DistributionLink between audience and finished textPublicity, marketing, merchandisingCopying the print and deliveryDistributors provide press kits for journalists

Distribution: Researching the audienceTest ScreeningAudience view a film and asked to answer 3

questions, did they get it? Did they like the star? Would they recommend it?

Good thing?= power for the audience, shows that the

audience is smarter and more sensitive than the filmmaker?

Distribution: MarketingStudio spend almost as much as advertising a

summer blockbuster than making it $50-$100 million on worldwide promotion is normal

Publicity Press junkets: the interviews, stars go through

hundreds a day, in the contractMerchandisingProducts can make more money than ticket sales.Festivals and premieresCannes, Venice, London, Berlin, Edinburgh,

Sundance

Marketing ‘Front Loading’ is a Marketing techniqueGetting a good opening weekend by buying itSaturating the market, t.v etc in the last 10

days before the movie opensThe Dark Knight took $158,411,483 in

opening weekend

MARKETINGStars sell Cross-media promotion

– interviews, premieres, No such thing as bad

press?

Marketing strategy EXAMPLETrailer PosterPress Junket Website

Merchandising

Marketing StrategyFord Mondeo: Appeared for the first time in

the film. Links to Casino Royale on the Ford website

Heineken: Settled a six figure promotional partnership with Sony. It is the first time a commercial has been filmed on a Bond set.

ClassificationDistributor arranges and pays for the film to

go to the MPAA/BBFC Certificate level is crucial to target audience,

distributors can seek advice in order to get low age range and wider audience

ExhibitionWhen it is released into the cinema, arthouse

or multiplexAudience seeing and consuming textCinemas, DVD, TelevisionMovie studios/film distributors in the U.S.

traditionally drive hard bargains entitling them to as much as 70% of the gross ticket revenue during the first week

Film Financethose who invest may have say over what

happens to the film in the three stages of production

Start with the Producer, they raise finance and confidence in the idea

Funding comes from the studio producing itTASKList as many production companies as you

can

Independent Film Finance

Production developed outside a major studioBanks, investment companies, private

investors, government, credit cardsProducers may try to pre-sell the film to

distributors for specific national markets or worldwide rights, or sell the television rights

Getting distributors involved early may mean that they want locations or actors to change which could cause problems

Hollywood TodayStudios no longer make films they make dealsAn independent individual like a producer or sales

agent will put a pack together and present it to investors

The package = a treatment (like a synopsis but more detailed), details of actors attached to the product, details of proposed director and locations

Film studios may be the investors to whom the package is presented; if the studio likes it they will produce and finance it.

Some studios have attachments with directors, first option agreements (like first refusal)

The Blockbuster and High Concept Film

High concept film: star power, basic scenario and genre appeal you can sell it to an investor in one line. Titanic = Romeo and Juliet ON A BOAT

Remaking past hits or sequels, the safe approachBlockbuster: simple storyline, simple characters,

spectacular look (effects etc)Both need huge initial investment, however sale

of satellite and television rights and merchandising make the profit for the producers.

DebateAmerican cinema - the most hyped on earth -

is also the most predictable, conformist and derivative.

Increasingly, Hollywood doesn't make movies, it remakes movies.

Today, more than ever, American films are brightly packaged unsubtle entertainments mass-produced for intellectually undemanding under-25s.

Knowing your audience makes your distribution more effective

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