UK Film Distribution

Film Distribution Film distributors are companies or individuals who find a target audience for the film and market it. The primary agenda of distributors is to persuade film exhibitors to book or rent the film being marketed and to arrange screenings of it. They must also make sure enough prints are created to cater for all the booked exhibitors. It is also the film distributors responsibility to make sure a full line of advertising material is available for each film as they believe it will help the exhibitor attract a larger audience and they must arrange to deliver the material. If the distributor is handling an imported or foreign language film it may be their responsibility to dub or subtitle the film and to secure censorship and other legal approval for the country it is being viewed in.

Distribution Process Producer/ company acquires rights to a film or story Screenplay developed by one or more writers Production finance and cast and crew confirmed Principle photography takes place in studios or agreed locations followed by months of post production, editing and scoring Distributor develops release strategy, considers release date and takes delivery or a master print of the finished film Distributor presents the film to exhibitors and negotiates bilateral agreements to show it in cinemas Distributors marketing campaign aims to create a want to see buzz among target audience and launches film Film prints/ disks including the BBoFC certificate are delivered to cinemas a few days before opening Films run extends any number of weeks subject to demand, which may be augmented by additional marketing Following its run in cinemas, the film is released in subsequent windows (home entertainment, tv) and quickly becomes a catalogue title

Distributing Factors Target audience: The distributors have to think about the target audience of the feature whilst marketing/ distributing the film to make sure they get the maximum amount of viewers in that audience to view the film. Commercial Risk: The distributors need to think about what risks this film/ marketing could cause the whole company and production if it is not distributed or marketed correctly. They must try to sell as many viewings as possible so that the film has a chance to restore back the production costs at least plus an extra profit to pay the director, producers and even themselves. Competition: This is always a primary consideration for the distributors as they need to make sure that their film gets more publicity and viewings than any similar films or films aimed at the same target audience which are released around the same time.

Vertigo Films Vertigo films is a British film production and distribution company. Created in 2002 by Allan Niblo, James Richardson, Nick Love, Rupert Preston and Rob Morgan, it has been responsible for the production and distribution of Street Dance, Monsters and Bronson. The companys current goal is to produce and distribute 4 films a year. Vertigo films currently have 3 different products: Vertigo films, Vertigo distribution and Vertigo TV.