RESEARCH: WHAT SETS A FILM APART

When distributing a film, the distributors need to figure out what sets this specific film apart from the competition that are on release at the same time, to do so they look for unique selling points and hooks. 

I watched interviews of Kezia Williams Head of Theatrical Distribution at eOne and Chris Besseling Director of Marketing from Pathe UK. Kezia states that to start the distribution process they must pick out the key themes and hooks and choose what will excite and interest an audience, what are the engaging motivating aspects of the story? This could be seen during production or later when the final film is finished. This develops the film and the hooks which can be shown through publicity and marketing.












Besseling talks more into depth about the USP's and how the distributors will use them, unique selling points may include the cast, director, quality performance, reviews, awards that will be show cased to the target audience, as well as the film being an adaptation of a book or being part of a sequel or franchise this will mean that the film will already have a built in audience that the distributors can build upon. They will look for the key strengths to exploite over the course of the campaign, as well making sure they identify any challenges that the film release may face such as Roma, with the release of Roma there were issues such as the film is in a different language, it was black and white and had no famous talent within it, this meant that some people were not willing to see the film, however in the trailer they exploited the film directors name Cuaron, as he had done many famous movies and he was the unique selling point of this film. Once the distributors have figured out all these aspects they can position the film as something special and unique.