. Another example is they had special midnight screenings in selected IMAX 3D cinemas, and tickets were purchased before the film had even been released. The last example is they created ElecTRONica. This was held at Disney California Adventure and was a night time dance party. The party consisted of music, lights, food and drink, all to promote the film.

The national audiences have also been targeted with big ideas too; the first one being a video game called TRON: Evolution that is based on the film. It could be played on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Windows Vista, Nintendo Wii and PSP. The second example is a vast amount of TRON products were created, these included: clothing, shoes, accessories, toys, technical gadgets and so much more. All of these items helped to promote the film. Another marketing idea was the TRON soundtrack. This consisted of classic band Daft Punk so it immediately pulled in fans. An original idea that was done was creating a TRON sweepstake- this took place online so everyone could take part and was named Get on the Grid Sweepstakes. The last example is quite simply called TRON Tuesdays. This was done every Tuesday in the run up to TRON being realised on December 17th. It consisted of videos such as behind-the-scenes, trailers and artwork all exclusively being uploaded onto the Internet.

A difference between the way TRON and Moon were marketed is instead of having screenings in selected cinemas around the world like TRON did, Moon's first screenings were only shown in New York and Los Angeles which immediately limited it's audience. Due to TRON showing screenings worldwide it was able to broaden its audience because it wasn;t limited to one country. Moon then went on to be released in Britain, Australia, Germany, Switserland "couple of other smaller territories" which also doesn't gain the national audience it could.

Film4

1. What is Film4's remit (its reason and purpose for being)?
2. What types of films are green-lighted by Film4? Give examples of films and genres.
3. Why is Tessa Ross regarded as "the mother of British film-making" and therefore instrumental for Film4's success?
4. How much is Film4's yearly budget and how much of it did "Slumdog Millionaire take up? ( Be careful with this one as co-productions, UK Lottery money and deals with Pathe, etc. helps make Film4's budget stretch further!)
5. Why does Film4 form partnerships with other companies/individuals?
6. What is the future for Film4 - budget and film-wise?
7. What problems did Film Four face in the naughties?

1. Film4’s purpose for being is to provide opportunities for new, up and coming directors or established directors that perhaps haven’t had the recognition they deserve for a while. They aim to produce these with quality, innovation, diversity and distinctiveness.


2. A huge film produced by Film4 is Slumdog Millionaire made in 2008 which can be found under a drama genre. Another including Four Lions created in 2010 which can also be found under the genre of drama as well as comedy. Others include Touching the Void, This is England and The Last King of Scotland.

3. Tessa Ross is regarded as “the mother of British film-making” because as the channels executive she has turned Film4 around since taking charge 6 years ago and creating a promising future for the film production company. Another example is her dedication to the institution she’s been there helping to produce the majority of all the films that Film4 have produced. An example of how she goes out of her way to help is when the idea of Slumdog Millionaire was coming into production she realised that they’d need to seek permission to use the game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, so she travelled to Celador to gain rights and partner up. Danny Boyle went on to say "She knew to put it together with Celador, in the way that a good executive producer does." This proves the dedication and time she has for the production company.

4. The budget for Slumdog Millionaire was originally £8 million, but was later on increased by 20% to £10 million. The overall cost of the film was $15 million, which is roughly £10 million.

5. The reason for Film4 forming partnerships with other companies is to ensure that they gain rights to use companies ideas in their films. The reasons for doing this are shown by Tessa Ross’ actions. It must be ensured that they have rights so they cannot have action taken over them with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act.

6. Film4 is hoping to boost its overall budget by £50 million in 2011. This will take place over the next 5 years going up roughly by £15 million per year. This is set to commence at the same time as Film4’s newest financed film being released, Never Let Me Go staring Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley.

7. A major problem that FilmFour Ventures faced in 2001 was a huge loss of £5.7 million. This was due to Charlotte Gray making one of the most expensive films they have ever made yet it doing very poor in the box office. It was stated that in 2011 Film Four put out 14 films, yet its releases were only accounted for just 0.7% of the UK’s box office market. In 2006 Film Four were struggling very much so announced a huge change. There original business model of a pay TV on a subscription basis was failing so they decided to change this and bring in adverts; they believed this is where they’d get their money from.

Film Flow Chart

Flow Chart