Contemporary British Horror and Self-distribution

In my PhD dissertation, I consider how the ‘digital revolution’ has impacted upon independent UK horror film production.  This ranges from discussions of direct-to-video (DTV) Britsploitation companies such as Black & Blue Films, DVD labels/series such as Brain Damage and The Dead of Night Collection, Hammer Film’s re-launch through Myspace.com, amateur/semi-professional horror films, and finally (and what this blog addresses), the notion of ‘self-distribution’.

The following blog aims to clarify what I mean by self-distribution, before going on to briefly consider some examples of films that have been released via what I call Amazon.com's 'DVD-R on demand' scheme.

Self-distributing British horror

There are arguably four main approaches to self-distributing.  First, there is the cottage industry, semi-professional DVD approach, whereby a production ‘company’—which, effectively, might be the director and his friends—pay for their film to be glass-mastered and replicated at a professional pressing plant, after having submitted their film to the BBFC for certification.  These releases are few and far between however, Andrew Wield's Hacked Off (2005) being the most notable: the DVD was produced professionally, limited to only 1000 copies, and readily available from high-street stores (as well as online).^[1] Second, there is the self-produced VHS/VCD/DVD-R, which is typically duplicated in-house (usually the director’s or producer’s) and sold through the film’s official website or at film fairs and similar events. Films utilising this approach can also be sold through websites such as Amazon.com, which, in association with the company Create Space, reproduce DVD-Rs ‘on demand’.  These films include Simon Cox’s Written in Blood (1998/2002), Darren Johnson’s Stalker (1998-2004) series, Neil Jones’ The Lost (2006), Robbie Moffat’s Cycle (2005), and Matt M.J. Stone’s Ouija Board (2009).  Third, and finally, the films might be released straight onto the internet, to participatory culture video forums such as YouTube or Vimeo, or simply streamed from the film’s official website, or an affiliated website (such as Dread Central’s recent streaming of Adam Mason’s Pig).[2]

Self-distribution can mean of number of things, and provides the filmmaker with several possible advantages over those films distributed more ‘conventionally’.[3]  Primarily, it means that British horror films can be distributed all over the world, quickly and affordably, with the filmmaker retaining full control of the artwork, the content, how the DVD appears, what para-textual features it contains, and the final cut of the film, without having to deal with the expense and time-consuming efforts surrounding the securing of ‘legitimate’ distribution and film classification. Often, these films are not intended masterpieces, or even completed coherent works, but experiments and ideas: moments easily snatched thanks to the accessibility of domestic video technology. They can often also be vanity projects—yet this is not to negate how interesting or ambitious some of them are.   The creative control that self-distribution allows permits the filmmaker to ascribe worth and value to their product, to convey their own sense of faith and belief into their project, without the fear of it being remarketed, or, as shown with the British horrors The Evolved: Part One (2006) The Summer of the Massacre (2001/2005) and The Turning (2011), shaped to fit the image, ‘brand’, or capitalist prospects of another company. [4] 

The Turning aka Zombie Lover (2011)

 As Matt M.J. Stone, director of Ouija Board, argues,

I've loved every aspect of making the film, designing the DVD cover, the DVD menus, the website, editing and shooting myself, coming up with the idea and building it up to a full script with only myself to please. (Stone Interview 18 November 2011)

Ouija Board (2009)

The free-reign generated from not having anyone else overseeing the project, or having any one to adhere to or to ‘please’, is often down to an issue of money; or rather, a filmmaker’s lack of it. Ouija Board’s release through Amazon.com’s DVD-R ‘on demand’ scheme illustrates this, as the scheme abstains any film from having to be submitted to increasingly expensive censorship (or ‘classification’) boards for a ‘legitimate’ certificate.  Due to Amazon.com being a website based in the US that sells predominantly Region 1 DVDs to the US market, the British films which take advantage of this, can, under US law, bypass the BBFC and the MPAA (the latter which only require certificates for theatrical distribution), and remain ‘unrated’. Were The Lost—a film shot for £3,000 in 48 hours—and the micro-budgeted Ouija Board to be submitted to the BBFC for certification, they would cost the filmmakers £608.40 and £691.20 respectively (including 20% VAT which is not automatically generated by the BBFC’s ‘fees calculator’) due to current guidelines stating that DVD certification in the UK costs a “handling fee of £75 per submission plus £6.00 per minute for full length of work”.  These figures are generated before the artwork and extra-textual aspects such as the DVD menus and extra features pass through the classification process too; high figures for films that were made for a pittance between them, higher still for films like Jason Impey’s Sick Bastard, which was shot for only £200 (Impey November 2011 interview).   Of course, were the films to be released more 'conventionally' (even by low-budget distro companies such as Maxim Media, SRS and WWMM), these costs could also be avoided.  What self-distribution allows for, however, is for films such The Lost and Ouija Board to ascertain a longevity that remains in the control of the filmmaker/producer, not a third-party distributer’s (as with The Evolved, The Summer of the Massacre and The Turning). It can also allow for the retaining of the films’ grass roots impetus, whilst also making them readily available to a (potentially, at least) global spectator.

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[1] Director Andrew Wield discusses the process in an interview available at: http://www.horror-asylum.com/interview/andrewweild/interview.asp

[2] See: http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/36724/adam-masons-pig-world-premiere-free-right-here-dread-central, accessed April 16 2010.

[3] I am loosely referring here to films that are distributed commercially, by a distribution company (such as Kaleidoscope or Studio Canal), to be made purchasable in high-street stores.

[4] The Evolved is currently unavailable in the UK, but is distributed by Troma in the US; the trailer proclaims that such a film is "from TROMA of course".  The Summer of the Massacre has been packaged as part of a series of cult films named The Dead of Night Collection.  The Turning has been renamed Zombie Lover to capitalise on the unwaning popularity of the zombie film.