Distribution

Distributors
A distributor is an individual or organisation who represents a film at festivals and markets across the world and will attempt to sell it to televisions, airlines, coach companies that have those small TYV's on them as well as many other companies that show short films. The biggest (short)film distributors in England are Futureshorts, Shorts International, Dazzle and Network Ireland TV. Distributors often source new films in order to represent their distribution catalogue at film festivals around the world. These include but are not limited to the Cannes, Rotterdam, Berlinale, AFM and Sundance festivals (features) and Clermont-Ferrand, Tampere, Encounters and Toronto Worldwide Short Film Festival (shorts). The vast majority of films that distributors acquire are completed films sourced at film festivals and related markets.


Distribution Deals
Negotiating deals with distributors requires them to have certain rights to a film, aspects of distribution affected by the rights distributors have to a film are many. Territory, which countries the film can be distributed to by the distributor. Terms, the amount of time the distributor will have the rights to distribute a film. Rights Granted, the agreement that should distinguish between the media rights granted to the distributor, which can include theatrical, video and DVD, television rights etc., and the media rights reserved to the producer. If exclusive rights are agreed to, as apposed to non-exclusive, it will stop others from allowing others to show your film within a specified media/territory/term. Producer's warranties and representation, when the producer is asked to provide assurances that there is no infringement of copyright. Gross receipts, all monies actually received by the distributor from the exploitation of the film before any deductions have been made. Net proceeds, the amount payable to the producer from the proceeds derived from the exploitation of the film after costs incurred by the distributor have been deducted. Costs can include distributor fees, commission and expenses. Expense caps, in order to prevent the distributor claiming unreasonable amounts, which would reduce the amount left for the producer to compensate. Distributor's obligations, The distributor should be under obligations to maintain accurate and true records of sales and expenditure and the producer should have the right to receive regular accounting statements on the film. Termination, which is, in my opinion, perhaps the most important, the circumstances in which you can terminate the relationship with the distributor. If the distribution agreement is for a long period of time and a better deal comes along during that period, the wording of such a clause will often determine as to whether the producer can end the existing agreement.

Sales Agents
More rarely, both short and feature films can benefit from the skills of a Sales Agent, who works on selling a smaller range of films on behalf of the film's rights holder / producer. Agents are responsible for setting up the deals, but do not necessarily deal with all the contracts paperwork, taking a percentage fee from any sales that arise from their work. They tend to take slightly lower fees than distributors as they do not have such large overheads and provide no guarantees of sales. However you may need to pay them a retainer until they achieve a sale. They can also be responsible for setting up deals with film distributors per territory.

Sales and Income
It is very rare that a profit is made when selling a short film. It is not a good idea, and probably never will be, for companies and conglomerates alike to overspend on their budgets, hoping that they will get it back afterwards from selling the film. Short film distributors tend to sell films in packages to make their profit margins sustainable, with a slant on high production values, romance/comedy/ drama genres and avoidance of overly ‘adult' themes. Countries outside of the UK, including the EU member states and the USA, can legally withhold up to 40% of the due license fee as withholding tax until the producer provides the licensee with a certificate of residency with a local tax office, where the producer's company is registered.
Self-Distribution
Self explanatory. Advantages: The producer retains full control and rights over a film, allowing them to choose where the film is shown. Money made from sales must not be shared with a distributor.
Disadvantages: It is often a full time job and will likely be time consuming with the risk that the production will still fail anyway. It can limit options for sales as distributors often have established relationships with buyers. Requires a wide understanding of copyrights laws, clearly making it difficult for one person to manage.
































http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide/distribution/distribution

Evaluation question 2 (Blogger)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


My thriller does not really show a particular social group, class, gender or ethnicity, despite the actor being a white male, in a specific light, but represents students as a whole. The clothing within the film is representative of the typical, moody teenager with the weight of peer pressure heavy on their shoulders with minimal variation to the general style throughout the production. The location, sticking with the theme of students, is in a school in empty hallways, classrooms and social areas to also keep with the horror thriller theme with both props and actor strategically placed for POV shots and blind spots, which add a certain kind of suspense to the product. The character in the product represented students through realistic responses to finding weird notes everywhere you look telling you to commit crime i.e. transitioning from mildly creeped out to mad that someone is playing a joke on them.

I chose to represent students in the most realistic manner I could, so I attempted to make the actor look moody and reclusive, I did this by filming in empty halls and having them wear a hoody to make the character seem isolated and reclusive. This follows through to the stereotypes that I am using. At the beginning of the production, I portrayed the character as sceptical, apprehensive and unwilling to accept something they don't want to be there. In the middle, it transitions into disbelief and then onto anger as most "broody" teenagers would. The end lacks any further portrayal of the character as it includes a montage of previous shots and the title screen. I decided not to try and intentionally challenge any stereotypes as I wanted to make my film as generalizable to teenagers as possible, even if it means offending a few actual teenagers in the process.
Messages to the audience? Primarily, I am trying to convey the reality of peer pressure on society's members, it's youths in particular and I am doing this because teenagers are the most susceptible to peer pressure and the bandwagon and awareness of freewill and choice must be raised. Where peer pressure festers, drugs and alcohol more often than not, follow en mass.