Distribution Techniques

Guess who did more research?
This time I focused on methods I could use to distribute the film opening, and here is what I came up with:

There are several methods of distribution, but they vary by who is producing and directing the film. Clearly, a film directed by Tarantino, Spielberg, or Scorsese will end up in theaters and possibly in some of the biggest film festivals. However, it's important to consider that this is my first film opening, and I don't have the budget to distribute this opening to popular streaming services. So, I need to think realistically, which I made sure to do while conducting my research.

The first suggestion I found was showing the opening at a local film festival. At first, I thought this wouldn't be possible since I didn't think the area I live in had many film festivals, but after searching for local film festivals I was shocked by the results. There are very successful film festivals, especially in the Miami area where short films are constantly released and bought. By playing a viewing of my film opening to an audience who has a clear interest in film, the opening would rapidly gain attention. I believe this would be my main distribution technique because it's seems to have a lot of potential. Getting the opening to be shown at a local festival would be much simpler than trying to get it to a huge film festival like Sundance, and I would still be reaching a large audience.

Miami Film Festival

The second method would be by reaching out to streaming services, or VOD platforms. Most often, to distribute a film the filmmaker will hire a third party aggregator who already have experience in film distribution. Since they specialize in this, it's much easier for them to utilize their connections to get your film on a popular platform like Netflix. However, these third party aggregators charge quite a fee, and at times they may even ask for partial ownership of the film. In order to avoid this, it's better to complete the process on your own. One could start by selecting the VOD platforms this wish to release the film opening on. Then by keeping these in mind, find ways to contact them on get your film to them. For certain, these platforms are constantly looking for new material to showcase, therefore by reaching out to them, your are giving them the opportunity to have what they need.

VOD Platforms

Overall, these are two achievable techniques that can be used to distribute my film opening.