Planning and Distribution

Planning a release:

Disrtibutors must consider the timing of the release of their film carefully to optimise it's chances of success.

• Firstly, they must work out their target audience which then leads to a 'guestimation' of what the film will earn. This will then affect how much they invest into releasing the film.
• More than half of 15-24 year olds visit the cinema atleast once a month, so it is vital to attract these people but also try to attract a wider range of people as well.
• Pre-screenings can help distributors guge the kind of people that will go to the film to help them work out a budget.
• Other than these reasons, distributors take into account many other reasons for a release date. Competition is a big issue with distributors, it is important to know what films are being released the same week and whether they have the same target audience. Films have changed their release date due to bigger films being released on the same day.
• They must take into account whether it is an event film or a specialised film.
• Whether the film includes a star and how well they did in there last couple of films will dramatically change distributors perspective. The same applies for a director.
• Whether cast members are avaliable to attend premieres, because a star will attract attention at premieres which will make more publicity for the film.
• If it is a holiday film distributors will release the film during school holidays as they are the main cinema goers so they have more chance of these people going to the cinema.
• The award ceremonies cant boost a film dramatically, if the film is released just after it has won numerous awards it is more likely to get an audience than if it was released before.
• Distributors must also take into account whether they should do a saturated release or staggered. A staggered release could be more beneficial because the countries who see the film first will create a buzz via word of mouth for those that havent seen the film yet. However, a saturated release could prevent bad word of mouth from happening.
• Many cinemas now have digital screens so distributors must take this into account because they are much cheaper to make than the standard 35mm copies (around 10% of the cost).
• After all this, the distributor watches the film and plans the release date. The distributors in the UK pay for marketing, printing, the launch and susatinging the films budget post-release.

Film marketing and publicity:

The marketing of a film will greatly affect the outcome of the film, a good marketing plan can make the film receive box office success.

• It is the job of the marketing plan to create a buzz about the film so that the hype for the film peaks when the film is released.
• The biggest way of marketing a film is through word of mouth. This could be created through pre-screenings, to let few people see the film and then tell people how good or bad the film was.
• They must consider their audience because different age groups react to advertisements in different ways. Older people generally respond to advertisements in the press or on the television. However, a younger audience will see the film more online, on radio stations, bilboards and bus shelters.
• The posters aim is to catch peoples attention and make the viewer want to know more about the film. Stars can be extremely influential on a poster because fans will not want to miss out on a film including their star.
• The trailer is aimed to 'whet peoples whistle' with little footage from the film and entice them to see more. The teaser trailer which is usually made while still in production is made to get peoples awareness of the film early on by showing the best parts of the movie with little plot.
• Most films have their own official website which contains trailers, photos, interviews with the cast etc. This helps build the awareness of the film from a very early stage.
• It is essential for members of the cast to be seen in interviews and chat shows to promote the film.
• Some films have special on-se visits for competition winners which can put the film into the limelight.
• Tie-in merchadising can help a film enormously. For example, Jaws was the first films to majorally use tie-in merchadising, with t-shirts, mugs etc promoting the film as well as posters and trailers.
• Some films have made educational cd's to advertise their film. 'The boat that rocked' released cd's all over england for educational purposes only, therefore advertising their film to a young audience.

Licensing films to exhibitors:

A big consideration when distributing a film is where the film should play.

• Cinemas will play films because they have to play a wide range of different films, while others will chose the film due to their geographical placement.
• After the first weekend of playing the distributors will have a meeting with the exhibitors and discuss screen avaliability. This is because there are usually nine or ten new releases each week to contend with, or maybe some previews are planned for the next week.
• The distributors have to sell the film to the exhibitors with a screening and present release dates and advertising plans.