Production, Distribution, Marketing, and Exhibition

Film industry

Production

Stage 1 -

PRE-PRODUCTION:

Is the stage in which all the planning for the project takes place. During pre-production, the production is broken down into individual scenes and all the locations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects are identified. The script, if not already complete, is written at this stage. A detailed schedule is produced and arrangements are made for the necessary elements or people to be available to the film-makers at the appropriate times.

Stage 2 -

PRODUCTION:

Is the stage at which all the filming is carried out. All scenes planned out in pre-production are filmed at the relevant locations. Each scene is filmed as many times as the director deems fit, to ensure the best quality scenes will be used to construct the film. This is where the strength of the pre-production work is put to the test. Great care must be taken to make sure that all the filming is done correctly and all necessary shots are taken, as it is sometimes difficult or impossible to go back and repeat certain events if the filming is incomplete when it comes to the post-production stage.

Stage 3 -

POST-PRODUCTION:

This is the stage in which the film is assembled by the editor. The first job of the film editor is to build a rough cut taken from sequences (or scenes) based on individual "takes" (shots). The purpose of the rough cut is to select and order the best shots. The next step is to create a fine cut by getting all the shots to flow smoothly in a seamless story. Trimming - the process of shortening scenes by a few minutes, seconds, or even frames - is done during this phase. As well as the editing of footage, all music, graphics, menus etc are added in this stage. After the fine cut has been screened and approved by the director and producer, the picture is "locked," meaning no further changes are made.

  

Distribution

This is the stage of film making where the now completed film is delivered to the target audience. This can either be releasing the movie to the theatres, or releasing the films DVD footage. Posters, billboard advertisements, trailers, TV/Radio advertisements are ways to promote a film. . 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.

Marketing

Online marketing:

-          Video advertisements (Trailers)

-          Website

-          Search engine advertisements (increases visibility in search engines)

-          Email advertisements

Offline marketing:

-          Newspaper/magazine advertisements

-          TV advertisements

-          Billboards

-          MacDonald Toys (if the characters form movie)

-          Play station/X-Box games (using characters from movie)

-          Word of mouth advertising.

Different advertisements are for different audiences;

A family film could be advertised in many ways, so as to attract all ages in the family:

-          MacDonald toys for the kids.

-          TV advertisements, which would be shown in between family shows for e.g. X-factor, Britain’s got talent etc.

-          Play station/X-Box games for teenage boys

-          Magazine advertisements for teenage girls

A movie who’s target audience would be mainly teenagers:

-          TV advertisements between common TV shows teenage kids watch (Eastenders, Waterloo road, How I met you mother, Family guy, Friends, Football, etc.)

-          Billboards, Magazine advertisements, but most teenagers usually hear from word of mouth advertisement.

Exhibition

Different ways in which we engage with films today:

-          Cinema

-          Online

-          DVD

-          TV.

These past few years, people have started to watch films online more often than visiting the cinema. 10 years ago, 1.58 billion tickets where sold, whereas last year the amount of tickets sold dropped down by 20% to a 1.22 billion.

In my opinion, the reason for this is because cinema tickets cost money, whereas you can easily find an online site to watch a movie for free. The only times you’d usually find people visiting the cinema, is if they personally think that the movie is worth the money. Same thing goes for buying the DVD to a movie, although the amount of people buying them has dropped, there’s still some who say they’d spend the money on the DVD if they believe it’s worth it.