Distribution Plan

Based on my research on Film Distribution and standard distribution models. I first contact major film distributors such as 20th Century Studios and Universal Pictures to make a distribution contract for my film. Afterward, I premiere the film on major theaters such as the Dolby theater. If I am unable to distribute the film to major theaters, then I could also use theater chains such as AMC Entertainment and Cinemark Theaters. After premiering the film on theaters for a few months, I will then distribute the film from the same distributors onto DVD and Blu-ray for home video. If my film is successful, I will plan on contacting digital distributors such as Netflix and Amazon Video for on-demand video for consumers to freely watch.

Distribution Research - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is an American Sci-Fi film from the famous Star Wars franchise. It is distributed by Walk Disney Studios Motion Pictures. On December 14, 2015, it premiered in the TCL Chinese Theatre, El Capitan Theatre, and the Dolby Theatre. The film was released globally starting from the European nations, the Philippines and Thailand on December 16; the United Kingdom, Mexico, and additional European, Asian, South American, and Oceania countries on the following day; North America, Japan, Spain, and Venezuela in 3D and IMAX 3D the next day; and in India on the twenty-fifth and China on January 9, 2016. North America has the widest release of over 4,000 theaters, many of which are 3D locations and around 400 IMAX screens. The film has screened on IMAX screens for four weeks until January 14, 2016. Walt Disney Studios then released it through Disney Movies Anywhere on April 1, 2016. The film was then released on Blu-ray and DVD four days later and then a Blu-Ray 3D collectors edition by November 15. By January 2016, a cable network would hold television rights for the film and began broadcasting by September 10, 2016. Disney+ then released the film in 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos by November 12, 2019.

Revision #2

For my second revision of the film, I added a vignette that gradually appears after Manny falls onto the sidewalk. In Vegas Pro, I added a film track to add a solid color overlay. I then made it as a mask and created an ellipse onto the camera view. Moreover, I made it negative and set the feather type to both and increased the feather to 100%, making the border appear blurred out. Lastly, I added it to a specific keyframe where Manny encounters the hacker. This will make the vignette gradually appear from the point where he falls to where he sees the hacker. The main intent of the vignette is to add increasing tensions into the scene from the melancholic mood of the first part of the film.

Distribution Research - Arrival

The film Arrival is a 2016 Science Fiction film based on a short story, "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. Twelve spacecrafts of aliens visit the earth and military and scientific experts all over the world come and inspect these ships. In the United states, Louise Banks, a linguist, works with physicist Ian Donelly make contact with the aliens and receive a message in the form of circular symbols. They begin to research the meaning of the symbols before tensions lead to war. Sony Pictures Releasing International and Stage 6 Films acquired international distributional rights of the film. Many other distributional companies such as Entertainment One received UK distributional rights and Roadshow Films acquired Australian distributional rights. Paramount Pictures also received distributional rights for the film for the United States and Canada. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2016 and screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, and the BFI London Film Festival. It then released by November 11, 2016. By January 31, 2017, the film was released on Digital HD and and released on DVD and Blu-ray by February 14, 2017.

Distribution Research - Blade Runner 2049

Blade Runner 2049 is an American 2017 neo-noir science fiction film about the pursuit of a child from a bioengineered mother and a former blade runner father who has been missing for three decades. The distribution of this film followed a modernized version of the standard release format of film distribution. It first premiered October 3, 2017 in the Dolby Theatre and in Switzerland during the Zurich Film Festival on the following day. Sony Pictures was the first to release the film in theaters overseas in France and Belgium on October 4, 2017 and then to other countries in the next two days. Warner Bros. released the film on October 6, 2017 in addition to releasing it in IMAX theaters. Alcon Entertainment created and distributed content for the film in partnership with Oculus VR on the same day, which would be called Blade Runner : Revelations. This film is then released on DVD and Blu-Ray on January 16th, 2018 and then distributed by Netflix and Redbox seven days later.

Traditional Distribution Model

Film distribution is defined as the process of putting a film out into the public for audiences to watch. Before major studios, films had multiple methods of film distribution. One of these methods involves a states rights system where films were sold locally. A film copyright holder sells it to a salesperson 10 cents per foot or a foot-by-foot basis. The local salesperson would play the film as many times as possible to earn profit. This method was beneficial for shorter films but not feature-length films. Later on, films used standard release where they utilized release windows to regulate the release of films and competition of films through different mediums. This allowed movies to benefit from different markets for products for watching films at home or theaters by releasing the film in theaters first and then releases VHS and VOD after a few months and so on. After standard release, films have used simultaneous release in order to provide advantages to the consumer. It allows for the publication of a film through multiple mediums at the same time. Sometimes, films decide to release the film directly to DVD or Blu-ray.

If I were to use a traditional distribution model for my film, I would utilize a simultaneous release model for my film. This is because it would be more convenient for the consumer to comfortably access my film through different types of media. This is because of the current state of technology today and using this method would help me profit more than using a standard release or directly to DVDs or Blu-ray.

Revision #1

For my film Limbo, one of the changes I have made for my film is by editing cinematic bars in Vegas Pro when Manny falls onto the ground. This is done by adding a video track with a white solid color overlay as a mask. Afterwards, I then cropped the view of the mask to add the cinematic bars at a keyframe to show it quickly sliding into view. I added the cinematic bars at this specific moment to influence the mood by adding more intensity into the film as the scene takes a dark turn.

Marketing Plan

Based on my target audience research on Inception, Flatliners, and 24. The films utilized posters, billboards, websites, trailers, social media, and games to market their own film. With the current development and usage of technology today, I plan to market my product mostly through electronic means to be more accessible to the majority of the public. The types of ads I will use are trailers, websites, games, and social media for my film that invokes mysterious but intense feelings from them. I may also market my product by doing film interviews and going to conventions and advertising it and selling merchandise of the film.

Audience Engagement Research - 24

The film 24 is an Indian, Sci-Fi action film from Vikram Kumar. Despite geographical differences, my film's target audience is similar to the film because of its genre and use of time travel concepts with a watch with a time-traveling ability. It also has themes of the dangers of the advancement of technology as the plot starts with a scientist involving a time-traveling watch which leads to his twin brother wanting to retrieve it and its time-traveling capabilities which led to a battle between the scientist's son and his evil twin for the sake of the watch. The intensity of the film also attracts a similar audience as tensions rise as the film progresses in comparison to my film. The film marketed their product by releasing several posters of the film with a photo of Saravanan Sivakumar, a famous Indian film actor, and a photo of him with other actors behind him or photos of the film behind him. The film also released a game called "24: Athreya Run" from Creative Monkey Games through iTunes and Playstore on May 1st, 2016. The film also released a trailer showing some of the action in the film first part of the trailer, it then transitions to calmer clips of the film to reveal some characteristics of the main characters, and then transitions back to more action clips of the film.

Audience Engagement Research - Flatliners

My target audience is similar to that of the 2017 Flatliners film because my film's Sci-Fi and genre is the same as the genre of Flatliners. The film also has themes of the dangers of the advancement and abuse of technology. Flatliners marketed their product by using posters that convey a sense of "out-of-body experiences" or the divide between life and death. The first poster used a heartbeat monitor to divide the photo into the clear photo on the left and distorted and color separation on the right. There is a text on the right side with the text, "You haven't lived until you've died," over the distortions. Flatliners also had billboards with this poster design on it, but the text is across the whole width of the billboard. The second set of posters continued to use distortions and displayed the three main actors of the film. Each of them were asleep with screaming, distorted versioned of each actor over them with the text, "Cross the line. Death follows you back". Flatliners then released a series of character posters that still shares the color separation from the first poster obscuring the face. Afterwards, Flatliners then released two different trailers. The first trailer involves one of the characters bringing another person to figure out what happens after they die. She tries it out and gain skills after she is revived. A whole group of people gets involved and they begin to have uncanny and disturbing experiences as the trailer goes on. The second trailer focuses more on the positive experiences each character has with subtle hints to the dark side of the film. The film also has an official website which also has links to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. The film also used a variety of advertisements on Television and interviews about the film.