dcf.cymru stimulus sheet · Digital Media and Film · Year 11

Y Ffordd Adref (The Way Home): the release dossier

The company, the films, the festival, the survey and every figure on this sheet are invented. The choices are real ones: every small Welsh film has to decide when and where audiences will see it.

1. The company and the film

The company: Tarian Films, a small production company based in Rhondda Cynon Taf. Mission statement: “To make films in the valleys for young people everywhere, in Welsh and English.” Tagline: “Straeon o’r cymoedd.” “Stories from the valleys.”
The film: Y Ffordd Adref, a coming-of-age drama, 96 minutes, expected certificate 12A. Elin, 17, moves from Cardiff to live with her grandfather in a valleys village and joins the local youth boxing club. Bilingual: about half the dialogue is in Welsh.
Target audience: people aged 15 to 24 in Wales, both Welsh speakers and people who do not speak Welsh.
Your job: plan the release schedule, the order and dates in which the film is exhibited: festival, cinema, streaming and television.

2. The calendar and the rules

Weeks are counted from the start of October. A film’s cinema week runs from Friday to Thursday.

Week	What is happening
Week 1	Cwm Cynon Youth Film Festival: three days, with an audience award voted for by under-25s. Tarian Films has been offered the opening-night premiere.
Week 3	A huge superhero sequel opens. It will be on most cinema screens in Wales for at least two weeks.
Week 5	October half-term holiday for schools in Wales.
Weeks 6 to 11	School and college term time.
Week 12	Deadline in the streaming offer below.

Budget: Tarian Films can pay for a cinema release on up to 20 screens, and for up to 6 screenings with a cast question and answer session.
The cinemas’ rule: the cinemas will only book the film if it is not on any streaming service until at least 6 weeks after it opens in cinemas.
The streaming offer: a paid streaming service will pay £40,000 if the film starts streaming in or before Week 12, or £25,000 if it starts later. The service would have the film on its own for 12 months.
Free television: a Welsh broadcaster wants to show the film on television and its free streaming app after the paid service’s 12 months are over.

3. Three earlier Welsh films

Three earlier films by other small Welsh companies, each released in a different way. Box office is the total money paid for cinema tickets; the cinema keeps part of it. Week 1 includes the opening weekend (Friday to Sunday). The same figures are in ffordd-adref-comparable-films.csv.

Film	Tân ar y Mynydd	Merch y Glaw	Y Tonnau
Genre	Rural thriller	Bilingual romantic comedy	Coming-of-age drama
Release pattern	Cinema only. Paid streaming after 16 weeks.	Day-and-date: cinema and paid streaming rental on the same day.	Festival premiere, won the audience award, then cinema 3 weeks later.
Screens	14	30	40
Opening weekend	£28,000	£24,000	£60,000
Week 1	£42,000	£36,000	£96,000
Week 2	£30,000	£15,000	£78,000
Week 3	£21,000	£6,000	£55,000
Week 4	£14,000	£3,000	£34,000
Week 5	£8,000	not showing	£20,000
Week 6	£5,000	not showing	£12,000
Streaming rentals, weeks 1 to 4	none	3,900 + 1,900 + 1,000 + 600 at £5.99 each	none

4. Tarian Films audience survey

400 people aged 15 to 24 in Wales answered online. Tarian Films found them through its own social media page and at two sixth forms in Rhondda Cynon Taf. The same figures are in ffordd-adref-audience-survey.csv.

Q1 How would you most likely watch a new Welsh film like this? (one answer)	Aged 15 to 17 (160)	Aged 18 to 24 (240)	All (400)
At the cinema with friends	58	62	120
Paid streaming service	34	86	120
Free streaming on a broadcaster’s app	40	52	92
Only short clips on video or social platforms	20	24	44
Would not watch it	8	16	24

Q2 What would make you more likely to see it? (tick all that apply)	Aged 15 to 17 (160)	Aged 18 to 24 (240)	All (400)
Seeing it recommended by friends	120	156	276
A trailer on a video platform	108	140	248
Welsh and English subtitle options at every showing	60	96	156
A screening with a cast question and answer session	44	88	132
A poster at school or college or a bus stop	36	28	64

Q3 When would you most like to see it at the cinema? (one answer)	Aged 15 to 17 (160)	Aged 18 to 24 (240)	All (400)
School half-term holiday	74	48	122
A weekend in term time	62	104	166
A weekday evening in term time	16	76	92
I would not go to the cinema	8	12	20

5. The claim to test

A member of the Tarian Films board says: “Young people don’t go to the cinema any more. Skip it and put the film straight on streaming.”