Third Quarter Submission

Masks is a psychological thriller that takes place in an unknown wooded area. Our protagonist played by Daniel McCarthy is running from a group of masked figures. This scene is chronologically the last of the film as the film is about Dan investigating the cult that is chasing him. In our original post for the midterm, we mentioned that we had issues with the audio, cutting, and camera quality. We were able to fix the issues with audio and the cutting. The audio issue came from the camera that we were using that had a broken microphone. The cutting issue can from the original editing software that we were using, ShotCut. We were able to fix the software for this submission and my group and I are trying to get a better editing software. The camera quality issue is still present as we don't have reliable access to a camcorder with consistent quality. We used an iPhone 7+ for the reshooting. Besides the issue of camera quality, the only other issue we faced was the use of audio. For this submission, we used a royalty-free song during the beginning, but we are working on creating incidental music for the scene.

Revision 3 - Other Changes

Between the midterm and third quarter submissions, there were a lot of small changes that fit under different categories.

Audio:

We changed the music from a song named "Mysterious Psychological Horror Music" by Dukkha to a song named "Run and Hide" by Jens Kilstofete. The main reason for the change was that the original choice felt like it was to slow, whereas the latter choice gives a sense of speed and intensity that we were looking for.

Editing:

We changed the sequence of shots that we used. In the original, we excluded the shot of Dan running past the camera with both terrorists in the background due to time restraint, but after editing some shots out we decided to reinclude the shot. This caused us to move the reshoot of the shot after later in the video for a connecting shot between two events.

Camera Angle:

In the gimble shot of Dan running, we made the terrorist a little harder to see but still visible. This is to add a sense of confusion as the audience should be able to see him and question why he was there before the realize that Dan is running from them.

Distribution Plan

Masks would follow a traditional distribution within theaters. Masks would aim for an October release to emphasize the horror elements of the film. The film would stay within the theaters for four weeks. This would allow the audience a month to see the film during a time with a high appeal towards horror films and movies due to the Halloween spirit.

Masks would follow a lot of the traditions of a horror film's distribution plan. The film's home release on DVD/Blu-Ray would be 90 days after the theatrical release. The film would release on streaming services around the same time. One action we would take it to advertise the film during the Halloween season on streaming platforms. Streaming platforms normally pay upfront for films. Netflix's budget for buying movie licenses is expected to increase to about $17 billion, and each film they pay for in recent history has been bought for no less than $100,000. Another idea that would help the film produce profits would be to sell the licensing rights to a company such as Showtime or HBO. These companies would handle the distribution of the film by letting the audience subscribe to their service through other applications. These companies pay a lease upfront for the rights, but the prices are varied based on the title. These add-ons are normally for sale for $10-$15 a month.

Distribution Research - Halloween (2018)

The 2018 version of Halloween is a sequel/reboot of 1978's Halloween. The 2018 addition to Michael Myers lore is a direct sequel to iconic original Halloween released in 1978, and skips over the other entries in the series. This installment is not seen as an undisputed classic like the original, but it was successful at the box offices with 76.2 million in the first weekend. This marks the second most successful opening in October and in the Halloween franchise. The film ultimately grossed $255.5 million overall, with $128.5 million in profits.
Halloween (2018) was released on October 19th and followed the traditional 90 day schedule for its digital release. The film was released digitally through Cinemax. Cinemax is an add-on service for streaming websites and TV. Cinemax can be purchased on traditional TV services such as; Directv, Dish Network, Comcast's Xfinity, etc.. Cinemax can also be purchased as an add-on on streaming services such as; Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and Sling Tv. Halloween is available to buy on YouTube, Google Play Music, and Vudu for $15.

Revision 2 - Titling and Text on Screen

In the midterm submission, we had our credits in the same spots every time they were on screen. How we revised this is by putting them in different places and changing the sequencing of names. This makes the scene's opening seem a little more natural. We also changed the titling of the film. In the midterm submission, we had the film play after the gunshot and the music would return. This made our film seem more like a trailer to the film, so we moved the title to the beginning credits as the scene's ending is now a cut to black after the gunshot and started bird noises were added. The ending now looks more like a movie as it would continue to the next scene. Another small revision we made was with the font. We notice that the first and last letters were being cut off, so we added spaces to the beginning and end of each name and the issue was fixed.

The videos below are the revision made:

Distribution Research - Get Out

Get Out is a psychological horror that plays on the idea of racism in society and has similar ideas of how we intend to scare the audience. Get Out is a Blumhouse Productions horror film released to theaters on February 24, 2017 to critical acclaim. Get Out grossed $255.5 million worldwide, with profits of $124.8 million. The film was released to 2,781 theaters and grossed 30.5 million in its opening weekend. Get Out was in theater for the traditional 90 days, but saw more time in theaters after it was nominated for an Oscar.
Get Out is currently available for digital download and streaming on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Movies, and Vudu for $4 and ITunes for $15. Get Out was created under Fox Entertainment Group before the Disney Merger. FXM owns the rights to play the on TV. After the

Disney-Fox merger, Get Out is now available on Hulu with a subscription.

Distribution Research - Avenger's End Game

Avenger's End Game has a surprisingly similar target audience as our films are geared towards 15-30 year old men. The distribution methods followed a very orthodox path that involved the films theater life to be extended to continue sales. This was down to beat Avatar as the highest grossing film of all time. The original theatrical release was April 26th and followed the world premiere at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The film grossed $1.2 billion worldwide opening weekend. The film was ultimately short of the record. The original release of the film made roughly $2.76 billion in the global box office and was short $27 million from Avatar's record. Disney then rereleased the film with a deleted scene, a tribute to Stan Lee, and an additional trailer for Spiderman: Far From Home on June 28th. This edition of the film allowed for the film to surpass Avatar by about $20 million.
The digital distribution of End Game started on July 30th as Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment sold the rights to buy and download the film from services like Google Play Movies, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, and Vudu for $2.99. The film had a late introduction to the streaming services as Disney was waiting to release it on Disney+ on November 12th. Disney+ also boasts all of the exclusive featurettes, director/actor commentaries, deleted scenes, and blooper reels.