May 2008

This week’s focus was on one of the final steps in the production process - Distribution and Exploitation. Taking this first session was Ed Fletcher from UK independent distributor Soda Pictures and he gave an insightful detailed lecture on the process of distribution, the difficulties that sometimes face producers during distribution, how the money works, the relationship between distributors and producers, relationship between distributors and exhibitors, the hidden costs of prints and advertising (P&A), the acquisitions process, pre-sales in UK and internationally, and festival markets. It was a comprehensive talk which lasted longer than the usual three hours as there was so much to cover! For someone like me who is particularly interested in the marketing and distribution of features it was a fascinating and useful session, but it was also really interesting from a producers point of view and reminds you that when developing a project, it is important to think about how the product is going to be placed in the market and consider how it will sell with not only talent and financiers, but also distributors and exhibitors.

Session 2:

This next session was taken by another key player in the distribution chain – the sales agent. Gary Phillips of MovieHouse Entertainment led this session which covered the role of a sales agent from financing to exploitation. Gary talked a bit about the role and about the timings of when a producer should approach a sales agent and how the sales agent’s role differs in different stages of the process. Having receny had sessions on financing and having discussed the importance of the lucrative ‘sales-agent estimates’ fro what they think the film could sell for in different terriorties, it was really interesting to hear it all from the horses mouth as it were. Gary also talked a bit about MovieHouse and how his team works - dividing, like the distributors, into acquisitions and sales. The sales agent seems to me to be just another middle man, but one who can be indispensable in selling the film internationally as their contact base is so much more developed on an international level than any single producer’s. It was really interesting to hear how sales agents too build a slate of films they think fit into their identity and, like producers or distributors, are always on the look out for certain types of film to consolidate their ‘sales agent’ brand. It was also fascinating to hear a sales agent talk about how they have no money after weeks of hearing from producers that sales agents are one of the biggest culprits in taking a slice of the producer’s already miniscule profits as well as charging a rather large amount of commission for their services… One of the most interesting things about this course is proving to be that through the number of guest lecturers we have had, we are really stating to get a glimpse of the real relationships between all collaborative parties in the making of a film and hear everything first hand from all different sides!

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May 2008

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September 2008

Week 8: Distribution and Exploitation

Gabriel Tupinamba