Distribution - Channel 4

The primary agenda of the distributor is to convince the exhibitor to rent, or book, each film. To this end the distributor usually arranges industry screenings for exhibitors, and uses other marketing techniques that will make the exhibitor believe they will profit financially by showing the film.

The Distrobution stage is where the institutions market their film and then the movie is released to theaters or, occasionally straight to DVD. The movie is duplicated as required for theatrical distribution. Press kits, posters, and other advertising materials are published and the movie is advertised. The movie will usually be launched with a launch party, press releases, interviews with the press, showings of the film at a press preview, and film festivals. It is also common to create a Web site to accompany the movie. The movie will play at selected theaters and the DVD is typically released a few months later. The distribution rights for the movie and DVD are also usually sold for worldwide distribution. Any profits are divided between the distributor and the production company.

Distribution of the film How to Lose Friends and Alienate People

In the production stage I mentioned that the budget for this film was 28 milion dollars and the total worldwide grosses was $17,416,598, this means that they didn't make any profit I think it had something to do with the way they distributed the film.

Where did they go wrong?

I researched into it to see were they went wrong in the distribution stage and I found a Post Production Behind the Scenes Interview.
There was alot of imformation but I read through it and picked out the bits that answerd my question.

" NS: No ads at all? "
"BW: No. A decision was made that Friday that there would be no print ads after the opening weekend. So the towel was already thrown in. By the second weekend, if you opened up the paper to decide on a movie, there were no ads to direct you to ours. Not even the postage stamp sized ads just giving the title. So then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, because with no ads, your box-office is going to drop big time, and then you lose theaters because there's so much competition for the screens that the theater owners won't hold your film if you're not going to support it with advertising. So the writing was on the wall literally before our opening night on Friday."

What this means is that they didn't have enough advertisement after the realese to reminde people to go and see the Film. To get as many poeple as you can to watch your film you have to keep the adverts running from weeks before the release to a couple of weeks after the release. This way people keep seeing the ads and it works as a constant reminder and an attraction to watch your movie.

"NS: What went wrong with the campaign?"

"BW: There was nothing about the graphic on the billboards or the poster or the ads that would compel you to see the film. It looked like five seconds of thought went into it. A terrible design of Simon pouring beer onto Megan Fox or stepping on her dress, with Jeff Bridges and Kirsten Dunst just standing there. Just… uninteresting. And if you don't know who Simon is, you're really lost. Even if you do know who Simon is, his image was airbrushed beyond all recognition. I mean, if you wanted to create an ad campaign specifically designed to keep people away from this film, you'd be hard pressed to come up with something more effective.

This was another problem they didn't think about what effect the posters and billboards were giving out they only realised once it was out in public and once its out they have to pay more money to change them again. The fact that they didn't create good quality and attractive posters affects on the amout of money they will get in the end. The posters are essential to attract the audience to watch the film and the more audience the more money they get and because the posters weren't the best they could be it affected there profit.

There is alot more imformation regarding the distrobution of Film on the website bellow I just pointed out two of the main reasons the film did

n't succed to its max.
http://www.duckprods.com/projects/howtolosefriends/sweetzer02.html

Analysing poster

In this section I will analyse the poster of How to Loose Friends and Alienate People. I will talk about the key settings and characters, narrative, color, layout and the written text.

By just reading the title of the film, the way the title graphics has been written captures are attention to the top sentence which sais 'How To Lose Friends' and this gives us a big incite on what the film will be about. Also by looking at the poster you can straight away tell how is going to be the main chracter in the film. There names have been positioned at the top, above the bold title so that it attracts the viewers to see who will be starring in the film, there names being positioned at the top is more noticable and it signifies that the people staring in the film is one of the films attraction. The main attractions and key images of the poster obviously the characters, the fancy red chair and the champaign. The position and attitude of the character shown in this poster tell the public alot about the importance and personality the charcters will have throughout the film.
The character of Kirten Dunst 'Alison' in this poster comes across as an intelligent and independent business woman I can tell this by the way she is dressed, her boby languege and expression tells us that she is jealous of Megan fox’s character 'Sophie', she not only jealous of her but it seems like she hates the fact that she is so pretty, I can tell this by the way she is looking down at her in jealousy and disgust.
The character of Simon Pegg 'Sidney Young' in this poster comes across as clumsy,a funny character that doesn't take things seriously, lower class, a misfit and looks like the odd one out. I can tell that he is clumsy because of the drink missing the glass cup and falling on top of Megan fox, I can tell that he is a funny character that doesn't take things seriously because of his facial expression, the reason I think he is a misfit and looks like the odd one out and he is lower class compared to the other characters is because of what he is wearing, he is wearing casual clothes jeans and tee-shirt and the others are wearing expensive and formal clothes. The fact that he is the odd one out makes him come across as the main character in the film.
Megan fox's character 'Sophie' in this poster comes across as a spoilt, vain and arrogant character. The reason she comes across a spoilt, rich, vain and arrogant is because of her body language and the fact that she is the one laying on the luxurious chair suggests that she is the centre of attention and is spoilt. Her face expression makes her seem vain and her dress tells us that she is wealthy.
Lastly Jeff Bridges character 'Clayton' in this poster comes across as a superior, dominate, powerfull and wealthy. The reason he comes across as a superior, dominate, powerfull and wealthy character is because of his body laguage of him arched back with his hands on his hips, his face expression and the suit his wearing suggests that he is formal and wealthy unlike 'Sidney Young'.

The colors in a porter can tell the audience about the mood of the film. In my film poster of How To Lose Friends and Alienate People they use red on the title and on the chair The use of read in this poster represents Romance, Jealousy, wealth and luxury. The use of black in the poster represent the buisness and wealthy side of the film and the fact that the people in black are standing next to Sidney which is wearing casual coloured clothes plays on the fact that he is less fortunate and less powerful that them.

The layout of the poster show the public the real perspective and size relationships between people and setting. The setting of 'Sophie' laying on the luxurious chair and the other three standing behind her suggests that she is the centre of attention and it make it look like Sidney, Clayton and Alyson are her servantes. Also the fact that the character sophie is laying on the chair and the others are standing tells us that the three characters standing work to succed but Sophie laying down on the chair looks like she uses her looks to succed in fame. By looking at the layout I can tell that the genre and theme of the film will be comedy and romance.

Most film posters have a tagline because it may attract the viewers to go and see the movie an dit may give an insite on what the genre and theme of the film may be. The poster for How To Lose Friends And Alienate People has a tagline which sais "The most hilarious comedy of the year" this tell us about the genre and attitude within the film and it attracts the audiences to go and watch the film because it says it is the best comedy of the year which makes the public think it must be worth watching it.

Film trailers and there importance for distrobutin and marketing.

This trailer is a teaser trailer for the film 'How to Lose Friends and Alienate People'a one of the film that channel for created. By watching this trailer the unique selling point in this movie and the way the distributors are positioning the film in the marketplace is by elements in the film's genre and the distributor highlighting which sets the film aside from other films in its genre. The things that make this comedy film different to other comedy film is the fact that in the trailer they highlight twice that the main character is English and because they have maid the main character English relates to the British audiences and it is an importante point that attracts the audience to watch the movie.
Another imfortante point in a trailer is what messages are in the film's trailer and what do they say about the film. The messages in this trailer tells the audiences a lot about what they should expect the film to be like, one of the message is that a lower class English guy is trying to move his way up the celebrity world by being a clumsy joker but in stead of movind up "he worked his way to the bottom" as said in the trailer, also by watching the trailler it is very easy to understand what genre the film is which is Comedy.

Essay On Production Patterns And Issues

“It is not the film industry; it the film business.” (Eric Fellner)

Using detailed examples from your case studies discuss the issues and patterns which enables your institution to thrive as a film business. (Chosen institution: Channel 4/ Film 4)

Channel 4 became the fourth ever channel to be on British television in 1982. The difference between Channel 4 and the other three channels at the time was that it brought something different to the table. Channel four was making unique, interesting and enjoyable programs and movies compared to the BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. Because of this Channel became more popular and wealthy, so they started to create more and more movies, but the smart thing channel 4 did and still does is try not to waist or overdo there budget on making a film, they keep it as minimal as it can be which is hard in the film industry as you end up spending millions. Although they don’t overdo there budget does not mean the

y make bad quality films, channel 4 thinks very carefully on what the film is going to be like and the outcome of the film. For the outcome of the film to be good and successful so that they make profit there are issues and patterns that Channel 4 have to think about and follow so they can thrive as a film business. They have to choose the Writer, Producer, the Casting, the Budget, Location and many more, all these decisions

thought through carefully can make them a lot of profit and thrive in the film business.

The first of many issues that enable C4 to t

hrive as a film business is choosing the right writer to create a film. Choosing a writer is the first step of the process of creating a film and it is called the Development stage. This stage is as important as all the other stages, if not it is

more important because it may or may not be the introduction and beginning to a great and successful film. To choose a writer C4 has to think about how important the writer is for the audiences and why he is popular with the audiences. Also when choosing a writer they have to think about what other books the writer has d

one and if they were popular or even if any there books have previously been created into a movie, if yes was it popular with the audiences.

If the writer is chosen carefully and with reason then it may be the beginning of a great film.

After the Development stage of choosing the

right write to create the film Channel 4 then has to choose a Producer. When choosing a Producer C4 thinks about what other movies has he or she produced and where they any successful in terms of Profit and awards, also are they capable of creating the type of film that you want to make and you also have to think about if they are able to move from country to country to produce the film.

For my case I wrote about the film How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, they had two producers for the film they where Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen they chose these producers because they were both well experi

enced and knee perfectly well what to do to create a successful movie and also the good think about choosing these producers was that they had previously worked together as producers of movies for example ‘When Did You Last See Your Farther?’ and ‘Little Voice’ two good and successful movies, and because of these factors they were chosen to produce How To Lose Friends And Alienate People. So before choosing

a producer it is essential to look at there previous work. The better the producer the better the film.

When making a film you also have to think about the genre and the music of the film. It is important to think about the genre of the film you should make because to thrive in the film business you need to make popular and successful movies so you need to think about and research what are the least popular film and the

most popular film, then decide what Genre your movie should be.

Table 1 shows genre frequencies and genre rank

ings for All Cited Films and the Top 25 films.

Table 1

Music is a very important aspect of a film in some cases music can make you enjoy a film that you wouldn’t normally enjoy watching. When making a film it is important to have music that is well-known and sung by a popular artist or bang. In The movie How To Lose Friends And Alienate People they used ‘Enough Love’ by Duffy, ‘I Don’t Fell Like Dancing’ by the scissors sisters, ‘For Reasons Unknown’ by The Killers and ‘What a Wonderful Word’ by Joey Ramone. The producers chose different genres of music to attract different types of audience and they also picked songs that where popular at the time. In most cases the film company has to pay royalties to record companies so that they can use there music in the movie, when doing this the film company may propose a deal to the record company for example they will give 15% of the profit they get form selling the Soundtrack of the movie to the record company. In some films they may also compose they own music, this is done in most horror movies to create tension.

One of the most important decisions is choosing the Cast members. When making a film the producers have to think about what actors to use for the film, this is important because if they hire well known actors it is more likely that it will attract more viewers and a diffrent range of viewers than it would if the actors weren't well known. The producers of How To Lose Friends And Alienate People chose to have two very well known and attractive women Megan Fox and Kirsten Dunst, and two well known actors Simon Pegg and Jeff Bridges in the movie because they are well known actors in the film industry and by having them in there film attracted more audience, male, female, young and old.

Managing the budget for a film during its production phase can be quiet challenging to keep it to a minimal. During script development, a rough budget is produced by filmmakers in order to convince film producers and film studios to give them a greenlight for production. During pre-production, a much more detailed film budget is produced it could be over 150 pages long. When Channel 4 made How To Lose Friends And Alienate People the budget was $28 million but the total worldwide gross was about $17.3 million world wide, forty percent less than the production budget. This mans that they didn’t attract enough audiences to watch or buy the movie so they didn’t manage to gain profit unlike another channel four production Slumdog Millionaire there budget was 15.1 million and worldwide, the film has currently grossed over $377 million, this was an extremely successful movie even though it broke all the patterns of film making while it was being produced.

A filming location is a place where some or all of a film is produced, locations can be used instead or in addition of using sets constructed on a movie studios Back Lot or sound stage. The advantages of filming in a certain location may some times be cheaper that constructing large sets and it looks more real that a studio se, but the disadvantages are taking a whole film crew to film on location can be extremely expensive, sometimes it is also difficult to find a location that matches the requirements of the script and when filming at a location you may have no control over the environment - passing aircraft, traffic, pedestrians, bad weather, city regulations. The film How To Lose Friends And Alienate People filming locations were the Café de Paris, Coventry Street, Soho in London,(interiors),streets of London, New York City, Soho Grand Hotel in New York City, Three Mills Studios in London, (studio),Times Square, Manhattan and New York City. This would of increased a lot on there budget as they would have to pay for the use of the locations and pay for all the cast an crew to move from location to location.

For this film they didn’t have to use Special effects which tend to cost a lot for example the budget of the X-Men, Pirates of the Caribbean and Superman Returns exceeding $200 million. There is a very big difference between the budgets of a film without special effects like How To Lose Friends And Alienate People $28 million and a film with a lot of special effects like Superman Returns $209 million.

For Channel 4 to succeed and thrive as a film business they need to create successful films that make profit and are good enough to win awards Just like Slumdog Millionaire. But for this to happen they have think carefully about all there decisions about the Production of the film. If everything goes to plan and the film is successful they will make profit which is the aim for every film they make, to gain more that they spent.