INDIEBLOCK
What is Film Distribution?
Film distribution involves film producers making their films available to audiences. There are various ways to accomplish it, for example, with a theatrical release, a home entertainment release such as DVD or Blu-ray Disc, or a television program for broadcast syndication and also digital distribution. Our research has found that getting a movie distributed is nearly as difficult as making it. This is due to the huge amount of money and time involved in distributing a movie. The distributor must feel confident that they can make a sufficient return on their investment.
However, a film with a major studio or a well-known director or star can obviously improve the chances of securing a good distribution deal (Tyson, 2000). On the contrary, independent filmmakers with lack of reputation and finance often look for online distribution or use film festivals as an opportunity to get the attention of distributors. In this area of our research, we will focus on both blockbuster film production companies and how independent filmmakers distribute their works; whilst also giving some suggestions for independent filmmakers to make their film well distribution with limited budgets.
Contemporary Film Distribution and Exhibition
We chose to focus on two books which specifically discuss contemporary film distribution and exhibition: Shadow Economies of Cinema and Digital Disruption. They both contribute to the canon of work that examines how the digitalisation of film and the plethora of digital technologies and innovations associated with this have impacted on the discipline of film studies. Moreover, they also focus on the changes that have occurred (and are still occurring) within the field of film distribution as a consequence of new technologies, industrial developments, and fluctuating cultural practices (Trowbridge 2013, p.224).
In Shadow Economies of Cinema, the author Lobato (2012) presents an examination of what he terms ‘the circulatory dynamics of cinema’, which essentially, is about ‘how movies travel through space and time, and what happens to them (and us) along the way.’ Principally the Labato’s description here is film distribution, in the broadest sense of the term. In this book, Lobato also highlights the importance of film distribution must reach an audience. Lobato (2012) too seek to underline that ‘the criticality of film distribution in wider film culture through emphasizing distribution’s ability to govern the films people see and the locations and ways in which they access them’.
As De Valck (2012) notes in her contribution to Digital Disruption:
Nowadays, thanks to digital technologies, media products can easily and inexpensively by copied and distributed across various platforms. The result is a media economy in which niche products can be extremely profitable, and therefore are of interest to commercial parties as well.
Written by Alice Zhang
However, in Digital Disruption, few essays also discuss that attending film festivals are also a popular way for film productions to distribute their films and how the development of digital technologies interact with each other. For instance, when examining the contemporary industrial structures of high-profile film festivals such as Sundance and Tribeca, which have both become quite diversified as a result of industrial and technological convergence. Both festivals are subsidiary parts of larger organisations that have interests in film distribution across different platforms, production initiatives, and partnerships, suggesting that digitalization may not necessarily be a negative development for those festivals with the capacity adapt (Trowbridge 2013, p.230).
However, the collection of essays in Digital Disruption aims to both explore the terrain of how people experience cinema nowadays as a consequence of digital innovation and also chart the ‘possibilities for the global circulation of film’ (Trowbridge 2013, p.224). Digital Disruption seeks to examine how technological advancements have impacted on the global distribution of (mainly) non-Hollywood product. The author, Iordanova, argues that the traditional film distribution model of hierarchical window releasing is threatened by technological innovations; it is ‘radically undermined’ (Iordanova, 2012). With the Internet and digital technologies offering new and innovative possibilities (both legal and illegal) within film distribution, Iordanova calls the movement of film on-line a ‘democratising process’, enthusiastically declaring that film is now unshackled from the ‘tyranny of geography’ (Trowbridge 2013, p.227).
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