Self-Distribution, is when you and your producer decides to distribute the film on your own hand.
I read an article from bbc, that talked about the advantages and disadvantages of self-distribution.
There are 3 steps in the film cycle, these are called:
Production
Distribution
Exhibition
These words are also used in business and are together known as vertical integration. Production, refers to the making and creation of the idea for the film. Finding the right idea, writing the screenplay, casting the actors, filming and editing are all part of the production.
What a film really needs before being able to go into production is investors. Before the investors decide on wether to fund the film or not, they analyse wether the idea will be a success in order for them not to make a big loss.
They do this by asking themselves:
Is the star or main protagonist popular?
Has the director of the movie had previous success?
Distribution is a phase in the film cycle, that is about getting the film launched and how it should be marketed and advertised. Very single film, has it's own distribution plan to be sure that it reaches the right audiences.
The distributor buys the right to a movie to be able to show the movie around the world.
The movie Everest was distributed in 65 different countries. The distributor of Everest was Universal, which you can see on box office mojo. Below, is a table (from box office mojo) where you can see in which countries the film Everest was distributed. As mentioned it was distributed by Universal International Pictures (UIP).
Why did the movie get so much success and get distributed? One main reason is because there were only big actors in the movie such as Jake Gyllenhaal and Keira Knightley. These actors have had big success in previous films. Moreover, there was a high budget of $55m for the production of this film. This means that the producers had good equipment to film and edit the movie. Hence, distributors want to distribute the film.
Exhibition, is about the public screening of the film. The exhibitor sells the experience of the film to the customers e.g. by selling tickets to the cinema.
We decided to do a practice shoot, which was useful to know specifically how to work with the different functions of the camera, what to do in terms of cinematography and how to decide when to do hand-held footage and when to do the shots with the tri-pod.
From this practice shoot, we learned a lot of different things. This shoot is also the reason for why we changed our idea.
On my blog, I did a link list for every single time we changed our idea. The initial idea of group pitch 1, was to have the girl being kidnapped in a dark parking lot under a huge shopping mall. The first scene would be filmed in the shopping mall, which is the bit that you see here.
The shot that we did first of her shoes and then another pair of shoes was used at first to denote that the killer was moving closer and closer. However, we noticed very quickly that our audience got confused with which shoes were which because they were both black and white. The shots were also very short, so for some it turned out to be confusing whether it was another pair of shoes or just the same.
Furthermore we discovered that it was really hard to work with the ambient sound, since there was such a loud diegetic sound within the mall. We used several different camera angles, such as establishing shots, mid-shots, close-ups etc., which ofcourse than also created a different ambient sound in every single shot.
Moreover, there was a problem with continuity, since we would need to film in the mall over some days in order to finish all the scenes. This would mean that there would be different people in every shot and that we would create a problem with continuity.
Also, we thought it would be really hard to create tension in a mall. We would have had to work a lot more with non-diegetic soundtrack and thought that even if it would be good it would still be hard to emphasise on the horror genre. In the coursework we have now, we used a good location and especially at the ed we got to build up quite a lot of tension.
What we did learn through this practice shoot was how to use the SONY camera, in terms of zoom, shallow and deep focus. We got to practice a bit on how to retach and detach it from the tri-pod, which was also very useful so that we wouldn't lose time with that at our real shoot.
Lastly, we learned how we should always come together so that everyone would suggest which camera angles to use. This allowed us to have a great shot variety.
As you can see in this screenplay Olivia is humming One Direction, which can be linked to who our primary audience and secondary audience is and that some of the female audience that is in our target audience will be able to recognise this song.
We decided to make some changes to our idea. We have changed it so that there is no longer any psychologist scene, but that the scene is more in the basement where Olivia is tied up and threatened with a knife.
Below you will be able to see the link for the new Version 2 of our screenplay for "Haunting Olivia".
After having changed our idea, and deciding on all the final
details, we were able to create a call sheet with the individual shots, basic
scene and shot summary, dialogue and props, costume etc. This call sheet was a
useful guideline to when we had to film, and after we filmed we added some more
detail in there about the different shots. So this is the final version of our
call sheet.
Call Sheet
Scene/basic
Shot
Summary
DIALOGUE
CAMERA
(shot type, movement,
framing)
MISE EN SCENE(location, props, costume, make-up etc.
CAST
(note any directions)
Scene 1:
A dark screen, where all you can hear are footsteps and
then a door opening and closing. Adding sound effects to signify that it
opens and closes.
The basement then comes to sight, when a red bulb light
turns on and flickers. We first see a bulletin board, where a lot of
different things are attached such as pictures, locks of hair, calendar,
newspaper articles etc.
The killer then all of a sudden comes into the shot
and focuses on the different things by lighting at them with the flashlight.
The killer will come by a picture of the house, where we will frame in on the
picture of the house and after that cut into the next scene that is an establishing shot of the house from the outside.
Signifying that the killer is now outside of her house.
\
Long shot of the room, where the bulletin board is
attached on the wall
Medium shot when he walks closer to the bulletin board.
We are framing the killer so that the audience can’t see
his face until right at the end.
Point-of-view shot when the killer walks towards the
board.
Pan from the left to the right to show the entire board.
Showing each of the individual props on there by using
extreme close-ups.
Location:
A basement at one Jonathan’s house. His basement will be
covered in plastic and will light in a very dim flickering light.
Props:
Bulletin board
Locks of hair
Small bags to put hair in
Calendar
Map over the house
Pictures of the girl
Picture of her FB profile
Picture of her house
Newspaper articles
Red Pins
Red light bulb
Flashlight
Plastic
Costume:
Black hoodie
Black gloves
Black jeans
Black combat boots
Mask
Make-up:
No make-up at all. Only the killer wearing his mask, but
his face is not yet shown.
Killer is breathing heavily
Scene 2:
The killer is outside of the house.
There are point-of-view shots, taken with hand-held
footage from behind a tree of bush to signify that he is observing from his
perspective.
There is then a light that turns on in one of the rooms. Then
cutting to the girl in the bathroom, signifying that light turning on was
from the bathroom
Once in the bathroom, the girl is brushing her hair She is
then putting on red nail polish on her nails and some of the nail polish
drips onto the table.
There will be a flash forward, created with the use of
a match cut. Blood is dripping on the floor running down her legs and landing on the floor in the basement. Signifying
that blood will be spilt and showing what will happen to her.
It then cuts
back to the bathroom scene, where she is now fixing her hair and tying it up
in a ponytail. The second she ties it tighter, there is another flash forward
to when her hands are tied with rope down in the basement. Her hands are
covered with blood and wounds and are tied really tightly.
\
Establishing shot from the outside of the house.
Point-of-view shot from the killer’s perspective, from
behind a tree.
A master shot of the house. Panning upwards to show how
the light in the bathroom turns on.
Cut to inside of the house, girl coming into the bathroom
and turning on the light.
There is then a shot seeing the girl walk into the
bathroom from the back and standing in front of the mirror.
Creating a close-up, from inside the closet, where the
girl is taking the nail polish out from
Mid-shot of her closing the closet and walking back
towards the table next to the sink to put on the nail polish.
Low angle shot that shows how she is observing her finger
nails.
Close-up on how she puts on some on each nail and then all
of a sudden the nail polish drops onto the table. Creating a deep focus on
the red nail polish that is signifying blood in our flash forward.
Mid-shot from the side, showing how she is brushing her
hair.
Low angle, looking up on the girl to see how she is
putting her hair up.
A close-up from the back, the focus on her hair to see how
she is pulling it tighter and creating the flash forward where rope is tied around
her hands.
Location:
Jonathan’s bathroom.
Costume:
The killer’s costume consisting of the black clothes and
the mask.
The girl’s costume is a pair of blue jeans and a plain
white T-Shirt. We decided to make her clothing very simple, because we are
counter typing and a final girl never dresses that girly, but has a very
simple and nerdy style.
Props:
Fake blood
Red Nail Polish
Rope
Wooden chair
Brush
Hair band
Make-up:
No make-up at all, except fro the nail polish. Signifying
that she is the nerdy clever final girl, who prefers to spend her time on
books rather than make-up and clothes.
Girl sighing when she looks at her hair in the mirror.
Scene 3:
She walks into her bedroom and grabs her bible to go to
church. When holding it up, there is a close-up of it and the shot cross
fades to when she is in church praying with her bible in her hands.
After a while she gets up and leaves the church and say
amen. Outside she gets a false scare, when someone puts a hand on her
shoulder. It is however just the pastor who wants to give her back her bible
because she forgot it in the church. She immediately calls a friend right
after to tell her what just happened. While she does that, the killer comes
up behind her and puts a bag over her head.
It immediately cuts to black, and we create an audio
bridge where the friend is still on the phone, yelling for Casey, the girl.
“Amen”
“Haha it’s just me, I just wanted to hand you your bible,
you left it inside”.
“Thank you”
“Hey Claire! Omg I just had the weirdest feeling that I was
being watched and then the pastor just scared me because I forgot my bible in
church haha”.
“Omg that must have been so weird”.
“I know, I felt really…” (ahhhhh scream)
Audio Bridge
“Casey! Casey are
you there? Casey!”
Extreme-close-up on her bible and cross fading into the
same extreme close-up when she is in church.
Creating an establishing shot of the church to show the
calm environment she is in.
Focusing on her lips and her silent prayers.
Mid-shot when she get’s up to walk out of church.
Going back to the establishing shot of the church as she
leaves it.
Point-of-view shot with hand-held footage from the killer’s
perspective to show that he is observing her wherever she goes.
Over-the-shoulder shot, when the pastor puts his hand on
her shoulder.
An extreme close-up on her face to show how scared she
got, when someone put his hand on her shoulder.
Shot, reverse shot between her and the pastor while they
exchange the small dialogue.
Mid-shot when she takes her phone out and looks relieved.
Dials a number. Extreme close-up on her phone. While she
talks into it, there is a focus pull, putting her into shallow focus and the
killer sneaking up behind her into deep focus.
Bag is pulled over her head and cuts to black.
Location:
The church at Limpertsberg in Luxembourg
Props:
Bible
Pastor
Phone
Bag
Costume:
Killer’s costume with all the black clothes and his mask,
which is finally revealed.
Girl jumping when the pastor puts his hand on her
shoulder.
