The Film Chain

The Film Chain

Production

¨The stages that are involved in the film industry are directing, props, casting, equipment, filming, planning, Finance/Budget, editing and scripting. These are all important stages of production.

¨The main producers of the films in America consist of Universal studios (owned by Ronald Meyer), 20th Century Fox (owned by Jim Gianopulos), Sony Pictures Entertainment (owned by Michael Lynton), Warner Brothers Entertainment (owned by Kevin Tsujihara) and The Walt Disney Company (owned by Bob Iger).

¨The ownership of the studios have an impact on what films the studios produce, because they own the studios, meaning they have control over what the studios make because they are the people who supply the budget/finance for the film project the studio is working on.

¨An independent Production is a film production making a  film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. Other than just being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced and/or distributed by subsidiaries of major film studios.

Distrubution

¨Distribution means the action of getting the actual film in to cinemas and getting out to the target or general audience. 

¨This is normally done by professional film distributors instead of production companies, who would determine the marketing strategy for the film, the media by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing, and who may set the release date and other  things.

¨The Traditional way of distributing a film, is by putting it in cinemas by selling it to the cinema for a lump sum or for independent film distributors you can enter a film festival.  This is usually done by different companies to the producers.

¨Some more modern ways of distributing films, can be done by the internet on such websites such as Youtube, Vimeo, Netflix and other instant movie apps or sites.

¨A film festival is a presentation of films which has one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually happens in a single city or region.  Depending upon the festival's focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some festivals focus on a specific film-maker or genre

¨A film distributor might decide to release a film on a certain weekend rather than another due to the fact that it could be a national holiday. For example The Inbetweeners 2 was released after the Sixth form results day, because people of that age are the target audience.

¨Distribution is an essential step to the film chain because without this step no one will be able to watch your film and if they can’t secure a distribution deal, this means the film wont be in cinemas, meaning the whole production step has been a waste of time and money.

Marketing

¨Marketing  is getting the film out to the public and grabbing their attention and make them want to watch it.  The difference between marketing and distribution is that distribution is trying to get it to cinemas but marketing is trying to get it to your target audience.

¨Some adverts I’ve seen online and outside.

           

¨Films can be promoted to different audiences, such as an American block buster being advertised in Spain, by them changing the words on the posters from English in to Spanish or get voice actors to dub the film in spanish.

Exhibition

¨Audiences can see films via cinema, Youtube, Vimeo, Love film, Netflix, DVD, Torrent websites, streaming and other websites and apps which allows you to view or stream films.

¨Box office is used to refer to the commercial success of a film, play, or actor in terms of the audience size or takings that they command in the first week of being released.

¨Because it shows how many people went to view it and also shows how well your advertising, distribution and production worked.

¨Most the money made from ticket sales from the films go to the movie production studios.

¨Cinemas make most of their money from the beverages they sell such as popcorn, drinks and so on.

¨Cinemas encourage people to visit there rather than watch films at home, by setting the release date about 6 months before the DVD is released and also there is a bigger screen, so there is better viewing.

¨Ancillary markets are non-theatrical markets for feature films, like home video, television, Pay Per View, VOD, Internet streaming, airlines and others.  This enables people to view films outside of film’s release, by being able to view it at home or at anytime, which benefits the viewers more than going to the cinema.

BFI

¨The British Film Institute (BFI) is the lead organisation for film in the UK and use Lottery funds to support film production, distribution, education and audience development.

¨The BFI are required to encourage the development of  the film industry in the UK and are also to promote a wide range of British and world cinema.

¨This helps the British film industry by encouraging and grabbing the attention of the British public on the film industry and encourages them to take part and support the BFI and the British film industry itself.