The Role of the Distributor

The role of the distributor is to identify and deliver a film to the largest possible audience it can. This is to keep the movie industry alive! Without an audience, there would be no films.

The film business is product driven. Meaning the films themselves are the main reason for the public going out and buying themselves a ticket. If there was no interest in one film, it cuts the budget for the next film. The distributors don't want this to happen, so attempt to interest as many people as possible towards one film - which will result in more profit. Of course, after this stage within the cinema, films are used elsewhere. DVD's, pay-per-view, and television. It is the distributor who sells a production to these ancillary markets, to widen further the profit margin.

A distributor will discuss with the film maker his plans for the marketing of the film. This will include poster designs, and trailer ideas.

However, to plan for a release a distributor will focus on the audience. Getting a detailed understanding of the target audiences age group, gender, and lifestyles - as well as what types of other media they will be accessible by, the internet for example. It is vital to never lose sight of the core audience for a film, as there will be other, secondary audiences who will go to watch any particular movie. Mothers will take their children to see cartoon based films, and boyfriends will take their girlfriends to see chick flicks - so it is important to get the right balance to make sure everyone wants to see the film in the first place. Screentests take an important role during this stage, they can give the distributor confidence in that the film they are marketing is fit for everyone's liking, as well as their primary target audience.

There are certain factors which a distributor has to take into account when they develop their plans. These include:

• Competition. Are there other films of a similar genre to be released at a similar time? How can their film be made to look better than the others?
• Is the film they are employed to market due to be a blockbuster, or a discrete film for a specific audience?
• Are there any production values to promote along with the film to make it more appealing, such as big name actors or directors?
• Can any of the cast attend publicity interviews, on chat shows, or other publicity events to pick up interest?
• Is it a film for a holiday period? A Christmas film, or a kids smash hit to be released in the school holidays?
• Is there already a platform to leap from in terms of interest? For example a lengthy article in a national newspaper, or a large feature on the national/international news.
• Is the film to be the start of a franchise, or lead to sequels?
• Has the film already opened elsewhere, what was the reaction like then?
• What certificate the film will be.

To run along side the distribution plan, is a marketing plan. This is used to creat visibility, raise awareness and engage interest. The film poster is the first thing to be considered. The main image upon the poster will show the main appeals of the film, such as the featured stars. There could be many different versions of a movie poster, to convey as much information as possible to the audience. Different posters will also be used at different times of a films production. When a film is announced/in the early stages of development, a teaser poster will be released. This will probably only feature the films title and date of release, yet it creates interest. Then, as the film develops, posters revealing more and more information will be seen on display, showing perhaps locations, the films actors, and unravel more about the films narrative. Trailers to advertise a film will progress in the same way. Starting with a teaser, then building up to more theatrical trailer.

During this stage, it is important to focus on convergence, combining the advertising of a film to as many other media niches as possible. Pretty much every film will now be advertised on the internet. This creates huge interest as so many people now use the internet on a daily basis, and will therefore be pretty much guaranteed to see some publicity for a film. Mobile internet is also another place where advertising will be ideal. The use of smart phones enabled with internet access is at an all time high. Placing adverts here will also be seen by a wide range of people. Showing trailers on television and within magazines is also vital. Using only these four media types, will result in nearly the whole population seeing an advert for a film. Making it accessible to all that want to be involved in the production by seeing the film. Other ways of converging a film into marketing, can be to create merchandise. Cuddly toys for children's films, or replica models and posters of action movie characters will produce more profit (this will be used after a film is released, just to further the effect the film will have on its audience. However, this step can come before. This can be seen where movies tie in with resturants such as McDonalds and Burger King, where toys from films are given away with kids meals).

Word of mouth is a highly important aspect of creating interest in a film. The public will react more to a personal review on a TV show such as 'Film 2010', or from direct approval from a friend. Therefore it is important to create a positive response within these audiences.

Festivals can be used to create major interest in a film. By doing well at a big festival, such as Cannes, Sundance, or Venice will drum up huge interest, as other media will be buzzing around it reporting from the festival directly. There have been films which were highly acclaimed at festivals, which were never going to be publicly released, but then went on to cause a huge stir on the movie scene. Paranormal Activity is a prime example of this, doing extremely well at North Americas Screamfest Film Festival in 2007.