Evaluation Question 2

The role of the film distributor is a company or individual responsible for releasing films for the general public either theatrically (Theatre or Cinema) or for home viewing (DVD, Download, Television etc). A distributor may do this directly (if the distributor owns the theatres or distributing networks) or through theatrical exhibitors. The distributor has a very difficult job which includes many stages in the film process, one of which is the exhibition and film promotion. The distributor must ensure that enough film prints are struck to all contracted exhibitors on the opening day, ensure their actual physical delivery to the theatre by the opening day, monitor exhibitions to make sure that the films being shown in a particular cinema with minimum number of seats and show times and finally ensure the that the prints return to the distributors office or storage on a contract based return date.

In practical terms this includes the physical production of film prints and the shipping around the world. This process is slowly being replaced by a more advanced version called digital distribution.

The distributor is also responsible for the creation of film posters, newspapers and magazine advertisements, television commercials, trailers and other types of ads. Furthermore, the distributor is responsible for ensuring a full line of film advertising material is available on each film which will help attract the largest possible audience.

We decided that the certificate classification would be a 15. We chose this because we didn't want our film to appeal to hardcore horror audiences, this film is a psychological horror and should appeal to curious teenagers aged 15-18. In order to display our classification we needed a trailer and poster, and both had to share a unique relationship. Darkness was key to our success for a horror film, and both trailer and poster are gloomy and depressing, sharing that same insanity feeling that our main character from Voices feels. In a way it's almost a first person perspective of the character, showing us what he can see. Text was kept simple as a horror poster should possess nothing more then a creepy title to keep the audience intrigued. The only value of getting on the cover of our magazine and poster to me, was that I was helping to create a gloomy, scary monster type image that would attract audience who looked at it. The promotion of our trailer has been really successful and I've felt proud of myself as I am an avid horror fan adn fit into the target audience group.

The magazine cover shows me in a costume that relates to our trailer and poster. The main character of our film is haunted by an alternative personality who takes the form of doctor with a blood stained mask.

To construct my poster I had to take part in a photo shoot, which involved me putting on the costume of the killer from our teaser. After several successful shots I picked out the one that had a dramatic impact, and using Photo shop I assembled the photo in a poster. After using effects such as brightness and shading, as well as distorting the font to appear in psychedelic effect, my poster was ready.

However for my film magazine was slightly different. For once, it was me that was doing the photo shoot and Sam (one of our actors) to be the subject matter. After a few photographs were taken I chose the one that provided a emotional response instead of a dramatic impact. I assembled my magazine cover in the same way as I did with the poster, in photo shop. I used graphic shading effects to hide part of Sam's face in a way that would make it seem more dark and mysterious. For inspiration, I used an Empire magazine that used a similar method of black to hide Batman's face and cowl, all the while it makes it look threatening or interesting.