Distribution

Distribution is the stage in between production and exhibition and involves all the deals done to promote the film.
There are two types of film promotion; 'Above the line' and 'Below the line'. Above the line refers to all the promotional material and marketing that is financed within the films budget such as the official trailers, posters and billboards. Whereas below the line consists of all promotion that isn't paid for, but that still generates interest in the film, for example; interviews with the cast or director, reviews and fan pages or videos such as trailer re-makes on youtube.
Films are loaned out to cinemas for a finite period and release deals are done that secures access to a certain number of screen at a time. But in the UK film market, an increase in the quantity of screens showing films has not led to an increase in the number of films shown.
The five main Distributors in the UK film industry are:

• United International Pictures (This includes Universal)
• Warner Brothers
• Buena Vista
• Twentieth Century Fox
• Sony

These show around 90% of the film in the UK.
In most cases these distributors are directly linked to the Hollywood production companies who make the films and exhibitors who prioritise Hollywood films over others for profit.
Usually the blockbuster films we are familiar with are distributed via what is called a 'blanket release' so even if a small UK independent company manages to get it's product into cinemas, it is usually competing for attention with one or more films that take on the status of an 'event'. This generally means that a lot of the films released in Britain do not reach the whole of the country.
The problems smaller companies face is that every film in each cinema has a reel to project it, so a reel is needed for each cinema. Bigger companies can produce more prints, whereas smaller companies producing a less commercial product can't afford to do that so people who do want to see then have to wait for DVD release.

Looking at an example of how important marketing is and why it is always such a large part of the budget, Pirates of the Caribbean 2 Took over $50million at the box office and had over 1.5 million DVD sales ten days after release. However the film had received poor reviews from most critics, so the marketing of the product and it's previous installment contributed to the films success rather than the quality of the film.
A huge problem in film distribution is Piracy. Hollywood investigators claim that there is a 10% increase each year in the revenue lost to illegal distribution. It is also a big problem in the UK.The UK film council aim to produce a strategy for responding to internal distribution opportunities and for working to remind the public that small production companies are actually hurt more by piracy than conglomerate companies.
A new wave of distribution is being introduced in the form of digital distribution. It promises to transform the film industry more than any other as once it becomes the normal thing to download films via broadband, the potential for a new form of blanket distribution is obvious; not only do you no longer need multiple prints you can also bypass the cinemas. However, there will still be a need for cine,as as many people still go to enjoy 'the experience' of seeing it on the big screen. Another strength of digital is that it offers identical quality to the original film. Much of piracy involves films not being available in other countries until much later, so people who want to see it close to release watch pirate copies online. With digital distribution planning simultaneous global distribution via the Internet, it will put an end to this time gap and exploitation by pirates.
Viral marketing is also becoming more and more frequent in distribution. Videos, quizzes and downloads are available from the films website as well as the production and distribution compaines' websites.
The time of release is crucial due to competition and appealing to your target audience at the right time. Making the film noticed and available to the right people is also vital. On planning the release you need to think about the target audience, research and past experience with a type of film, how often people go to the cinema or buy a DVD (eg, many people but DVDs around Christmas time). To compete with other films the marketing needs to stand out and be directed at the right time to the right people. So during October half term, many children have nothing to due to darker nights, so many films appealing to younger audiences are released.

Word of mouth is possibly the best marketing for a film you can have, however it is hard to acquire. Advanced screenings are free to the public ti convince them to see it and then tell their friends about it, however his can backfire if the word of mouth is negative. We see adverts for these screenings in magazines which match the target audience. Research proves this by showing that people are most influenced by their friends' recommendations.
Distribution is vital to a films success, which is why such a large part of any film budget goes towards the distribution of the film and the marketing surrounding it.

Memento - How the editing creates the films narrative and represents the character and his disability

The film memento has a non-linear narrative, which differs from typical films. The film is edited to separate the film into two sections; the black and white scenes and the colour scenes.

The opening shot of the film is an extreme close up of what would appear to be a mans hand holding a Polaroid; a very gory photograph of a person who has clearly been shot in the head,with blood splattered everywhere; this is an enigma code as the audience want to know the circumstances around this mans death,like who killed him and why there was a picture being taken of him. As the scene continues the Polaroid begins to fade and it is shaken, as it would be whilst it is developing and it soon becomes clear that the scene is going backwards in time, as the photograph un-develops. The Polaroid itself is a cultural code as if you weren't aware of how Polaroids work then you wouldn't understand. Non-diegetic sound plays along with this to create an atmosphere that creates emotion for the audience as they are looking at an image that can fuel emotion so, they have added music to encourage the triggering of this. The music builds up as the scene goes backwards until we see a quick flashes of the shooting that just happened, the pace of the editing in this matches the events of the shooting and the music becomes much more dramatic for those few seconds, triggering interest for the audience as they know some of their questions could be answered, however the editing cuts so that although we see the event, we don't gage the reasoning behind the shooting or in fact all the details of what and who this person is. We see the pace gradually increase as we work from the aftermath to the actual shooting, the taking of the photo and the shots of the fired bullet and glasses fallen on the floor are shown slowly, with the audience able to piece together the confusing details. This music and the scene working its way backwards is an action code as the scene before which is actually what happened after implies some form of action is just about to take place; as we can see from the Polaroid that something has.

The narrative then moves into a completely different direction as the scenes become black and white. It appears to be the past; as the commentary by the character himself implies. The editing in this scene is substantial; with lots of short close ups and extreme close ups of parts of the man and the room he is in, showing all the little details. It begins with a close up of the mans profile and it focuses in on his eye, implying to the audience that we are about see this characters point of view. Sure enough we soon see the room and shots of the mans body such as his leg, through the man's eyes. This is when we first become aware of his disability. The audience were left with an enigma code as to why the man was taking a photo of the man he shot earlier, yet as we see examples of his lack of short term memory it becomes clearer. Along with the characters commentary on it, the disability is a huge part of the storyline and his character. The short close-up montage editing is a symbolic code of the characters memory as it portrays it as simplistic; from the monotonal colours, and obviously limited from the short shots in the sequence; so the editing is giving us an insight into his disability.
The scene returns to colour and we assume to be back to the scene of the shooting where we left. but this isn't the case; we see the man interact with a member of staff where he is staying discussing his disability and explaining how he can't remember the man behind the counter. He pays a fee for his room, so it is made clear he is staying in some sort of temporary accommodation, a symbolic code of how his life is temporary due to his disability, however this is a cultural code as not everyone would be aware of such places as motels, which seem the most likely place for him to be staying. Then we are introduced to someone we recognise, the man who he shot, so we know that the film isn't following a chronological order and that we are going to find out the circumstances leading to the shooting. We know this character is key as there is another Polaroid of him and the man is aware of his importance even though he can't remember anything else.
The colour scenes are playing out the actual events leading up to the events at the beginning, and showing him  living in society and dealing and interacting with people unaware of his disability, yet the black and white narrative gives us an insight into his perception of himself and the situation and the way his mind works, or doesn't. He commentates them so to allow an explanation with showing any extra shots that need to explain the storyline; instead the black and white shots focus on what the character is seeing himself.

Sound

There are different types of sound during TV and film:


Diegetic: Natural sounds that are sourced within a scene, such as the people talking, or noise made by movements, doors opening and the radio or television in the background. The main types of TV pregrammes that use these are soaps such as Eastenders and Coronation Street or medical dramas such as Holby City, as they want the scenes to appear like everyday life and to make them more credible.


Non-Diegetic: Sound that is added to a scene to create an atmoshere, such as a soundtrack. A potential problem would be that it loses realism, but it does create a dramatic effect.


Sound Bridge: Sound which carries on over two different scenes which then literally creates a bridge between two events.


Incidental Music: Small, very brief snippets of sound which creates an emotion or feeling. This is normally more cultural, than for a character. 


Asynchronous Sound: A natural sound, which is out of place and without a source on the scene.
Contrapunctual Sound: Sounds which create opposite emotion to the one which is on screen.

Hello!

Hello my name is Becca. At school I'm taking art, media, maths and psychology. I like stuff like music, TV, films, shopping and loads of other stuff. My TV is pretty much constantly on E4 so I have probably seen every single friends and scrubs episode. I also love The Inbetweeners- I like Neil because of all the things he says-, Skins, Misfits, The Cleveland Show (although it's not as good as family guy). I also love Gavin and Stacey and have all the box sets for it, IT Crowd, Greys anatomy, Hustle, Top Gear, Come dine with me, Mock the week (but I watch it more on Dave now because I prefer it with Frankie Boyle) I also watch Jersey Shore religiously with my friend Emma because we find it hilarious, mainly because it's so rubbish and I also probably like a lot more that I can't remember.

This is one of my favourite parts of Gavin and Stacey

I watch loads of different films but I really like comedies like The Hangover, which has to be a favourite, mainly because of Alan. I also like Mean girls, Anchorman, Superbad, Forrest Gump and Stepbrothers. I have a few of these on DVD as well as tropic thunder, the devil wears Prada, an education, the notebook, Marley and me, Hot Fuzz, step up 1&2 and the first three Shrek films. I loved toy story 3 when it because I loved the first two as a kid like most people. I also like to watch lots of films on TV that I've never heard of.

I love music and I listen to it all the time. I've had one of the old iPod Nanos (not sure which one, but it's square) for ages even though it's about full. I'm a huge killers fan and particularly love the hot fuss album because of Mr Brightside and Jenny was a friend of mine although they haven't made a bad album yet. I also love Oasis (gutted they split) and their older album what’s the story (morning glory) which is by far the best one with all the classics on. And I really like the arctic monkeys especially there older stuff like the beneath the boardwalk album. I also like the courteeners, MGMT, especially time to pretend, The Pigeon Detectives, Pixie Lott who I'm going to see in November, red light company, Airborne toxic event, The Kooks, Mumford and Sons, We are Scientists, Temper Trap, Katy Perry, The Script, Scouting for girls, Florence and the Machine, The Verve, Marina and the Diamonds, Ellie Goulding, Kings of Leon (love their new song) , Vampire weekend, started listening to Biffy Clyro recently as well and Maroon 5 (Songs about Jane is brilliant). I also really like lots of unheard of songs that are in the background of films or TV programmes, or run on the credits, like the Gavin and Stacey song by Stephen Fretwell. Also, I'm a big fan of Motown, mainly because of my mum who loves it so I like the occasional bit of Smoky Robinson, Marvin Gaye and the Jackson 5. Plus I like Queen, Bon Jovi and a bit of  Bryan Adams.

 

That's about it I reckon.