I have decided to create a powerpoint for summarising the rest of the evaluation question 2b: digitisation for the coursework blog for Media Studies AS.

1. EVALUATION QUESTION
2B: DISTRIBUTION
BY EVIE GIBBONS

2. COLOUR KEY
How I’ve applied to my work –
yellow
Direct quotes – green
Research summary – white

3. WHAT IS DISTRIBUTION?
“Distribution is the process of making a movie available for viewing
by an audience. For commercial projects, film distribution is usually
accompanied by film promotion. When a film is initially produced,
a feature film is often shown to audiences in a movie theatre”.
- from Wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_distribution

4. DIGITISATION
What is digitisation?
“It is the conversion
of analog information in any form (text,
photographs, voice, etc.) to digital
form with suitable electronic devices so
that information can be processed,
stored, and transmitted through digital
circuits, equipment and networks”.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/d
efinition/digitization.html
• An example of digitisation is the conversion
from VHS to DVD.
• My production was a digital production
which enables low production and post-
production costs. Digitisation makes the
production cheaper. For my film, I have
a micro budget and even still, it is in full HD
(1080p) so, this is, digitisation.
• The film Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee was
shot in just 5 days for £48k, this is an
example of digitisation because tentpole
films would usually take years to make,
with professional filming equipment. It took
me many months to even make a film
opening for my film.

5. WHAT IS CONVERGENCE?
It means coming close together, getting rid of barriers in media. It is
the blurring of boundaries between audience/producer and media
technologies brought about by digitisation. The smartphone is a
great example.
My production was a digital production because I used SD cards etc.
which enables low production and post-production
costs. Digitisation makes the production cheaper. For my film, I have
a micro budget and even still, I used professional kit and was able to
film everything in full HD (1080p) so, this is a perfect example of
digitisation and convergence.

6. TYPES OF DISTRIBUTION
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-to-video
STRAIGHT-TO-DVD:
“The release of a film to the public immediately on home video
formats instead of a theatrical release or television broadcast”. This
is an option of distribution for my film because my film is likely to
not get theatrical distribution.
STRAIGHT-TO-STREAM
“Direct-to-stream is existent through the growth of YouTube and
other video-streaming websites (basically an online distribution
method that goes to streaming sites such as YouTube)”. This is a very
good option for my film because digitisation allows people like me
to upload films onto YouTube or Vimeo etc.
STRAIGHT-TO-ITUNES
“An online distribution method that avoids all the upfront DVD
production, marketing and distribution costs as well as the upfront
cinema distribution and marketing costs”.
WIDE RELEASE:
A wide release means the majority of cinemas in an area will be
showing a specific film on at least one screen. From various Working
Title films you can see that they often have a wide release in the UK.
LIMITED RELEASE:
This is a release in a specific region or city.
THEATRICAL RELEASE:
This is basically the cinematic release of a film, when it is
released in cinemas. e.g. Fifty Shades of Grey was released on
the 14th of February in cinemas. My film would be hard to get
screened because you need a distributor to do that for you and
big distributors may not distribute my film because it has no
stars.
IMAX AND 3D RELEASE:
These kind of releases push the production costs up a lot, but
are also important to the keep the cinema industry’s success up
since there has been a rise of high quality home cinema. My film
would never get this kind of release because it has a micro
budget.

7. SELF-DISTRIBUTION
Le Donk and Scor-Zay-Zee
• When self distributing this film, Warp, came up with
good marketing ideas e.g. - creating downloadable
Christmas cards and promoting a fake cinematic
release campaign to advertise the DVD release by
getting interviews. This is proof that even if you are
self distributing, unusual ideas can work massively in
your favour. As I have minimal funding (micro budget)
there is limited chance that I would get distribution.
• A good example of self distribution is ‘Hinterland’
(Harry Macqueen 2015) and Warp's ‘All Tomorrow's
Parties’ which was funded by the crowd.
• The marketing technique of touring the director
alongside the Q&A events was used for the
films Four Lions, Demon Baby and Hinterland. This
created the buzz that helped Four Lions receive an
extended distribution following their unexpected high
box office.
• The film ‘Wandering Rose’ was self-financed and self-
produced by director, Coz Greenop. The film received an
offer of assistance from Scottish agencies , since it was
filmed in Scotland. It failed to get assistance from
Yorkshire agencies. It was shot in just 12 days and
produced for £30k. He decided to enter his film into the
Cannes Film Festival, which is highly prestigious. Along
with this, he arranged a London screening in which he
got distributor deals for DVD and VoD releases also.
But, the US distributor that he got a deal with decided
to change the film's name from ‘Wandering Rose’ to
'Demon Baby'.

8. HOW I'VE DECIDED TO DISTRIBUTE MY FILM
I want to try and self-distribute my film. After looking at many film
examples I decided that I would allow my film to go straight-to-
DVD. This is because:
• The film has a low budget.
• The film may attract a niche audience.
• Lack of general public interest.
• Due to controversial content in the film.
• The film company thinks the film won't make sales or profit in
cinemas.
I would apply my film into a film festival because if my film made it
in a film festival, it would get reviews which are very good for
promoting my film. If I did get reviews from my film being in a film
festival, I would then be able to pull out the good reviews and put
them on the DVD cover of my film, the poster for my film and I
would be able to mention that my film has reviews in pitches to
big distributors such as Universal, making these big distributors
more likely to distribute my film.
• I somewhat think my film has potential to become
a franchise because there are many similar franchises to
my film such as 'I Spit On Your Grave'. Also, I believe that
a lot of horror slasher films play on the revenge
narrative, therefore, I think that my film has potential to
make money and has chance of distribution from a
big distributor such as Universal (one of the ‘big six’).
'Friday the 13th' is about revenge in many ways because
Jason's mother seeks revenge on the group of teenagers
who ”killed” her son, Jason. Also, in the the remake of
this film, Jason comes back to life and gets revenge on a
group of teenagers.