Q3 Distributor tbc

Definition:
wikipedia:

'A film distributor is a company or individual responsible for the marketing of a film. The distributor may set the release date of a film and the method by which a film is to be exhibited or made available for viewing: for example, directly to the public either theatrically or for home viewing (DVD, video-on-demand, download, television programs through broadcast syndication etc.). A distributor may do this directly, if the distributor owns the theaters or film distribution networks, or through theatrical exhibitors and other sub-distributors. A limited distributor may deal only with particular products, such as DVDs or Blu-ray, or may act in a particular country or market.' 

5 Useful Hyperlinks:

http://www.eicar-international.com/definition-distribution.html
http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-cobuild/film%20distribution
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/movie-distribution1.htm
http://www.bavc.org/youth-programs/next-gen-resources/youth-media-distribution-toolkit/distribution-defined
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_distributor

My definition: someone or a company that deals with the marketing of the film, from DVD releasing to cinema, it is the people getting the film as much money as they can, to get the film viewed by the people.

Digitisation
However now digitization has come into play, distributors can pay much less or even sometimes nothing to advertise their film, using social sites things can now go viral meaning your film advert or whatever you want to advertise can get viewed by thousands even millions of people. so an indie film like ours is benefiting greatly as we can advertise our film and get it noticed for free which is what we need as our budget is basically nothing. moving to digital reduces the costs of most things in film, everything is on memory not on film prints etc anymore. The film prints cost thousands of pounds and most country's would get the film prints later than america as it cost too much to make a vast amount of prints.

My film is an almost 0 budget slasher indie film, with no more than 5 characters and a local location, the film is easy to produce and easy to film.


Top ten UK distributors 2012:

Sony more than doubled its 2011 share of 7.35% with an enormous 17.9% share in 2012, with 'Skyfall' accounting for half its total take.

20th Century Fox came in a close second with 39 titles hauling £191.2m for a 16.3% market share.

Last year's number one, Warner Bros, fell to third with £147m, a 12.5% market share. £56.3m of this total was brought in by 'The Dark Knight Rises'.

Overall, the UK box office grossed £1.172b in 2012, narrowly ahead of 2011’s £1.130b total.

UK's top 10 2012 film distributors:

1. Sony: $336.4m (£209.9m) 17.9%
2. 20th Century Fox: $306.5m (£191.2m) 16.3%
3. Warner Bros: $235.5m (£147m) 12.5%
4. Universal: $219.3m (£136.8m) 11%
5. Walt Disney: $197.4m (£123.2m) 10.5%
6. eOne: $129.5m (£80.8m) 6.9%
7. Paramount: $125.8m (£78.5m) 6.7%
8. Lionsgate: $109.3m (£68.2m) 5.8%
9. Momentum: $82.1m (£51.2m) 4.3%
10. Entertainment Film Distributors: $59m (£36.8m)

source: http://www.mi6-hq.com/news/index.php?itemid=10724

This shows that sony are dominating the UK market as a distributor, However this isn't horror films. Here are IMDB's top 10 horror movies of all time and their distributors:

The shining, 1980- Warner Bros 
Alien, 1979- 20th Century Fox
Shaun Of The Dead, 2004- Focus Features & Universal
Psycho, 1960- Paramount Pictures
Cloverfield, 2008- Paramount Pictures
Zombieland, 2009- Colombia Pictures
SAW, 2004- Lionsgate Films
The Exorcist, 1973- Warner Bros
28 Days Later, 2002- Twentieth Century Fox
Sweeney Todd, 2007- Dreamworks

Distributors marketing methods:


This was the poster we created. Basically all slasher films use posters to attract the audience and give a brief insight to the film. Here is a poster from the infamous film Halloween:


Another technique distributors use is use a teaser trailer before the trailer and obviously before the film, this is to give the audience an idea of what it's going to be like and advertises the film greatly. With digitization this is much easier as sites like Youtube provide free video time with the potential to go viral. Here is our teaser trailer and another example of a teaser trailer:

Our teaser trailer:


Saw VI teaser trailer: 

sadly i do not think my film will achieve such a distributor like any of these in the top ten, therefore i have done research into a distributor which would distribute an indie film like mine:

Donkey Punch Budget: 700k

Donkey Punch Distributors:

•Optimum Releasing (2008) (UK) (theatrical)
•Magnet Releasing (2009) (USA) (theatrical)

optimum releasing:
http://www.imdb.com/company/co0106149/
Who have distributed the film: donkey punch

Eden lake:
Distributors:
•Optimum Releasing (2008) (UK) (theatrical)
•Dimension Extreme (2009) (USA) (DVD)
•Weinstein Company, The (2009) (USA) (DVD)

Our budget

The budget for our film will be was zero. as we borrowed a lab coat from the biology department at school, however if we were to state a budget to make our whole film if we could get distribution would be a film like le donk & scor-zay-zee a low budget comedy produced by warp and written by Shane Meadows. this is a micro budget indie, which is what we're trying to achieve. 48,000 would cover the rent of cameras, actors and props and a setting if needed. so if we were to set a budget 48,000 would be our target.

In the past films like Halloween  psycho and scream made astronomical amounts of profit from their films, the distributors contributing to this, dimension, Halloweens distributor made ALOT of money, as it was a low budget film grossing 60 million. However in the competitive Slasher and Horror genre that it is today it is much harder for these low budget films to make much money. The horror film Paranormal Activity is a great exception as the film made huge profits on its very, very low budget film:

Budget:

 $15,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:
 £3,593,762 (UK) (27 November 2009)

Gross:
 $107,917,283 (USA) (15 January 2010)
Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (2009) (USA) (theatrical)
• DreamWorks SKG (2009) (USA) (theatrical)

This is the Kind of budget we are working along and an inspiration to our film, so if our film got a USA cinema release these 2 distributors would be ideal.

Conclusion:

If money was no object however our Ideal distributor would definitely be Dimension Films because of it variety of films it has distributed from Halloween to Scream 4. especially the fact that our film is very much inspired by Halloween. The distributor has almost guaranteed distribution for every horror film it has diistributed.