Distribution Plan

My co-director and I decided to undergo a "Straight to Video" release method for our film's distribution plan. This method makes the film accessible on home formats such as DVD and Blu-Ray. This technique has been especially successful for independent movie makers which is the category that my co-director and I fall under. This way, our movie would skip release in theaters to better appeal to our target audience since younger people are more likely to watch movies at home. For the digital option, my co-director and I would release our movie onto other popular digital streaming sites, such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video. These would also be accessible options that would greatly accommodate our target audience.

Distribution Research - Happy Death Day

Happy Death Day is another film that shares a similar genre and target audience with our own film. It, again, followed the Standard Release distribution plan as it was initially released in theaters on October 17, 2017 and then on TV, digital, DVD, and online streaming afterwards from Janurary 2 to January 16, 2018.

Our film is going to use a different distribution model, however, we do plan on releasing our film onto streaming services similar to how Happy Death Day did. Thereby, Happy Death Day went from the theaters to online streaming while our film would go directly to online streaming.

Distribution Research - Truth or Dare

Truth or Dare is a film that shares both similar genres and target audeinces with our own film. It followed the Standard Release distribution plan as it was initially released in theaters on April 27, 2018 and then on TV, digital, DVD, and online streaming afterwards.

Our film is going to use a different distribution model, however, we do plan on releasing our film onto streaming services similar to how Truth or Dare did. Thereby, Truth or Dare went from the theaters to online streaming while our film would go directly to online streaming.

Distribution Model Research

For the distribution plans for film, there are three commonly used pathways apart from the standard/traditional release. They are the simultaneous release, straight-to-video release, and internet release.

Standard release

The standard release routine for a movie is regulated by a business model called "release windows". It was first conceived as a strategy to keep different movies from competing with each other, allowing them to take advantage of different markets at different times. In this process, a movie is first released through movie theaters in its theater window, then, after about 16 weeks, it’s released to VHS and VOD services in its video window. After an additional number of months, it is usually released to Pay-per-View TV, and approximately two years after its theatrical release date, it is made available for free-to-air TV.

Simultaneous release

A simultaneous release takes place when a movie is made available on multiple media outlets at exactly or around the same time. Simultaneous releases offer advantages to both consumers, who can choose the outlet that most suits their needs, and production studios that only have to run one marketing campaign for all releases. However, such distribution efforts are often regarded as experimental and thus don’t receive substantial investment or promotion. Cinema owners can be affected seriously in case they have to share their opportunity window, especially at the beginning of the movie lifecycle, since about 95% of all box office tickets for a film are sold within the first six weeks after initial distribution. 

Straight-to-video release

A straight to video (DVD or Blu-ray) release occurs when a movie is released on home video formats without being released in theaters first, thereby not taking into consideration the "theatrical window". As a result of strong DVD sales, straight-to-video releases also achieved higher success and have become a profitable market lately, especially for independent moviemakers and companies. 

In regard to the distribution plan that my co-director would plan on using, we wanted to keep in mind the cost, convenience, and effectiveness of going through with one. Therefore, we chose the straight-to-video release method due to our target audience being that of the younger generation. This kind of age group typically has a busier schedule and wouldn’t have enough time to go out and see it in theaters. So, by doing this distribution plan, the target audience would be able watch it on their own time.

Revisions - Changing of the Mother's Character

Through many attempts at finding a new actress to be play the mother, whether it be a young person with make-up or an actual adult woman, my co-director and I found the acting of a mother unappealing. Afterwards, after some discussion, we decided to abandon the idea of the mother. This didn't mean that the entirety of the character was going to be absent from the film, but just that the relation between the daughter and the "mother" would  different. Instead, the audience would only be able to infer that the two of them have some sort of relationship, but the true backstory of it would only be revealed in the full-length film.

Revisions - Addition of the Final Scene (and More)

After the screening of our film to our peers and reviewing the comments and critiques they presented us, my co-director and I discussed ways we could improve the actual story of the film (due to some viewers having a difficult time understanding what was happening during it).The solution we came up with was to add a scene of the couple in the car where the daughter kills the boyfriend, and thereby, making her intentions with the knife very clear.

Marketing Plan

Every film has many advantageous ways to advertise itself due to it being a motion picture. Among these many different methods, there are three that are more prevalent than the others; them being TV commercials, print ads, and internet ads.

Starting off with the TV commercials, or more specifically, movie trailers can be broadcast in between an audience's desired program so that they can be guaranteed to view it and show some of the most pivotal or exciting scenes to entice the audience to watch it in upon its release. Different spaces of air time cost different amounts based on the size of their audience, though. But this is exactly what a soon-to-be-successful movie needs: exposure. Therefore, if the producers of the film are able to pay larger sums of money to obtain good air time, then those costs will be paid back with more due to the increase of people go to watch it in theaters versus not making a large profit from not buying good air time.

The print ads for a film would primarily be movie posters that can be put virtually anywhere. Most of the time, they are put either in or nearby movie theaters so that the theater can entice passerby to watch them inside. But in order to increase exposure of the film, spreading the movie posters would be required. Now, many places would allow the posters to be hung up for free, but in some cases the producers would have to supply a small sum of money to purchase the "ad space" at that location. All in all, putting up the posters wouldn't cost the producers too much money, but actually making them could. The size of them can vary but the important part about them is that they all show the title of the film, the cast and most important contributors, along with characters and scenes from the film as the main image of the poster. This would help audiences understand what kind of movie it is and whether or not they would like to see a movie of that kind of genre.

The internet a would be short clips put together that show the movie poster at the end. These would go on social media sites like posts on Instagram or ads/public stories on Snapchat as well as many others. This is really meant to just show audiences that this film is here and that if the very short compilation of clips interests them, they can view the trailer and decide if they would like to watch it when it's released.

Movie Poster Examples

Instagram Account Example Images