Monday, 29 January 2018

JC BBFC Age Ratings

  

The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) are a trusted guide to media content and work as a independent, self-financing, not-for profit media content regulator, this means they aim to protect the public from content that may be harmful and to empower the public to make informed viewing choices
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BBFC Guidline for an 18 age rated movie
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BBFC Guidlines for a 15 age rated movie
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If a movie is rated an 18 it severely reduces the reach of the film, the movie is much less likely to do well in cinemas as the most common age to go to the cinema is 15-16, this is a huge loss of market potential and will not only reduce the box office but the overall success of the film. However, the majority of slasher films will be an age 18 due to the gore and swearing, also, having an age rating of 18 for a slasher film can appeal too a slasher audience as it can suggest gore and for the movie to be scary. Because of this we are aiming our film for an age 18 certificate, also, because our film is micro-budget we are not looking for a theatrical release so the negative sides of having an 18 certificate are less prominent. Here is one of our previous posts with research on age ratings in slashers

Wednesday, 24 January 2018

PLANNING Re-Pitch

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A small powerpoint going over the recent rough cuts we made as a group and how my blog is, in strengths and weaknesses. We also go over our target audience and why it is so. For example male / female gaze (in powerpoint). We also go over our audience feedback received throughout our early filming stages.

PODCAST 9: Review of first draft

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Here we go over the things we thought as a group could be improved with "Christmas Sleigher Rough Cut 1"

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK Questionnaire


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Tuesday, 23 January 2018

Friday, 19 January 2018

PLANNING Location Scouting


This is the first location we where thinking of for our zombie hybrid film opening, however that idea got changed quickly. It is in a farm area and would have been great for the opening scene.


This is the house we were planning to use for our film opening but we agree that it seemed to be in a location where there is little to no isolation due to it being a triple house with neighbours either side.


The next location we thought of was just a garage and from the outside it looks very isolated and scarry and looks like a run down place perfect for a slasher film. However it is really just a garage and that is evident from the outside so it wouldn't work as a building that we were supposedly going to film in.


Our final choice was this house. It had a garage (even an extended one) and it had the windows and blinds which we used in the room for out film opening. We thought that this house would achieve verisimilitude as it ticks all the conventions of a house in a slasher opening.

This is the garage we decided to use with a few of the props moved around. The garage is not modern or in pristine condition so we thought it suited a killing scene well.

Thursday, 18 January 2018

INDUSTRY RESEARCH How to get a distributor for a micro-budget horror movie



Typically to be able to make a successful movie you will need a distributor amongst many, many other factors. You would want a specialist distributor for your specific genre. For example you wouldn't chose a RomCom specialist as your distributor for a Horror movie as the marketing for those two are completely different. You would also most likely go for a distributor who actually fits within the budget of your movie. For example, you would never in a million years be able to get distribution by Buena Vista if you have a low budget horror movie without any stars.

With that being said, how do you even get a distributor in the first place?

Getting noticed:

There's many different ways to do this, you can take the digital approach and try to cut a deal with Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu, iTunes or even YouTube. Most of these streaming services are not too hard to get on however it is a bit more complicated with Netflix, though not impossible. 

Image result for netflix logo

Netflix:

To be able to even make it onto Netflix you have to makes their
database list. Without your movie in this list it is extremely hard to
get your movie onto Netflix. Once you make it onto the database
list you have to convince them that it is worth uploading your movie to Netflix. To do this you need to get a lot of requests on the
"Queue demand." To be able to do this you must have marketed your film well and created interest towards it. This will also increase the chance of the amount of money Netflix will pay you to stream your movie.

Hulu:

Image result for hulu logoThis is a good service at it's a free service which earns its revenue through ads. This means that in order to be payed for your movie it just has to be good enough for viewers to be able to watch through an ad to continue watching the movie. After that you will earn a % of the revenue earned from Hulu. They will however pay you to stream your movie. Don't worry! There is a company who helps you get your movie distributed on any of these sites which I will be mentioning later
Image result for itunes logo

iTunes:

Usually you need a distributor to get your movie onto iTunes, however if you don't have one, you can use the same company which I will mention at the end of the post for this. Once your movie is on iTunes, you need to advertise it as you would on any streaming site.

Image result for youtube logo new

YouTube:



Simply upload your movie to YouTube and hope for the best. You need to make sure it follows the guidelines set to not get your movie demonetized. Your only income will be the ad revenue on your movie from YouTube. You can however strike a deal with them to give you a fixed amount of money for the amount of views you gain on the movie, however you have to... market it well, like on all the other sites.

Amazon Prime:

Image result for amazon prime logo
By using the Amazon Video Direct service. After your movie has been accepted onto the service you can make a deal to earn revenue base on views, hours streamed, on ads or even the monthly subscriptions.

Now for the company...

Image result for distribber logoDistribber: (link)

For a fee of 150 USD per year this aggregator service can gain you easier access to all the above streaming websites/ movie services. The content remains 100% yours and you don't have to credit the company. Assuming your movie gets picked up by Distribber they will also help cover ingestion, encoding, review and much more. It is an overall good service and will help you a lot to get onto your desired website.


Marketing:

Before even considering the above things you have to make sure your movie is marketable. Is it a movie people will want to watch? Does it appeal to the target audience? Do you get mostly preferred reading? Is it well constructed? Does it fit the genre specifications?  The list goes on and on and unless you tick nearly every single box it is going to be hard to market your movie, which is what distributors are looking for. Forget trying to hire stars as your budget is too low to be able to afford that. This among with many other factors is why it is so hard to actually market your movie. However, film festivals are a great start.


Festivalas/ Screenings in popular places:

These are almost vital if you want a good distributor and will most definitely help you find the one fit to you. A simple screening in London can get you offers from distributors already. Large film festivals like TIFF or Sundance is also possible to get into, even if you are a low budget indie producer, and it has happened before. You just need the movie and network to get in.

Picking the distributor: 

You have now completed the painful journey of getting noticed and you are now receiving offers from distributors, you have to be aware of a few things. Firstly, they can mess you over big time, so be careful you pick a distributor who specializes in distributing films of your genre. Take Tyrannosaur (Paddy Considine, 2011) who got an LGBT distributor for their movie as an example. It's box- office earnings is about half of that of the budget which is a major flop. This British drama was never the success it could've been because the distributor (Strand Releasing) didn't want to take risks with marketing the movie and therefore it didn't earn what it could potentially have made. Another way distributors can take advantage of you is writing a contract based on their needs, earning them the most money and giving them the publicity for the movie. Get a lawyer or solicitor to look on the contract to try and get the best deal! It is a must, even for low budget movies as you can really mess up in this department. 





Wednesday, 17 January 2018

PODCAST 8: Reflecting shoot

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This podcast goes over the general reflection of our shoot from yesterday. We go over some problems and a few of the changes we have made since the last rough cut.

Wednesday, 10 January 2018

INDUSTRY RESEARCH Big 6 Power

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This shows how the big 6 are the most dominant companies. All the top 23 movies released in 2017 were made by a Big 6 company whereas other companies and subsiduries lie further down.

BoxOfficeMojo

Tuesday, 9 January 2018

ROUGH CUT 1

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Our second, completely reshooted cut of our final idea which we will hopefull be progressing on in the following weeks.

Saturday, 6 January 2018

PLANNING Drone crash

Here is footage of the drone that crashed that we were going to use... It happens around the 3 minute mark.

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Wednesday, 3 January 2018

SAMPLE SCENE Santa on TV

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A small section of our opening draft, this is the inspired by saw scene with Santa in the garage