Post 21 - short film distribution

Basically due to the size of the film and the budget of our film, we are classed as an independent film as we have no links to larger companies. We have looked into what it takes to distribute a short film so that we can work out how to distribute our film to a wide audience.

To start off with, we would require a person who would act as a distributor. This would be a person or an organisation who would be willing to represent our short film in various circumstances. Such as attend festivals dedicated to short films. This distributor would then be required to try and sell the short film to any television company or other organisation that show short films.

A filmmaker’s general reason for creating films would be because they have something to say or a vision to share with the world, thus having as wide an audience as possible would be ideal. The filmmaker’s goal for what they would like their film to achieve plays a key part in a potential distributor’s decision on investing in their project. The larger a film’s budget, the more effort should be put in to ensure the widest audience possible can reach it

In terms of features, a distributor is generally an organisation who handles the theatrical release of a film in a particular country as well as the marketing and circulation of films for home viewing (DVD, Video-On-Demand, Download, Television etc). Often feature films have different distributors representing them in different territories and different distributors handling the home-viewing circulation. Independent film distribution in the UK is generally managed by indie distributors such as Metrodome, Optimum Releasing and Momentum.

Websites such as Facebook and Twitter are both fantastic ways of getting films out to a large scale audience. They both incorporate what is called 'the word of mouth', meaning what others say can influence your views and opinions, and this not only applies to online but it can also apply in general speaking. It is more influential online however as words and opinions of people can be expressed and in the sense of Twitter and Facebook, 'tweeted' or 'posted', in a matter of seconds as whatever is spoken can go viral to a worldwide span of people. So we man take the initiative to post our film onto Facebook and Twitter as we look to spread the word of our film as quickly as possible. This of course as well giving us the chance for future audience feedback and also for others who watch it to comment and give opinions on the film.