A&I's Distribution

Activity #1:
1.) Leasing and profit-sharing
2.)Leasing: the distributor agrees to pay a fixed amount for the rights to distribute the film.
    Profit-sharing: the distributor gets a percentage (typically anywhere from 10 to 50 percent) of the net profits made from the movie.
3.) To be able to distribute the movie on VHS, DVD, Cable, and network TV, and sometimes on CDs, posters, games, toys, and sometimes merchandise.
4.) A film's opening is the official debut of a movie. Factors taken into consideration are Studio, Target Audience, Star power, Buzz, and Season.
5.) If a movie has legs it is popular and will stay popular for long. Factors that usually affect this are if it is backed by a major studio backing, big stars, and a good story.  
6.) at the time this article was released there were 37000 screens in the USA and most of these are focused in urban areas.
7.) The Role a buyer plays is to represent theatres in negotiating with the distribution companies. and some terms they usually negotiate a movie the theatres are not interested in to get a movie that will be more popular and they want. 
8.) The 2 ways a theatre might release a movie are, Bidding: requires that the theater agree to pay a fixed amount for the right to show the movie. For example, a theater might bid $100,000 for a four-week engagement of a new movie. During that time, it could make $125,000 for a profit of $25,000. Or it might take in only $75,000, which means the theater has a loss of $25,000. And Percentage: This is simply when they get a percentage of the Box Office (ticket sales).
9.) A loss leader is meant to get people into the theater. The theater makes its money selling refreshments to the movie audience. That's why concessions are so expensive -- without the profits generated by things like popcorn and soda, most theaters could not afford to stay in business.
At the end of the negotiated engagement, the theater pays the distributor its share of the box office earnings and returns the print. If a movie is very popular and can continue to draw a steady crowd, the theater may renegotiate to extend the lease agreement. Any time you see the phrase "Held over," you know that the theater has extended the movie lease.

Activity #2:
Case studies:

Case study #1 (ATL): (Blockbuster Hollywood film)
Distributed by: Warner Bros. Through Cinemas, DVD, Video, and it was aired on TV in the USA, Mexico, Canada, and South America. It was released on March 31st, 2006, in the cinema's, and on July 18th, 2006, on DVD and Home Video. It had a Box office and Home video release.

Case study #2 (Hunt for the wilder people): (NZ Film)
Distributed by: Piki Films, and Madman entertainment In Cinemas, DVD, Home Video, And Blu ray, And aired on New Zealand TV. It was premiered at the Sundance festival on the 22nd of January 2016 and was later released in cinemas on the 31st of March 2016. It was later released on DVD and Blu-Ray in NZ, America, etc... on the 25th of October 2016 by sony pictures home entertainment. They had a premiere at the sundance film festival and it was also released in the Box Office and home Video, Blu-Ray, and DVD.

Case study #3 (Tokyo story): (Arthouse film)
This film was distributed by a production company in Japan called shochiku where it was distributed through DVD, Blu-rat, Home video, and Netflix as well as cinemas in London England as well as Asia. It was released in cinemas in Asia and some cinemas in London England on the 3rd of November 1953. It does not tell us when it was released on DVD, Blu-Ray, or Netflix. It was released in the Box Office in Asia and London and on Home Video.

Case study #4 (The Interview): (Failed Movie) 
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing In Cinemas and on Blu-Ray, Disk, DVD, and Netflix. It was released in cinemas in Los Angeles on the 11th of December 2014 and was released in cinemas to the rest of the world on the 24th of December 2014 and then was released on home video on the 17th of February 2015. It was released in the Box office and Home Video through a few different places, e.g. Netflix as well as Blu-Ray and DVD.

Breaking bad Representation essay:

This scene from the US TV series "Breaking bad", begins with an establishing shot that pans from the left to the right of the screen panning across the shelves of paint and onto the main character. This gives us an idea of where the scene is set and that it is in a hardware store. We don't have an idea why he has this paint, but at this point, there is nothing too suspicious about what he is doing and why he would need the paint, but when you look at him you kind of get a feeling that he is in on some dodgy business.

As the scene carries on the man takes 2 cans of the paint and he starts to walk along the isles. As he continues to walk it shows a low angle shot down by his hands, showing the paint and tracking up towards his face, and as it tracks you can see that he has a wedding ring on his finger implying that he has a wife, or it is even possible that he is not married but is only wearing the ring for the simple fact to make himself fit in because he looks like he is not a very safe looking man, probably involved in some sketchy things and people. Even though most people probably have this preconceived idea that he is probably dangerous and into trouble, there is no actual evidence about him being sketchy besides his looks. We then see in the next part of the scene he is just walking normally until he notices the shopping cart full of items usually and most often used for illegal purposes. This next shot is a high angle extreme close up of his face, where we see his full face and the expression on it, suggesting that he knows what those are used for, it then shows an extreme close of the items in the shopping cart, which shows us that there are items like acetone and gasoline, which are often involved with very illegal activities. He then spots the young man who is putting everything in the trolley and he tells him some advice about the match strips to use and how he should "piece mail" everything because it draws less attention. At this point, we begin to realize that not only is this young man in serious illegal activities but so is this old man and this shows the old man probably has quite a bit of experience in these areas and has been doing it for a long time now. We also see a big contrast of age and experience as well. For instance, the older man knows a lot more and knows how to do it without getting caught, as well as looking tough but poised, whereas we realize that this kid has probably not got much experience and probably doesn't know what he is doing which we see later that he doesn't. This is also shown through the fact he is young and doesn't know what he is really doing, they have portrayed him as a flustered and pretty nervous guy who just kind of follows orders and works for someone else. Another thing we can take from this scene is that these guys are most likely from middle-class areas, this is made obvious by the fact they do not dress up all fancy but they dress normally, as well as there is not any security for people who steal which there would be security in a lower-class area. Another way you can tell these guys are from a middle-class area is that the younger guy looks as to be on drugs which would be less common in a higher economic area, we can tell this by the fact that his eyes are quite glazed over and he looks quite untidy and unkept giving it away and selling it even more. Another contrast in this TV series clip/scene is that you can hear upbeat music and announcements in the background, this contrasts the fact that the man has something off about him and he is quite dodgy, which contrasts between the good and the bad in a way. After the older man finishes talking, and the younger guy runs away almost in shock, and leaves all his stuff behind. This mixed with the fact he got the wrong matches indicates that he is not very good at what he does, and has not done it for long.

After the younger guy leaves, the older guy kind of looks around in almost a look of amazement about why that guy got so scared of what he had just said because he didn't say it scarily or make it seem like he is bad, all he did was give him some advice about the matches and not to buy everything from one store so that it doesn't attract so much attention. This also gives us the idea that this older more experienced man has done this a number of times and knows the best ways to get things, and the best products to use. As he starts to walk away he almost kind of snickers to himself, because he may find it funny and ironic that he is in this dodgy business, yet he is unable to take the pressure of talking to a more experienced person trying to give him advice.

As the scene goes on, the man goes to the counter so he can pay for the paint and it shows a close up of his face with the repetition of the beeping of the checkout scanner and you can see how he notices something outside but you can't tell what it is giving a sense of mystery, like"what is it?" and what is he looking at? as it switches shot, you can tell that they have focused on him slamming the paint on the table for a reason and that's to show that he is angry, but you can't tell what he is angry at because they have blurred out the background to keep that suspense, so you don't know what it is until you see it. You then see him walk behind the paints and out the door and this is when a more suspenseful and harder music kicks in as he walks out the door on the far right making it look like he is re-entering the shot and is walking towards something. He is doing it in a very staunch and angry looking way like he is about to confront someone. You then get a quick glimpse of 2 men talking and you see that one of them is the younger guy that you saw in the hardware store, signaling that these 2 guys talking behind the van are in with each other. It then cuts quickly back to a close up of the older man's face and you can tell he is angry and is going to go confront them. You now start to get the feeling that these guys are what he saw outside and got angry about. You then see him walk over to them and confront the guy, and the younger guy says "that's him, he's the one" this tells us that this guy could possibly be opposed to the other guy and that is why the younger guy possibly ran away so that he could tell his 'Boss' about the guy. We then see the bald guy walk up to the older guy and they steer at each other for a while almost having a standoff seeing who will back down first. This is when we see the older guy say "stay out of my territory", and he says this almost like he owns the area, this gives us an idea that these guys are possibly involved in gang activity and that this is the older guy's territory. We then see the bald guy start to back down and the younger guy rushes into the van, possibly implying that this older guy has quite a name and reputation of being quite hard and dangerous even though since there was 2 of them they could have possibly even taken him, but they may not have been sure and that might be why the other bald guy hesitated and ended up backing down just in case.

'When they see us' representation essay:

This short clip of episode 2, in season 1 of the Netflix series 'when they see us' it almost recreates an image, and memory, of what has happened so far in episode 1. This paints a perfect picture of the racial inequality between whites and people of Hispanic and African backgrounds, showing the social indifference and height of racism in the 1900s. We briefly get glimpses of how they interrogated and tortured these young kids into telling the investigators what they wanted to hear while cutting between shots of kids and parents crying faces in the courtroom.

In the first scene, we see an establishing low angle shot of one of the boys getting ready and looking all nice for his trial, with his mum holding on to him behind him. This not only sets up the whole scene for the court trial but it also gives us a sense of confidence from the young man with the fact he is wearing the suit and showing us he is taking it seriously and he has a feeling of confidence although he knows he is probably going to be "guilted as charged" he still shows confidence and pride in himself, because in his mind he is not. Also, the fact it is a low angle shot looking up at him further provides a sense he is holding himself high even in these tough times. Another point in this first shot is that the mother is holding onto his back and hugging him, almost making it look like she was hanging off him. This makes us think and feel like he is holding his mother up in this hard time, and he is possibly only trying to look strong for his mother so that she doesn't have to be strong herself. Just after this, it does an over the shoulder shot into the mirror so you can see his back and his face. This shows us his face and how he looks down, this accompanied with the darkroom, I believe this is showing us that he is having a realization of what he is about to get into, and as this happens his mum walks out of the room, which could point to the fact that she can no longer look after and take care of him anymore because she now has no more power in the situation than he does. While all of this is happening we can hear the mother talking in the background with a voice-over talking about how you think you do a good job and realize you don't, kind of stuff which kind of reiterates the walking away part of how you can't protect them forever kind of thinking. 

The next scene is a cut to the courtroom and you see the kids standing up one by one with worried and scared faces giving us the impression that these kids are innocent and most likely had nothing to with the whole situation causing us to feel bad and sympathy towards them. As you see them rising one by one, it is shown as an extreme close up of their faces, this also coupled with the slow-motion really draws out the moment and give it a really dramatic and suspenseful effect, it also allows us to even see the heavy breathing and large swallows they are taking giving us a sense that they are actually quite afraid and have no idea what will happen or what their future holds. It then shows flashbacks of what happened on the night in which these crimes take place as the judge calls out the names of the 5 kids standing on the stand as well as a scroll through their parents, the flashbacks show us that these kids most likely did nothing and it shows an innocence to them as if all they wanted to do that night was have fun and be kids. As it goes between the shots of each parent, it shows how they all upset and this gives us a sense that they already sought of know what is coming and that the 5 kids will be found guilty of these charges put up against them. Also as it carries on and the judge reads out all the charges against them it shows other flashbacks, and this use of the convention of flashbacks is to replay events that may have happened to possibly remind the viewers of what has happened or tell them something that wasn't necessarily shown. In this case, it is showing the kids shake their heaps as each charge is read out, but instead, in the flashbacks, it is them being interrogated if they did it, whereas in the current scene it is reading out their charges and the effect of this being put in the same time almost points again that they know they didn't do it but they are being falsely accused and forced to comply. We then see the back and forth again of these flashbacks with the interrogators abusing them into saying yes for the crimes they have committed and them signing, which again shows and proves the racial inequality of the time these young kids were falsely accused. After this, it cuts back to a shot of lady as the judge says her name of the attempted murder of her, and it shows the look of ignorance on her face and you can see she knows it wasn't them but because they were black and Hispanic she had a pre judgmental thought that made her think they could be dangerous and affiliated in some way. This next part of the scene shows an extreme close up of the man's face showing his mouth moving at a distorted rate from what he is speaking, this can give us the idea that the reality is not setting in fully yet as he says it and that the kids don't actually understand or don't get what is actually going to happen and that realization hits shortly after with the man's mouth shown in slow motion catching up with the words he is saying.

In the next part of the scene, it shows the boys and families crying as they realize what this means and that they are almost in disbelief of what is happening as you can see them all shaking their heads. Also in this scene, there is a big focus on the youngest in the group with multiple shots throughout the whole scene which in my view could be putting emphasis on how young they are and that these aged kids in most circumstances would not participate in this behavior. Another important factor I had thought of is the fact of the camera panning down behind the gate possibly signifying the fact that they are almost being lowered into a grave and that it is finalized and is finished, and could possibly signify the death of the old way these kids used to act their old life and that everything is going to change for them from now on, also the use of the kid playing the trumpet at the end could symbolize, 'the last trumpet', and the fact it is outside on the street could be signifying that is the last time they may see those streets and freedom for a very long time. 

All in all this short clip is filled with representation, as well as things I didn't mention as well but this is a very serious and sad scene in the series and a turning point for these kids whose lives are about to change forever.

  

Foundation Portfolio CCR

Foundation portfolio CCR:

Foundation portfolio (final edit)

Foundation portfolio Rough Edit