Distribution Plan

Standard Distribution Plan:
We will have a major theatrical release on October 7, we are releasing our movie in October because not many movies are released at this time, and those that are, usually do well at the Oscars, we are hoping our movie could perform well, and get a lot of notoriety.

Before our major theatrical release we will play our movie a select few film festivals. We are hoping this will create a buzz around our movie, that will promote others to watch our movie during it's major theatrical release.

We will have a short period of time before our film is released to VOD and Netflix, probably around 20-30 days. We are hoping that by having a major theatrical release, our movie can perform well in theaters, then with the short period of time before release onto streaming, we can instantly have our film distributed to Netflix viewers. Hopefully, the combined buzz of our pre-screenings at film festivals and major theatrical release can not only promote our film to contend for an Oscar, but also attract a large amount of Netflix viewers to watch the movie.

Digital Distribution- The Irishman

The Irishman, the most recent film by the legendary Martin Scorsese, was an object of debate between Netflix and big chain theaters. Netflix financed and produced the film, naturally they wanted the film to be released onto the streaming as soon as possible. However, big movie theater chains wanted around the typical length between theatrical and streaming release of 72 days, in hot debates and stalemates, they eventually agreed to lower the time to around 60 days. Months later we now know the film released only in select theaters on November 1st then was released on Netflix, November 27. This was disappointing for both parties, had discussions gone better they could have made more profits. Preferably they could have had a major theatrical release and a short period until Netflix release.

At first I had wanted to purely stream our movie on Netflix, however after seeing how the distribution of this film wasn't maximized, I see how I now want to release my film. While i'm aware our film does not have the same names and production linked to it that The Irishman does, I am still aware that a major theatrical release and short period before Netflix release will maximize our profit. Therefore we can distribute our film this way to maximize our profits.

Revised Shot List

I thought these shots were particularly important to the film. The shots that I contributed were; Giovane talking on the phone, Alto ditching Giovane, and Danillea yelling at Giovane. I wanted to immediately start the film with an important conversation, so the audience would be immediately involved in the film. Alto ditching Giovane is an important lesson for Giovane learning he can trust no one, this is vital to his character development. Finally, Danillea yelling at Giovane is important because it shows how she's superior and of higher ability and experience than Giovane.

Digital Distribution- El Camino

Distribution

El Camino was released digitally on Netflix and premiered theatrically in limited theaters on Oct 11, 2019. The movie was at first released straight to Netflix due to it being a sequel to the Breaking Bad Tv series, which has been on Netflix for years now and was very successful on Netflix as well. The distributors of the show knew that a majority of their target audience were Netflix users, therefore the release of El Camino onto Netflix was an intelligent move. The movie had a television premiere on AMC on February 16, 2020. This was done so that fans of the show, that do not have Netflix, can enjoy the film.

Our Distribution 

We plan on similarly releasing our movie straight onto Netflix, though we do not have an already popular show that has been on Netflix for years. However we feel that our film would reach our target audience through Netflix, and having a Netflix cosign, would increase attention on our film. I have not considered a limited theatrical release and also a television premier, though now that I have seen the success of El Camino, I feel that this would be a good decision. We could use a theatrical release to reach those in our target audience without Netflix. 

Digital Distribution- The Hateful Eight

Initial Distribution
Distributed by The Weinstein Company in the United States, The Hateful Eight was released on December 25, 2015, in a limited roadshow release on 70 mm film, before expanding wide theatrically on December 30, 2015. The film grossed 155.8 Million USD in the box-office.

A Limited Roadshow release means that the film was released in select theaters, in major cities. This is advantages because it makes the audience aware of your product and may stir up hype on your film.

 Since the theatrical and roadshow releases the film has been made available for purchase in stores and it is available on streaming services such as Netflix. In-fact even the roadshow version of the film has been released on Netflix, so viewers can decide which release of the film they want to stream.

Incorporation for our product
We may want to use the limited roadshow release to familiarize the public with our brand and film. This is our first film, therefore hype and public awareness are going to be minimal to nonexistent. Hence why a roadshow release before wide theatrical release would be very beneficial.

We already plan on releasing our film to streaming services, in-fact we plan on having an exclusive Netflix release of the film. This would eliminate the roadshow release, however if we planned on having a theatrical release, we would utilize the roadshow release.

Distribution Research

Most viewers love going to the movies and having the traditional movie experience, however, prices have risen only due to the rise of prices for movie tickets. Truthfully, the amount of tickets being sold is on a negative trajectory due to the increase in use of streaming services and on demand viewing of movies. This has resulted in a change in the traditional method of film distribution, companies  have found many ways to work around this and profitably distribute their films.

VOD
One way to distribute your film and still make a good profit is to release it onto Video on Demand. VOD is one of the main reasons movie theaters are not as profitable, therefore many small films will be released in theaters and video on demand at the same time or similar times. This has been successful for films such as Snowpiercer, that made $4 million in theaters and $7 million through VOD.

Streaming Services
Streaming services such as Netflix will make films available for streaming on their service the same time they are released in theaters or even release certain films only on Netflix, they have even started to make the films they distribute on their service. Films such as The Irish Man, was released on only Netflix, this has proven to be a successful and profitable way to distribute films.

Shrinking Theatrical Windows
Another successful tactic is minimizing the period between theater release and home video/VOD release. Often times, a film will peak in viewership during the first 6 weeks but after that it begins to decline, weeks later the film will be purchasable for viewership at home. This distribution strategy would allow the film to peak in theatrical sales then be sold in homes, this would hopefully make the film makers more money.

Our Distribution Plan
Out of the techniques listed, we feel that we should do an exclusive Netflix release, this would mean our film is only released on Netflix. This would be profitable for us because a majority of our target audience uses Netflix, it would also allow anyone with Netflix to have access to our film, not having the restricted sale of tickets like at theaters. Also, the Netflix exclusive cosign would help advertise our film and could make people want to watch our film.

Marketing Plan

Based on our research on the marketing of other movies such as; Get out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Joker, we have decided the best course of action would be to create a Bill Board. Then once we have our image, we believe we should upload the ad onto a social media account to market our movie.

We are unable to use controversy to market our film because our movie does not have a high profile or well known popular actors. Therefore we are unable to use this to promote publicity.

We have chosen to make a Bill Board because with the resources available to us and time we have to work on it, this is our best option. This option also allows us to creatively illustrate our film. We have decided to take inspiration from the Joker posters and use dark images with a dark vibe to portray our movie as being gritty and dark.

We have decided against creating a website because we feel that marketing a website is much more difficult than creating a poster and publishing it on Social media. We also do not have the proper skills and time to create a website that excites people such as the website for Get Out did.

This is our Bill Board we created.

We decided to post our Bill Board, on an Instagram account. Our account is titled, Therisemovie, it will post the film poster and promotion on when the movie will be released.

This is it posted on our Instagram account.

The use of the social media platform Instagram will help us advertise our film to our target audience. A large amount of the young adult audience uses Instagram, therefore by posting our advertisements on the platform they will see it and be inclined to go watch our movie. Some older audience also uses Instagram, they will see the advertisement as well and be prompted to see the movie.

We will also run our trailer on youtube, this will distribute the advertisement of our movie to teenagers and young adults. These viewers  are the target audience for us and by them seeing the trailer, we will market our movie to people who will see it. The trailer will be short and concise and have a dark overall theme.

Re-shoot Complete

The past Tuesday we re-shot all of our movie. We cut out scenes in order to compress our movie opener to around two-minutes. We also changed certain shots to improve the feel and flow of our movie. Therefore we will need edit the script slightly and the shot list.

Over the upcoming week, we will edit our new movie together and work on the shot list and script.