Funding, Production, Distribution, & Exhibition

Hi it's Xena!

In class we researching funding, production, distribution, and exhibition for the genre of our portfolio.

FUNDING 

For a horror movie the funding can come from different things. If you are an indie production company, you would have to find a way to fund the film yourself. If you're a "mini - major" then the major that purchased your company will give you the funding needed for the film. Finally, if you're a major you don't have to worry about funding because you can fund it yourself with no problem.

To make a horror movie it costs an average of $13 million. This goes to crews, casts, trailers, advertisement, DCPs, and VPFs.

PRODUCTION 

The most common production companies for horror movies include, Blumhouse Productions, Dark Castle Entertainment, Ghost House Pictures, Hammer Film Productions, Helltimate Studio, Monkeypaw Productions, Palace Video (UK), Platinum Dunes, and Twisted Pictures. 

DISTRIBUTION

There are different ways for a film to be distributed: DVDs, streaming websites, and movie theaters, just to name a few. There is also leasing and profit-sharing. In a lease, the distributor agrees to pay a fixed amount for distribution rights to the film. In profit - sharing distributors receive a percentage of the revenue earned from the film by distributing the revenue; this percentage is typically 10% - 50% range.

EXHIBITION 

Exhibition is when the public sees a film that might involve the ownership, management, and running of movie theaters. But today the public can see a new movie anywhere: Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, Hulu, and Netflix. Though there are many more, you can even go on a website and watch the movie for free instead of having to pay $30 or less. 

RESOURCES

• https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Horror_Movie_Studios

• https://topsheet.io/blog/complete-guide-to-film-distribution

• https://wheresthejump.com/horror-movie-budgets-are-getting-smaller/

• https://www.igi-global.com/dictionary/film-exhibition/67044#:~:text=1.,and%20running%20of%20movie%20theaters.

Case Study

 Hi it's Xena,

    In class this week we are doing a case study for any movie of our choice. For my case study I chose to do the movie Jeepers Creepers (2001). 

For this case study I will be doing research on the:

• History/Target Audience 

• Production 

• Distribution 

• Marketing 

• Cross - media convergence and synergy 

HISTORY/ TARGET AUDIENCE 

History - Jeepers Creepers (2001) was directed and written by Victor Silva. There is a real life inspiration for the antagonist of Jeepers Creepers. This killer goes by the name Dennis DePue. To put it shortly he shot his wife, Marilynn DePue and hid her body behind an abandoned school. If you want to know more about his case I the link will be with the other resource links. 
Target Audience - Teenagers and adults would be the best target for this film. Mostly because of the sudden jump scares and the building of suspense.

PRODUCTION

Jeepers Creepers was produced by 5 different production companies: United Artists, American Zoetrope, Cinerenta - Cinebeta, Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG, and VCL Communications.

• United Artists who was bought by Metro - Goldwyn - Mayer Film Corporation, who wIas also bought by Amazon.com Inc.

• American Zoetrope is an indie/independent production company.

• Cinerenta-Cinebeta production company is most likely no longer in business. The only film they produced was Jeepers Creepers but after that there were no other movies produced by this company.

•  Cinerenta Medienbeteiligungs KG production company is most likely no longer in business. The most recent film that this company produced was "Pride" from 2007.

• VCL Communications closed a private placement with  Universal Domains Incorporated in March 2002.

DISTRIBUTION

For Jeepers Creepers there were 52 different distributors all from around the world: Germany, France, Belgium, Italy, Argentina, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, the United Kingdom, India, the United States, Finland, Australia, Taiwan, Romania, Thailand, Hong Kong, Middle East, Greece, Brazil. Since these are different countries the way they distributed Jeepers Keepers is similar to us in the US, but in different years.

MARKETING

Film marketing is a technique one would use to promote their film. It mostly involves determining how much one will spend on the film: DCPs, VPFs, trailers, advertising, and advertisements. The budget for Jeepers Creepers (2001) was about $10,000,000.

CROSS - MEDIA CONVERGENCE & SYNERGY 

Cross - media convergence - multiple products come together to form one product with the benefit of all of them.
Synergy - the process by which 2+ media products are interlinked for commercial or artistic purposes.

RESOURCES 

• https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2002/03/27/285925/1314/en/Universal-Domains-Inc-VCL-Communications-Corp-Closes-Private-Placement.html

• https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?companies=co0018947

• https://unsolvedmysteries.fandom.com/wiki/Dennis_DePue

• https://www.screengeek.net/2020/11/11/jeepers-creepers-real-life-killer-inspiration/#:~:text=There%20is%20indeed%20a%20real,behind%20an%20abandoned%20school%20house.

• https://nofilmschool.com/2013/09/can-learn-coppolas-indie-studio-american-zoetrope

• https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/26/amazon-agrees-to-buy-iconic-mgm-film-studio-for-8-45bn#:~:text=Amazon.com%20Inc.,insatiable%20demand%20for%20streaming%20content.

• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0263488/companycredits?ref_=tt_dt_co#distributors

• https://www.nfi.edu/film-marketing/#:~:text=Film%20marketing%20is%20a%20technique,to%20do%20in%20your%20movie.

• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0263488/?ref_=adv_li_tt

• https://nushysmediastudies.wordpress.com/category/section-b/2-the-importance-of-cross-media-convergence-synergy-in-production-distribution-marketing/

Script writing

 Hey it's Xena!

On our portfolio project we're working on script writing. We aren't done with the script but we have started it which I'm really happy about.

We did the script on studio binder which made it really easy. Script writing is pretty self-explanatory, you're just writing the script before you film or storyboard.

Before I started writing I decided to watch a video on formatting a script on studio binder. Watching the video was more of a fresher because last semester we had learned about script writing.

Here is the video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2uZ7IabVOM

This is what our script looks like:

For the first part of the script we decided to do a flash back, which we are still figuring out how to format.

• Mounting Suspense

• Jump Scares

• Gore  

I compared my script to "A Quiet Place" : https://imsdb.com/scripts/A-Quiet-Place.html
We aren't finished with the script but it will most likely include jump scares and mounting of suspense.
Resources:
https://imsdb.com/
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-horror-screenplay-effective-writing-tips-to-make-your-horror-movie-terrify-audiences

Some common features horror movies include are: