Gulistan Elidemir - Production, Distribution, Marketing and Exhibiton

Production

The three main stages of producing a film are:

1.       Development – scriptwriting, viability and gathering resources.

Film producing begins with constructing a unique idea that will be successful in marketing and gathering publicity. Then a treatment is written for the idea. A treatment is a written sketch outlining the plot, characters, and action for a screenplay but not including certain elements of a finished screenplay, such as camera directions and dialogue. The treatment goes through committees and studio executives before the screenwriting stage.

2.       Pre-production – logistical planning, creative planning, rehearsals and tests and fabrication of art.

At this stage of film making every step of creating the film is carefully planned and designed. The production is storyboarded and visualized with the help of illustrators and concept artists. The producer then hires a crew that varies from the director, costume designer, casting director etc. The size of the crew depends on the budget and nature of the film. Many Hollywood blockbusters employ a cast and crew of hundreds, while a low-budget independent film may be made by a skeleton crew of eight or nine (or fewer).

3.       Production – execution.

At this stage of film making the first few scenes of the film are shot. Locations are established, actors/actresses are prepared for shooting, filming crew set up their equipment and so filming begins.

4.       Post-production – edit picture, sound design, visual effects and titles and mastering.

Once filming necessary scenes are completed film editors begin to edit the production. Editing is over depending on the nature of the film (3D, anime etc). Music, visual effects and titles are combined with the filming footage the presented to the audience.

Distribution – delivery and marketing

This stage of film making is when the completed film is delivered to the target audience. This varies between releasing the movie to theatres and releasing DVD footage of the film. Posters, billboard posters, flyers, trailers or radio advertising are all different ways of promoting and marketing a film. Another method to increase popularity of the film would be to launch the movie with a launch party, press releases, and interviews with the press showings of the film at a press preview, and film festivals. It is also common to create a Web site to accompany the movie. This will help gather the target audience to form a fan base. The internet is also a way to market the film. Viral advertising is popular amongst the internet in modern ages because of the attention it is receiving from a wide range of people. Furthermore, the movie will play at selected theatres and the DVD is typically released a few months later.

Marketing

A popular way of marketing is billboard posters and bus stop posters. This is because it is involved with normal human routine. A way to also draw attention is to involve the target audience themselves which makes the movie feel realistic and part of their lives.

Batman: The Dark Knight trailer

Exhibition

The traditional way of seeing a new-released movie would be to attend theatres. However, modern technologies allow audiences to access films without deliberately going to movie theatres. This includes accessing films on Netflix, Lovefilm via gaming consoles, smart TV’s, smart phones etc. Different and illegal ways are also purchasing pirate copies of films and downloading or streaming films online. This reduces views and the film producers lose large amounts of money.

On the other hand, film producers/editors have developed a new way of shooting and editing movies. In recent years 3D movies have earned back audiences for movie theatres. Cinemas allow audiences to experience a 3-dimensional viewing of specific films that cannot be viewed at home.