On the 7th November our media class went to the BFI (British Film Industry) in South Bank, London. Here we were taught all about the differerent variations needed to get the the finished product of a film, ranging from the producing of films to the distributing of them.
On our arrival at the BFI we entered a room to listen to a lecture by Rob Miller. The first thing he taught us was what the difference was between a mainstream and an independent films. A mainstream film is a film that is distributed to mass, national and international audiences e.g. Avatar and Gravity. These films tend to have a high budget produced by big institutions like 20th Century Fox. An independent film is one that has more localised appeal with 'niche' audiences. They are usually targetted to a very specific target audience. Independent films do not have access to extensive distribution networks.
Later on Rob interviewed Matthew Justice who is a managing director of Big Talk. He shared his experience in making films such as 'Hot Fuzz' and TV programmes such as 'Our Zoo'.
After this we met a man called Lee Bye. He is currently head of theatrical distribution and technical at Pathe, a leading independent production, distribution and international sales company. He shared his experiences of distributing films and what makes an independent film distribution different to the distribution of a mainstream film.
The last person we were given a talk by was a woman named Clare Binns. She is a programming & acquisitions director at Picturehouse Cinema Ltd. She shared with us how films get from the end product of the film to the showing of them in the cinemas.
The whole thing was a great experience and helped me understand the true making of films and how much of a long process it can be