Film Distribution

Logistics of Distribution

The distributor will enter into an agreement with the cinema to screen the film on certain 'play-dates'. It is the responsibility of the distributor to arrange the transportation of the film to the cinema, as part of its wider coordination of print use across the UK. Logistics represents the phase of distribution at its most basic - supplying and circulating copies of the film to theatres, of tapes and DVDs to shops and video rental stores, and managing the effectiveness of the supply. The showing of films in cinemas is a time-pressured activity. Cinemas spend their money publicising film play-dates and times in local papers or through published programmes. There's an imperative for the distributor to deliver the film on time.

For UK theatrical exhibition, the distributor typically handles 35mm film prints. Each print can cost around £1,000 - or twice that if subtitled - so a degree of care is required of everyone involved in handling the print. In the UK, prints are generally broken down for ease of handling into smaller reels, each lasting around 18-20 mins when run through a projector at 24 frames per second. So a feature print, in its physical form, will usually be 5 or 6 reels, stored and supplied in a single hard case, weighing in at 20-25kgs. Prints are hired by the exhibitor for the duration of their play-dates, and therefore each print is made for repeat use. It's easy to see from this that, during the course of even a short theatrical release period, any single print needs to be moved many times from the main print warehouse, onto a delivery van, to the cinema, onto an assembly bench, through the projector and then back through the process and onto the next cinema.

35mm theatrical prints invariably suffer cumulative damage as they pass through different projectors, and the hands of various projectionists. There are also overheads incurred by the distributor for the storage of prints at the UK's central print warehouse in West London. For these reasons, each theatrical print has a finite lifespan. Distributor will invest in sufficient prints to provide optimum coverage through the first period of theatrical release, usually lasting up to 6 months. From this point on, many of the now used release prints will be destroyed, leaving only a small number to be used for second-run and repertory theatrical bookings through the remainder of the film's licenced period.

Towards the end of 2005, the UK distribution and exhibition sectors were starting to move towards digital distribution and exhibition. For exhibitors, digital projection, especially when married to the increasing use digital formats in production, can now replicate - if not surpass - the image quality of conventional 35mm cinema presentation. And, of course, digital sound systems have been used in cinemas for some time.

In distribution terms, the advantages of digital technology are even clearer, though perhaps longer term. Digital technology is seen to offer a more cost effective and logistics-light alternative to the tried and trusted, but unwieldy model of 35mm print distribution described above. It will, eventually, be cheaper and much less stressful to send films as computer files to cinemas across the UK, than to transport 20-25kg tins of film in the back of a van.

Digital distribution and exhibition on a large scale has started to appear in certain parts of the world, notably China and Brazil, where conventional logistics cannot, for one reason or another, efficiently bring together supply and demand. In the UK, digital technology has been embraced by the non-theatrical sector, in film societies and schools, where the use of DVD and mid-range digital projection has replaced 16mm.

The force of this change, coupled with the new capacity of technology to replicate 35mm imaging, has led the UK Film Council to establish a digital distribution and exhibition programme for the theatrical sector at the end of 2005. Entitled the Digital Screen Network (DSN), it will eventually support new facilities in 211 screens across the country (out of a total of just over 3,300 screens in the UK), and is seen as a small but important step change towards full digital cinema.

The DSN will initially work with files transferred from a high definition digital master (either HDD5, or HD Cam). The compressed and encrypted files will be sent directly to cinemas to be downloaded, de-encrypted (unlocked) and opened as files for screening with digital projection equipment. In principle, digital distribution will, in time, change the paradigm of 35mm print logistics. It will be possible for the distributor to send feature film files electronically, via broadband networks, thus eliminating dependence on transportation.

There is little doubt that the advent of digital distribution has the potential radically to alter the modus operandi of distributors around the world. The comparatively low cost of film copies and additional logistical effectiveness of digital distribution provide the distributor with greater flexibility. It will be less expensive in the coming years to offer a wide theatrical opening with many copies, and also conversely, to screen a film for just one performance at any cinema. In theory at least, it will be possible for both distributors and exhibitors to respond more precisely to audience demand.

All this suggests that in the future, more titles, both mainstream and specialised, will receive wide theatrical openings, and that this broadening of access at the point of release will dramatically reduce the overall theatrical period from 3-6 months to perhaps 1-3 months. Thereafter, films will enter into a second-run and repertory programming market aided by lower costs.

The shortened first-run period will in turn bring forward the distributor's release of the DVD. And there's the rub. The adoption of digital technologies offers greater opportunities for distributors to create joined-up campaigns for theatrical and DVD releases, in which, increasingly, the theatrical opening is used as a way of providing a loss-leading marketing platform for the highly lucrative DVD leg.

Warp Films

Warp Films has created some of the most exciting pieces of British film making in the last five years. It has won numerous plaudits and awards (including three BAFTA’s) since being set up in 2002.

'My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117' was Warp’s first short film and was directed by Chris Morris. It won the BAFTA in 2003 and for its television premiere on Channel 4, more than one million viewers tuned in to watch it. Warp sold an astounding 22,000 DVDs of My Wrongs and was the first DVD single in the UK market.

Warp's debut feature 'Dead Man's Shoes', directed by Shane Meadows, received a record eight British Independent Film Award nominations, including Best Film, Best Director and Best Achievement in Production. ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’ was also nominated for a BAFTA and won the Southbank Award for Best Film. The film has received nothing less than rave reviews across the board, and is being hailed by some as a landmark in British cinema.

Chris Cunningham directed Warp's next film, Rubber Johnny, –an experimental short and 42-page book that shocked and amazed audiences.

Following Rubber Johnny Warp made the critical success 'Grow Your Own', a film written by Frank Cottrell Boyce (24-Hour Party People), which tackled the subject of immigration.

In 2006 Warp made their most successful production to date: 'This is England', the story of Shaun, a boy who is befriended by a local skin-head gang after his father is killed in the Falklands war. With its evocative soundtrack, dazzling young star and emotive content it has won numerous international festival awards as well as scooping Best Film at the British Independent Film Awards and Best British Film at the BAFTA’s. At the same award ceremony Warp collected its third BAFTA as Paddy Considine's directorial debut 'Dog Altogether' won best short.

Warp Films has also worked closely with the Arctic Monkeys, producing two music videos for them and collaborating on the short film 'Scummy Man' starring Stephen Graham, which won best music video at this year's NME awards. Richard Ayoade has recently directed a feature length live show film with of them. Shot at their final concert of a world tour.

Warp Films' development slate currently includes projects with directors Shane Meadows, Chris Morris, Chris Cunningham, Richard Ayoade, David Slade and Lynne Ramsay. They are also dedicated to seeking out new voices; this goal is reflected in their recent ventures into promo making and the new digital slate, Warp X.

Warp Films Include:

Production Company

1. Four Lions - (2009)
2. Arctic Monkeys at the Apollo - (2008)
3. Crack Willow - (2008)
4. “Fur TV” - (2008)
5. Exhibit A - (2007)
6. Dog Altogether - (2007)
7. Grow Your Own - (2007)
8. Dog’s Mercury - (2006)
9. This is England - (2006)
10. Scummy Man - (2006)
11. Rubber Johnny - (2005)
12. Dead Man’s Shoes - (2004)
13. My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117 - (2002)

Distributor – Filmography

1. Arctic Monkeys at the Apollo - (2008)
2. Cinema16: American Short Films – (2006)
3. Rubber Johnny – (2005)
4. My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117 – (2002)
Warp films also funded ‘The Englishman’ in 2007, and supported ‘The Work of Director Chris Cunningham.

Four Lions

Awards – Sundance Film Festival – Award for Dramatic World Cinema – relying on critical acclaim

Locations

Almería, Andalucía, Spain(Pakistan scenes), Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, UK (Robin Hood Airport), High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, UK and Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK – familiar settings for local audiences

Summary

Four Lions tells the story of a group of British jihadists who push their abstract dreams of glory to the breaking point. As the wheels fly off, and their competing ideologies clash, what emerges is an emotionally engaging (and entirely plausible) farce. In a storm of razor-sharp verbal jousting and large-scale set pieces, Four Lions is a comic tour de force; it shows that-while terrorism is about ideology-it can also be about idiots.

Plot Summary

The film follows a group of young Muslim men living in Sheffield who have become radicalised and decide to become suicide bombers. Two members of the group, Omar (Riz Ahmed) and Waj (Kayvan Novak), go to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. The other two are Barry (Nigel Lindsay), who is a convert to Islam, and Faisal (Adeel Akhtar), who tries to train crows to be bombers.A fifth member, Hassan (Arsher Ali), is recruited by Barry while Omar and Waj are in Pakistan.Faisal accidentally kills himself moving explosives. The film culminates in the remaining four trying to blow themselves up at the London Marathon. Hassan loses his nerve and decided to give himself up to the Police, but Barry detonates his bomb using a phone, killing him and alerting the authorities to the remaining three. The three split up and after a fiery confrontation with Barry, Omar realises he has led his naive and unintelligent friend, Waj, into something he does not want to do, and sets off to make him change his mind. Omar eventually contacts Waj via his mobile phone, but is attacked by Barry, who swallows his SIM card. However, Barry begins to choke on the SIM card, causing a passer-by to detonate his bomb whilst carrying out the Heimlich maneuver. Meanwhile, Waj is cornered by Police and takes a kebab shop hostage. Omar manages to retrieve a phone and attempts to talk Waj down. However, his call is interrupted by a Police raid in which they shoot a hostage after mistaking him for the bomber. With Omar's call lost, Waj detonates his bomb as Omar rushes into the street. Distraught, Omar walks into a nearby chemist's and detonates his own bomb, a target the group had suggested before Omar settled on the Marathon.

“While the terrorists’ conversations are spot-on and the tension builds throughout, Four Lions looks more like a made-for-television special than a cinema spectacular. That could also be blamed on the grey skies of Britain and budgetary constraints — I expect potential backers shied away from the term “bomb-com”

Director

Christopher Morris is an English satirist, writer, director and actor. A former radio DJ, he is best known for anchoring the spoof news and current affairs television programmes The Day Today and Brass Eye (both productions aired on Channel4, made be TalkBack productions who have other associations with Film4), as well as his frequent engagement with controversial subject matter such as substance abuse and paedophilia.

In 2010 Morris directed his first feature-length film Four Lions about a group of inept British terrorists. Reception of the film was largely positive and received a respectable box office.[4] Outside his central work, Morris tends to stay out of the public eye and has become one of the more enigmatic figures in British comedy.

Production

Morris spent three years researching the project, speaking to terrorism experts, police, the secret service, and imams, as well as ordinary Muslims, and writing the script in 2007. In a separate interview, he asserts that the research predated the 7 July 2005 London Bombings

"It was an attempt to figure it out, to ask, 'What's going on with this?' This [the "War on Terror"] is something that's commanding so much of our lives, shaping so much of our culture, turning this massive political wheel. I was wondering what this new game was all about. But then 7/7 hit that with a fairly large impact, in that we were suddenly seeing all these guys with a Hovis accent. Suddenly you're not dealing with an amorphous Arab world so much as with British people who have been here quite a long time and who make curry and are a part of the landscape. So you've got a double excavation going on."

The project was originally rejected by both the BBC and Channel 4 as being too controversial. Morris suggested in a mass email, titled "Funding Mentalism", that fans could contribute between £25 and £100 each to the production costs of the film and would appear as extras in return Funding was secured in October 2008 from Film 4 Productions and Warp Films, with Mark Herbert producing. Filming began in Sheffield in May 2009.

Morris has described the film as a "farce", which exposes the "Dad's Army side to terrorism". During the making of the film, the director sent the script to former Guantánamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg. Begg has said that he found nothing in the script that would be offensive to British Muslims. The actor Riz Ahmed also contacted Begg, to ask whether the subject matter was "too raw". When the film was completed, Begg was given a special screening and said that he enjoyed it.

Warp Films
Warp Films, a sister company of Warp Records, was set up in 1999 with funding from NESTA (The National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts (NESTA) The company acts through a combination of practical programmes, early stage investment, research and policy, and the formation of partnerships to foster innovation and deliver radical new ideas.)

At present there have been five releases on Warp Films: My Wrongs #8245–8249 & 177 by Chris Morris, which won the Best Short Film award at the BAFTA Awards, Paul King's Bunny and the Bull,and Shane Meadows's films Dead Man's Shoes, This Is England and "Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee". They are also responsible for making This is England ’86.

Optimum Releasing

Mise-En-Scene

Familiar setting – Sheffield –Northern Working –class

Distinctive British feel – Realism (a strong feature of British films)

Budget appearance in both costume and editing.

Critical success

81% on Rotten Tomatoes

Positive reviews from BRITISH CRITICS

Generally negative reviews from US Critics – why? (theme etc)

Box Office Success

Despite an initial release on just 115 screens across the UK, the film saw impressive numbers at the Box Office on its opening weekend, generating the highest site average of all the new releases (£5,292) and making a total of £609,000. According to the Official Top 10 UK Film Chart (7–9 May 2010), Four Lions was placed at sixth behind Iron Man 2, Furry Vengeance A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hot Tub Time Machine and The Back-Up Plan. Due to its popularity, Optimum Releasing increased the number of screens showing the film to 200.

As of 6 August 2010, Four Lions has grossed £2,928,884 at the UK box office.

£0.3m in US box office – it was not a commercial success in America, although was not intended to be.