The Role Of The Distributor

For every movie made it needs to connect with its audience. This is the distributor's job to make sure the film gets the biggest audience possible. The distributor's have a very important, competitive job to make sure they bring each film to market. They do this by identifying its audience, to consider why people would watch the film, estimating the revenue potential, to build awareness of the film, try and put as much interest into cinema visits and persuading cinema operators to have the film played.

The audience is very important to the role of the distributor. With smaller titles they really have to focus to target their audience. To get vaild data to pin point their target audience they go through a lot of research data. Some stages there is an element of gamble, you know that a particular audience will see the advertising in a particular place. They target different age groups differently, so teenagers 15-19 would be targeted differently to people aged 40-50. The distributor needs a very detailed understanding of the target audience, their age group/gender and also things like their lifestyle, social networks etc so it gives ideas to how to reach them when advertising for a film. It is very important to never lose sight of each film's core target audience. Its the distributor's challenge is to attract a wide spread as possible. Trying to identify the niche interest groups as well as the broad mainstream and to help a film 'break out' and 'cross over'.

Being a distributor is a very high competitive business to launch new films and keep them popular to their own target audience.Its their job to bring each film to the market. The UK has half a dozen major distributors that are connected with Hollywood Studios. There is also other distributors that handle films outside the larger more popular studios acting very independently. Having a bigger budget to produce your film is a major benefit espcially if the distribution company has confirmed all the financal acts for the film. A distribution company looks for eye-catching and distinguishing elements of a new film to help it sell to its audience.

The dynamic sector that is working to connect every new upcoming film to the largest audience is what the distributors plan is. The plan of distribution is the job for a distributor who develops in consultation. With the producers decisions to a distributor is when to release a film and how about going to release it. For a distributor to get a budget to release a film they would need to consider what the film would earn. Although in reality most films don't make a profit from cinema screenings alone. Distribtution plans are only accepted when the finished film product is ready to be viewed. Although there is always a risk with the distributiors, as learnt audiences are very unpredictable for their taste of a film. No one can honestly be sure for a movie to be a hit, so therefore there still is an element of risk in the business.

With the distribution plan there is also a marketing plan that helps create visibility to encourage interest of new, upcoming films. Factors that help raise this awareness is advertising, publicity and promotion. Starting with advertising is a key element to help promote a new release. The use of word of mouth is a social key to help this promotion, people recommending a film is quite an important form of advertisment. A film getting a negative word of mouth would be hard for a film to get over rather than another source of advertising. Another source of advertising is a poster, this type of advertising would show appeal to the film. The main features of a poster includes the genre, credits, stars and maybe a tagline. In the film business a poster is produced for every film, so therefore lots are made and each poster has to stand out the the target audience. Also trailers are another type of advertisment, the distributors chose from visual and audio content to work with to produce a trailer. The main parts of the film, or the most dramatic sequences is what is usually used in the trailer to try and sell the film. Exhibitors select which trailers are best for the feature film before it is actually aired. The distributors fund the duplication of the trailers. The internet is another important role in the advertising and promoting of a new release. A lot of films create their own website, usually in a partnership with another company. The features of the site would be showing trailers of the film, galleries showing stills of the film and also information about the production and behind the scenes footage. This helps build awareness of the film before the trailer or the film its self hasn't even come out yet. The power of social media is very important for a new film release. As soon as a film is screened chat rooms are filled with feedback and opnions about the film. As well as opnions there is also information and content of the film being shown over Facebook and Twitter. For a film to be apart of a conversation in the online world is a must have for the distributors.

Publicity for a film is very important, film publicists create kits for journalists containing cast, crew lists, biographies, facts and infomation about the production. This information is put up and broadcasted around online pressrooms. The distributors create 'hooks' or 'angles' for articles about the film and promotions. The team for the publicity for the film are supported by agencies to get interview with stars of the films. The more the film's talent wants to support the publicity the better it will be for the film.

Promotional partnerships are very important as another form of advertising for the film. Promoting the film can be tackled at in a range of different ways depending on the film's theme, genre and target audience. Tie-ins create displays for the film in places where conventional advertising cannot be used. So they would go to shops or resturants to advertise on packs or for example a Happy meal at McDonalds could have the film as their theme and have a toy character of the film to be the toy. This also enables the customer to interact with the film as well. Looking at family films in particular mechandising programmes are very popular. Tie-in merchanise can create toys, action figures, ringtones, clothing, stationary etc. Films also would have a soundtrack to the film and some then make games relating to the film.