Starpedia

Delivery System
The technology for delivering motion picture entertainment to consumers. For the film industry, new delivery technologies generally fuel revolutionary economic and social change.

Director
The creative executive who directs the making of a motion picture or television episode in agreement with the producer's aesthetic, commercial and financial parameters. The director visualizes the script, controlling its creative and dramatic aspects, while also guiding the cast and crew in fulfillment of the intended artistic and economic objectives. (See producer)

Distribution Company
A wholesaler company that licenses and distributes film and television programming directly to exhibitors, retailers and consumers within specific territories. Acquisitions representatives of such companies are sometimes referred to as film buyers. (See buyers)

Distributor's Gross Participation Deal
A distribution arrangement in which the distributor and producer split the distributor's revenues 50/50 until all of the P&A costs have been recouped. After that point, the distributor keeps a negotiated distribution fee, usually 17.5% to 20%, on all box office revenues received and splits the remaining balance with the producer.

Divergence
The movement of market indicators in opposite directions usually signaling a shift in the market velocity of the market, a MarqueeStar, a financial asset or commodity. A reversal may be pending.

Documentary Genre
The film genre that emphasizes a curiosity about real events. Stories feature an authentic non-fictional narrative conveyed through a creative presentation of facts, evidence, interviews or stylized re-enactments; often with a voiced-over or on-camera moderator. (See genre)

Downtrend
The movement of market indicators, the actual value of a market, a MarqueeStar, a financial asset or commodity when the overall direction is downward. Graphically, a downtrend follows the phases of the broader business cycle, with peaks and troughs, but on a smaller scale. A formal downtrend occurs when each successive peak and trough is lower than those found earlier on the trendline. Technical decision-makers may use trendlines as one indicator for when to change a finance-related strategy. They seek to avoid strong downtrends because a downtrend may rapidly and severely drag down the market value of an asset. Downtrends may last for weeks to years; and identifying a downtrend early, such as a peaked genre, can be crucial to a company’s or a financier’s financial health. Once a downtrend has been confirmed, such as through a series of lower peaks, decision-makers should be cautious about greenlighting, acquiring or distributing projects that rely too heavily on any downward trended elements. Downtrend is the opposite of uptrend. (See business cycle, technical analysis, technical indicators, trend reversal, uptrend)

Drama Genre
The film genre that emphasizes emotional gravity through characters with problems that compel a personal growth with life-changing consequences. Often the character's individual problems tie into a larger story about their life, their society, their morality or about another person in relationship to their life. Audiences experience and identify with what the characters feel. These stories are especially useful for challenging the ignorance of stereotypes or overly simplistic generalizations by bringing them down to a more complex personal level. Also, to the extent that viewers can identify the characters with their own world, drama stories may be therapeutic by showing how characters cope with their problems.