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Distribution and Exhibition of Short Films

Short films are aimed at a niche market, rather than a mass market audience, therefore having a slighty different distribution and exhibition process than feature-length films.

Distribution – the process of making a film available for an audience to view by promoting and getting them into cinemas or out on DVD. A distributor can help market and generate sales for your film.

 

Distribution, the third part of the film supply chain, is often referred to as 'the invisible art', a process known only to those within the industry, barely written about and almost unnoticeable to everyone else. Yet arguably, distribution is the most important part of short films, as it's where they're brought to life and connected with an audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘In terms of shorts, a distributor is an individual or organisation who will represent your film at festivals and markets around the world and who will attempt to sell it to television (including terrestrial, cable and satellite), airlines and other companies that show short films.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the best ways to promote a short film include:

  • Submitting to film festivals - BFI Film Festival, London Short Film Festival, Depict! etc.

  • Word-of-Mouth - spoken communication as a means of transmitting information.

  • Submitting to online film sites – many of these websites have short film competitions

  • Create a website – a ‘home base’ so that people can see all the information about your short film e.g. cast/crew and inspiration info.

  • Social Media - create a Facebook page or YouTube Channel and encourage your friends, family, and new fans/followers to share your film. Digital Distribution (the delivery of media content such as audio, video, software and video games via the internet to a user’s computer or other electronic device) is one of the cheapest and fastest ways to promote a film.

 

Exhibition - How the audience can view the film: in cinemas, at home (online and on DVD), through downloads, through television etc. Media attention can also be brought through premieres and awards in film festivals. 

 

Our personal understanding and appreciation of film is shaped by our experiences at the cinema. Yet since the majority of short films don't reach the big screens, film festivals and online streaming websites are key exhibition techniques for amateur filmmakers.

 

Film Festival: an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors.

 

Streaming media: video or audio content sent in compressed form over the Internet and played immediately, rather than being saved to the hard drive. With streaming media, a user does not have to wait to download a file to play it. Because the media is sent in a continuous stream of data it can play as it arrives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The UK Film Council (UKFC) was was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. The company wanted to make films like shorts more accessible by:

  • Improving access - using the Digital Screen Network, which is made of 240 digital screens across the UK, UKFC wanted more non-mainstream films (shorts) to be showed regularly.

  • Raising Awareness - using their prints and advertising fund to help British distributors to promote non-mainstream films

  • Increasing Information - their website was one of the UK's leading websites for film fans looking to watch, buy, download or rent non-mainstream films.

 

However, on 26 July 2010, the government announced that the council would be abolished. More film companies like the UKFC need to be established/maintained in order to help sustain the exhibition of short films.

 

Research:

 

  1. A site that streams free short films: www.filmsshort.com

  2. A site that offers a short film competition: www.depict.org/competition/

  3. A site that provides practical advice on short film-making: www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/filmmaking/guide

  4. A company that specialises in making short films: Short Films (www.short-films.com/)

  5. A company that sells or distributes short films over the web: Short Film Central

  6. The name of a book that gives practical guidance about making short films: Total Filmmaking – Step by step guide into making films

  7. The name and date of a short film showcase/festival in a town or city near you: London Short Film Festival or BFI Film Festival London

  8. The name of a British organization that supports short filmmaking and offers advice to would-be short filmmakers: Arts Council England (offers grants for short films) and The Smalls – Short Films/Filmmakers/Short Movies (offers advice) 

What is involved in the distribution process?

 

Distribution is about releasing and sustaining films in the market place. In the UK, distribution is very much focused on marketing and sustaining a global product in local markets.

In the independent film sector (short film companies), vertical integration does not operate so commonly.

 

Vertical Intergration: when the production company has the ownership of  the means of production, distribution and exhibition of the film by the same company. 

 

Producers tend not to have long-term economic links with distributors, who likewise have no formal connections with exhibitors. Here, as the middle-man, distribution is necessarily a collaborative process, requiring the materials and rights of the producer to promote and show the film in the best way possible. In this sector, distribution can be divided into three stages - licensing, marketing and logistics.

Our YouTube Channel

Arthouse Cinemas - a ​cinema that ​shows ​films that are of high ​quality but may not be mainstream, such as ​foreign ​films or ​ones made by ​small, independent ​film ​companies. For example, short films.

 

These cinemas are another key exhibition element for short films as arthouse cinemas are much more willing to show independent, short films compared to mass cinemas like Odeon or Vue Entertainment. This type of cinema enables audiences to view short films.

Social media (websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking) is the best way for amateur filmmakers to digital distribute their films, particularly shorts.

By Ashley Fontaine

In doing this research on the distribution & exhibition of short films, we were able to understand the difference between the process involving feature-length films.

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