The document discusses two stages of film production: distribution and exhibition. Distribution involves launching films in the marketplace through advertising and merchandise. Exhibition is how films are shown to audiences, such as in cinemas. Distribution can now be done digitally through online stores or streaming, making it cheaper than analog distribution of film reels. Exhibition also involves digital projection in cinemas instead of film reels, reducing costs and staffing needs. The final stages of distribution involve rating, shipping, and cinema showings followed by DVD releases. Low-budget films may use digital distribution through online platforms like YouTube.

1. Film Production: Distribution
and Exhibition

2. Introduction
There are 2 stages to film production:
• Firstly there is the Distribution phase of the film industry
which is the highly competitive business of launching and
sustaining films in the “marketplace”. This involves
advertising and out branching regarding the film, this can
include toys, clothing and the film itself.
• The second stage is Exhibition which is the company or
how it is shown. The cinema release of a film marks the
final stage of one part of a film’s journey from imagination
to an audience. Then to DVD’s and so on, each ‘Exhibition’
generates profit for those involved. Exhibition is essentially
how you view the film/movie.

3. Distribution
• Distribution involves physically distributing your film or movie to an
audience alongside making the target audience aware of the film or movie
through advertising campaigns and making general hype around it.
• Distribution can take place in a variety of ways and is essential to a film or
movies success.
• Distribution of films or movies in the past used to be very difficult as they
were printed onto films and played through a projector at 24 frames per
second. This was known as analogue viewing. However as technology has
developed distribution became a lot easier and things such as DVD’s and
completely digital files like films or movies from the Apple store have
become more and more common place, slowly replacing Analogue.
• Companies use Distribution Strategies to get their film or movie to sell,
this is done by creating hype around the film or movie and other means of
making profit.

4. Advantages to Digital Distribution
over Analogue Cinema Distribution
• Digital films can be computer files.
• Can be written to DVD-ROM from a computer.
• Sent via broadband or WI-FI.
• Transmitted via satellite.
• Virtually no shipping costs. (Non at all if bought through the Apple store as it is
completely digital)
• DVD’s are common place now and are cheap to produce.
• Film prints are very expensive (£1500-£3000 per print)
• Expensive to ship heavy reels of film and then to collect them when film finishes
its run in the cinema. (Analogue)
• As the cost is so high for analogue reels of film you have to be very cautious
about where the films are played, if you send the films somewhere and they
aren't a hit then you can lose money and funding for later projects.
• Digital films can be opened globally and instantly.

5. Final Stages of Distribution
• A final copy of the film or movie is printed, disked, boxed
and given a certificate or rating by the BBFC (British Board
of Film Classification e.g. 12, 12A, 15, 18, PG, U)
• The film or movie is then shipped to various locations
globally and distributed across cinemas. This means every
cinema showing the film or movie has the requested
amount of copies about a week before they are due to
show the first screening. The film or movie is then in the
cinema for a set amount of time unless the marketing
company adds in another advertising strategy or popular
demand means that the viewings are extended.
• After its cinema viewing the film or movie is then released
on DVD for home entertainment purposes, this is usually a
few months after the cinema stop showing it.

6. Distribution (Low Budget)
• For distribution of my film or movie I would
enter it into a film festival competition. This
would be the best avenue because I have
created a low budget film and therefore a
large production company such as Paramount
wouldn’t invest in such a small project.
• I would choose to distribute it digitally
through sites such as YouTube as it would be
public.

7. Exhibition
• A film or movie exhibition is the means by which
a film can be viewed by an audience e.g. a film or
movie exhibition shown in a cinema.
• This simply is the way in which the film or movie
is shown to people whether through cinema (in
the above example) or through other means such
as DVD release or a digital online copy for
example. However as we can see there are many
avenues for film makers to take when considering
the distribution of their film or movie.

8. Advantages to Digital Exhibition
• Digital projectors don’t require a trained projectionist
to use them. This therefore means it is unskilled and
straight forward.
• Less staff will be required for cinemas as everything
will be computerised.
• If there is an issue with a reel of film then it cannot be
stopped, it is extremely difficult and time consuming to
stop the screening, solve the issue and then start the
screening once again.
• Cinema can be controlled by one computer as you can
drag and drop films to different screens from one
centralised system.

9. Types of Exhibition

10. Costs Considerations of Distribution
and Exhibition