Evaluation - Question 3

Q3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After pre-production and the production process after comes post production. This is the part where the exhibitor decides how the film will be exhibited. Who will distribute the film and how will it get from the exhibitor to the audience and in what form, also how well is it distributed to determine the success of the film.
Distribution is the process of the film getting from the producer to the exhibitor to the customers. To gain loyalty with fans, get people excited and be the first to see it, to judge the film and keep them from a long wait, it is shown in cinemas before the actual film is on sale to the public to buy on DVD, video or watch on TV. Distributors have to consider when it is best to release the film, they have to be aware of all other films showing and how rated they are, depending on the demand to see the films, if it is high; it will cause tougher competition and a risk of loss of customers. Even if there are films that share similar values like story, genre or target the same audience then their will be trouble of competition. Again the generation of sales output is at risk and also the trouble of having to promote and market the film more to defeat competition would cost more money and for filmmakers like us, as we are students and are on low budgets, costly ways to market our film is not in our means. Therefore, we had to think about what is in our means.

Firstly, how would I promote our film?

Internet:
YouTube
Indie film maker websites
Create a website based on the film

Even Facebook would be a good way to promote the film, with no fees attached.
Statistics show that there are millions of users on Facebook each day, as a social media site, you can make ‘pages’ for your film, more then 700,000 local businesses have active pages, this means it could be used for our purpose too. As a social media site, with millions of users worldwide people are more then likely to hear about our film through Facebook, and could achieve status through word of mouth, judged, given opinions etc. they can become a FAN of your page or groups, there is even a London film festival group on Facebook open to the public to join. Also once you become a FAN, other people such as friends of the fan can see the page you have become a fan of, this helps to engage potential audience through existing audiences or group members helping it to build awareness. This makes it a good way to promote the film without cost just time and devotion.

http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

One way to screen my film would be through film festivals like Raindance, Exposures, phoenix, Screentest etc.
Phoenix cinema holds regular events, festivals and one-off screenings which would be very useful to distribute our film, as it would gain and reach a big audience.

Exposures, is one of the largest film festival in UK. The National Student Film Festival helps promote student films and film-makers. Every year they host a three-day film festival with celebrity speakers, screenings, workshops and an awards ceremony. This would get people interested in the film or at least have and know about the film enough to spread the word of it. Being the largest film festivals shows it is quite a success therefore by screening the film for such an audience would determine the likeliness of the film spreading through word of mouth and gaining interest and potential fans.

Screentest is the UK’s only National Student Film Festival; Screentest provides the opportunity for students to meet other student filmmakers and learn more about the industry from professionals and in talks and workshops. Three-day film festival, the festival has an advantage of celebrity speakers, screenings, workshops and an awards ceremony.


There are many special distribution outlets for independent filmmakers
this link has a list of company’s.
http://www.planetindie.com/distribution/
here are the 3 main ones I picked.

Underground Film
“Digital Distribution Company whose goal is to utilize the internet's resources to bring film entertainment to international audiences. Their goal is distribute "everywhere the Internet goes: on computer monitors, television sets, cellular phones, projected on screens, and whatever the next new digital distribution opportunity might be." Resource for independent filmmakers to collaborate and show their works, and the public face of the Undergroundfilm digital library.”
http://www.undergroundfilm.org/

Indie Flix
“An online independent media distribution site which provides a forum for filmmakers and their audience to interact. Independent film DVDs are produced on demand and the filmmaker gets a substantial share of any profits. Free preview clips of most films.”
http://www.indieflix.com/

http://www.joinfilmbaby.com/
Helps promote your film. Makes a website for the film, allows film viewers of your product to comment on the film. Features your film trailer and for a small cost.
Although it has cost involved, it is very affordable for an independent filmmaker and it does a lot to promote your film and get it to the viewers.