Funding, production, and distribution

 Today in media studies we were tasked to study the funding, production and distributions of films. This is important because of our portfolio project. While we may not be making an actual film, we are still following the film progression from start to finish. We are not using a budget for our film and finding publishing companies, distribution companies, and so on however, it is important to know the steps.

Production

The production of a film is the most important. This IS the making of the film from editing, hiring a cast, acting, using equipment etc. This is all (typically) done through a production company.

Larger companies

As it stands, there are 6 major companies that control and own  90% of media. These companies are very popular names and you've more than likely heard of them: Paramount pictures, Universal, 20th-century fox, Warner Bros. Pictures, Walt Disney, Columbia pictures. These simple companies are actually in control of 90% of the media.

Smaller companies/Indie

Indie companies are companies that work outside of the larger companies or the "Big 6" these often small companies are often known as independents. Not all Indie companies are unknown however, there are some names becoming rather large such as Summit Entertainment, Film 4 productions, and Icon productions.

Indie vs Large companies

When filmmakers choose their producing studio (Even if it wasn't their first option) it affects their film in multiple ways. When you choose a smaller company, you lose out on a lot of extra funding so it is hard to pay for large amounts of advertisement, this alone may lower your potential viewership as just not enough people know about the film. Furthermore, these indie companies often don't have much of a name for themselves so people may look at your film and not take it as seriously as they would take a film by Universal studies for example.

In

What this means for films

Commonly known, movies are expensive. So it is very unlikely for a small company or even solo-artists to publish their own movie. More often than not, these people have to pitch their idea to one of these studios if they wanna go big. The large size of these 6 companies makes it very hard for filmmakers to get them on board with their idea as they always have a constant flow of pitches coming toward them so more often than not filmmakers have to settle with indie companies to produce their film through. 

What production company I would choose

While our portfolio project doesn't have a budget requiring us to pitch our idea to a major company, it is still important to choose the right company. For me personally, I would choose Warner Bros studio. The reason why I would choose this studio is that our film is Sci-Fi. This is important because not only does Warner Bro's have a lot of money and new technology to bring these films to life, they are known for very popular Sci-Fi films: The MEG, the Terminator franchise, the King Kong movies, the Godzilla movies, and many more. I feel like if we had them on our side we can make our film top tier. Furthermore, Warner Bro's is an extremely large company. This means that this alone can cause a lot of attention to our film that we would not get from a smaller indie company, however, it is important to note that the size of the company would also make it extremely hard for us to pitch our idea to them and actually get it passed, though it would be worth it.

Funding

How to get your movie funded

The funding process is done at the beginning of the film, this is often granted by investors, grants and a plethora of other sources that provide the one making the movie with a large sum of money to continue production. The funding side is often secured by the producers as well as sales agents.

When pitching your idea to these investors get your movie funded it is important to give them some sort of security, there is no guarantee that your movie is gonna sell well or do well at the box office so it can be hard for investors to just give up money for it to be financed. Investors are always gonna ask questions like "Has this director had previous success" "Does it have easy selling points" "Is this a new idea" "Has this idea been successful before" considering questions like these are important because when we talk about finances we have to strictly look at the business side of it and ensure to get make everyone's money back and then some.

How funding helps our group

For our portfolio project, there is no budget so likewise there is no funding. However, it is important to research other films similar to ours and how they got their funding.

Godzilla Vs. Kong: This movie was budgeted at a whopping 160 million. A large number like this makes our head spinning wrapping around the question of where could they have possibly gotten that money from. Well, this is all thanks to funding where I've previously written about with their production company that financed the film being Legendary Pictures. 

When we look at funding typically, the money comes from a large production company if they think the idea is good enough to make the company profit (money).

Distribution 

Distribution is very important for the films as everything else is. The distribution is responsible for marketing the film, this company is often the same as the production company. This is why we see can commonly see the production companies also handling the marketing and advertising. This step is what gets the movie from the studio to the theaters however, the actual viewing of the audience in theaters and other technologies is done by something else known as exhibition.

What distribution company I would choose

I would choose a popular distribution company that has some work with Sci-Fi films in particular. These would include companies such as Universal Pictures, Warner Bros, and Walt Disney Pictures.

While these companies do not generally focus on Sci-Fi they have some very popular films in the Sci-Fi genre. Furthermore, I could use their popularity to my advantage getting a lot of deals and agreements where I could have my film playing on a plethora of systems. Overall though, I would choose Warner Bro's Pictures. This is because this company is also my ideal production company due to its popularity and work with the most well-known sci-fi films.

Exhibition

As stated before, exhibition is part of the filmmaking process where you choose how your film is gonna be seen and WHERE it's gonna be seen. This process starts off as distribution where you get done with the legal side and the agreements that follow that. Your film can be exhibited in many wars, whether you want it to be shown in the theaters or maybe you want it out of the theaters on things such as DVD 

It is important to choose your mode of exhibition carefully as this is the experience of your film and the environment of it that it's gonna be viewed in.

How I would go about exhibition

Personally, I would go with the new era of exhibition. Essentially, I choose modes of exhibition such as Television, the internet, streaming services, etc. I would go with things such as nontheatrical exhibition where streaming services would stream my movies (companies like Netflix). I would do this because I feel this is the best way to get your movie out in 2022 as a big part of the world is on the internet. I feel like theatrical modes like the theaters itself would not do well as personally, I don't see any of my peers or even those older than me go to the movies often anymore especially because the grasp that covid has on our social lives currently.

Sources:

Cohen, Jeff B. The Money of Movies, 5 Nov. 2019.

“Exhibition.” Film Reference, http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Exhibition.html.

“Film Distributor.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Aug. 2021, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_distributor.

“List of Film Distributors: Film Distribution Companies: Exhibitor List.” Screendollars, 17 Jan. 2022, https://www.screendollars.com/directory/distributors/.

robertclackmedia Follow. “Production,Distribution,Exhibition an Intro Final for Media.” SlideShare, https://www.slideshare.net/robertclackmedia/productiondistributionexhibition-an-intro-final-for-media.