Film industry

• What are the big six film studios

  Columbia Pictures, Warner Brothers, Universal, 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Disney
• What does distribution involve?


  Make the film reach the widest possible audience

  Planning how many prints of the film to make (approx. £1000)

  Negotiating timing of film's release
• Three ways to acquire distribution rights

  1. Investing in pre-production
  2. Buying rights after it is made
  3. Being on board all along
• Digital Cinema


  Use of digital technology to distribute or project motion pictures e.g hard drives, internet, optical disks (DVD).
• Digital Distribution


  Distribution of media content such as audio, video, software and video games.
• Criticisms & concerns of digital cinema/ distribution


  Tarantino- may retire as can't project on 35mm prints in most American cinemas as rapid conversion to digital.

  Stephen Spielberg called digital projection 'inferior' compared to film.
• Usual three stages of marketing campaign

  1. General awareness introduced, build excitement
  2. Closer to release, more plot detail, main stars revealed, more detailed tagline
  3. Full on cross media marketing campaign immediately before and during release period. Maximise opening weekend attendance.