{1st Person POV: Oliver}
9th August, 2007
Even though 'Halloween' as a movie was already done, the process of movie making was not.
A movie needs to be released in theatres for the film making proto be complete. And that's where distribution comes in hand.
Releasing a movie might seem easy to many, but it is a complex and tiring process. Choosing a release date where the competition is less, or releasing it in a month that suits the movie the most, or just dumping it in dead months if the studio doesn't have much expectations out of it.
Signing contracts with theatres to get % of daily gross, on how many screens they'll show the movie at, which type screens (Standard or PLFs), etc. etc.
The revenue is also shared between many, and I mean many people. The theatres get a cut, the distribution company gets a cut, and then the producers/director(s)/actors/crews etc.
And this is only for the 'Domestic', i.e, USA + Canada Market. Releasing a movie in other territories is even more complex because you have to avoid other Hollywood and the local ones, as well as getting local theatres to play the movie.
And for 'Halloween', the release date was in a month that, while big, wasn't generally known for having big movies.
Yes, I'm talking about October, the month known for horror movies, atleast in my old world.
This wasn't the case in this world.
There weren't that many horror movies released in October like back in my world. This was simply because there weren't mega hits like the 'Halloween' movies only releasing in October.
In other words, October wasn't known for horror movies because they didn't have any cultural impact.
And I was going to capitalise on this. Because in the end, no competition from the same genre is still better than having tons of competition from movies aren't similar to my movie.
And no horror movies also means that the reason October was pretty big in my old world in the first place makes it a pretty barren month in this world. Aka, 'Halloween' would be one of the biggest movies released in October, of all time.
Unless some other movie becomes huge.
Due to all of the above, 'Halloween's release date had been announced quite quickly.
12th August, 2007.
The only thing remaining was to premiere it at the Toronto Film Festival, and generate buzz.
And that was only a month away.
That reminds me, I'd need to pay taxes from my cut of the total gross for 'Halloween'. For that, I think I'd just open up a shell company. Reduce the taxes and all.
After all, I need the money to make 'The Departed', and that isn't a cheap movie to make.
*ahem*
Anyways, you might be wondering what I'm currently doing.
I was currently going to sign the distribution deal with Red Fox.
And for this, I had hired a lawyer, Matt Simons.
We discussed the contract for a while, before settling on an agreement of 25% domestic take for Oliver, and the rest going to Red Fox. If the movie is released internationally, Oliver will get 15% from the total revenue.
Then came the marketing and ad prints costs, as well as showing up on TV shows and such. Which would, quite frankly, going to kill me.
'Showing up on TV shows is going to be hellish' I thought.
There were a few speed bumps, if you could call it that, but other than that, the discussion went smoothly.
Soon after, I bid the Mr. Noah my farewells and left with the documents.
...
7th September, 2007.
It's been around a months since I signed the distribution deal with Red Fox, and they were working HARD to promote 'Halloween', considering this was the only "big" movie they scheduled for the last quarter till 'Parallel' in December.
The Toronto International Film Festival opens on the first Thursday after Labour Day in Canada, which is the first Monday. It would last till 15th September.
'Halloween' would premiere today, so Red Fox was promoting it incredibly hard.
Getting a movie into a Film Festival is a pretty notable feat, especially for a first-time director like me. Though, I didn't do much for that.
Generally, only movies the studio has faith in will premiere in a Film Festival, and due to that, 'Halloween' already had some buzz.
Big name directors also like to get their movies screened in a Film Festival, and they are the ones which get the most people to show up.
Many critics are also present in the screenings, and their reviews matter a lot.
Due to this, Studios put an 'Embargo' on reviews, where the publications and critics have to wait till a specific time before they can release their reviews. Generally, if the Embargo is lifted early, that denotes that the movie was positively received, and if it was lifted close to the release, that means the movie was received negatively.
Obviously there are exceptions to this. Many movies that have review embargo lift early turn out to be duds, while many which are closer to release become critical darlings.
For 'Halloween', the review embargo would be lifted on 12 A.M EST, or basically the start of 8th September. Lifting the embargo this early will make it so more people show up, which will lead to more positive reviews, which will lead to more buzz, and a stronger opening weekend.
While I wanted all that, I also wanted to win the People's Choice Award, which is the award that matters the most. It would be incredibly hard to do, but if I do win it, I would become a rising star of sorts.
Currently, I was walking inside of the building the Festival was being held at. I was walking in the hallway , which was filled with advertisements for all sorts of movies. But the one that stood out the most was 'Halloween', due it's old school-looking poster, and it's tagine 'The Night He Came Home!'
This interested the people, and many went to 'Halloween's screening, but many also just didn't care enough about a horror movie.
I just smiled at all this and entered the screening room, which I found to be only 25% or so filled. However, soon after, more people started entering, and in no time, every seat was occupied.
My rise would start now.
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A/N: here's ch 10! Hoped you liked.
Also, If you didn't know (Which you probably didn't), I'm originally a Wattpad writer, and I have some books there that I would like to publish here. The one I want to do is Overlord.
Do you think I should publish it here? I suddenly got so many new ideas for it two days ago and have been thinking about this since.