ORGANIZING A SCREENING

If you’re looking for ideas with promotion click here

If you have suggestion for this list please fill in the comment box at the bottom, and I’ll add them if it makes sense! Thank you

Organizing a screening:

• Who can do it? Anyone can organize a screening. But you will need someone who has the connection to promote it. To organize a screening you need:
  • To read the instructions below
  • Find an affordable venue
  • Find someone in your community who knows how to do promotion and who has already done that. The Burning Man community is well connected but it takes certain skills to promote.
• Why would you help/volunteer for this?:
  • Financially the film is around -$100,000 in the bank, without considering my time working on this. To make this I volunteered, I spent 5 years to create a project that would tell the history of Burning Man and offer a critical perspective. Critical in the sense that I want to raise questions that can help the community move forward. I’m not trying to stir anything in the wrong/right direction, just to look at where we’re at. I hope the film can serve as a discussion forum, and help understand what has been accomplished and what more we can do.
  • Potentially I might be able to co-organize 20 screenings around the states (before running out of energy). If I’m lucky we’ll average 100 people per screenings, with a ticket price of around $8, grossing out $16K, 1/2 of that going into expenditures (screening room rental, travel). Basically before taxes I might be able to net $8,000.. out of 5 years of work :’(
  • If you’re interested in organizing large screenings, or a series of screenings, there’s certainly possibilities in compensation, since it would take quite some effort to promote them, but it’s better to start small and learn from the success.
  • During the film I have spent more time filming artists creating works for Burning Man, than filming for my own film because I wanted to be part of the experience and of the teams making the event what it really is (you can read more about this in the About section). Just like so many people at Burning Man I volunteered, not necessarily in a way that’s visible to most (although you can watch many Flaming Lotus Girls Videos here), but it was very valuable to a few. By helping me here, you’re helping me to provide more to the Burning Man artist community.
  • The film has always been screened in a community/art house/repertory/independent local theater, who often don’t charge too much money, and by renting their facility, we’re also helping (a little little bit) important cultural centers, which we all know are quick to disappear if we don’t do that.
• Budget:
  • Theater rental, please check underneath for reasonable theater rates.
  • Publicity. Most times, I won’t have money for publicity, but if you’re trying to organize a large screening, then we should talk and see what’s needed.
  • No equipment rental. Usually the theater/venue has all the equipment. If the plan is to use a free/cheap space, then I might consider renting screen/projector, please check prices around first and then let me know.
• Size of the event:
  • It’s best to target 100-200 people for a first screening. If you want to organize several screenings, the first is the hardest. The following screenings will benefit from word of mouth, previous publicity, and all the research that you’ve done to find the right place, the right rates. With a first screening you can build momentum, so it’s better to target a small audience in the first place.
• Promotion:
  • This is the key ingredient to success. You need to be well connected, have people willing to help you, and read the promotion page.

Screening Rooms, Venues, Movie Theaters:

• Type of venue: I have a strong preference for a real screening room. I have watched the film here in the Bay Area in a club/non-theater venue setting, and in a theater. The reaction to the film is quite different. In a theater, people can focus on the film, sound is properly distributed allowing anyone to hear very well, and the picture is usually of high quality. It is important to me that people can follow the story and question what the film is talking about, and I believe that can only really happen in a comfortable theater setting. Some other kind of venues could work, but we’ll have to see what their capabilities are.

• To find a venue:
  • http://cinematreasures.org/location/country=181/
  • http://yelp.com Find Reviews => Categories => Event Planning => Venues

  ♦ Venues: http://www.yelp.com/search?rflt=reviewed…..
  ♦ Cinemas: http://www.yelp.com/search?rflt=reviewed…..
  ♦ I’m listing Venues on Yelp because some venues have screening rooms but are not listed as movie theaters.

  • Look up the Film Society in your area. They generally organize film festival and know all about the venues, and might even have a venue of their own
  • Film clubs may know of screening rooms too. You can just google for film clubs.
  • Universities always have a place to screen films. Sometimes their screening room is opened to the public, sometimes not. In the case they’re not open to the public they might let you run the film through their program and share the revenue.
  • Call an independent theater in your area. They are all connected, and have a list of all local indie theaters.
• Agreement:
  • Either the theater rents their space to us: It’s the best when it’s affordable.
  • Or they run the film through their program. And usually they charge 50% of the ticket sale. With this option they also announce the film to their mailing lists, and on their prints.
• Rates:
  • First of all, it’s not easy to put on a screening promotion out there. To get 100 people motivated to come see a film might not be as easy as it seems. So target a theater size that’s smaller (100-200 seats is the best option). And make sure you have the promotion tool needed to do this.
  • A 100-seat theater should be less than $300, which is 30% of the ticket sale already if we fill it up.
  • A 200-300 theater should cost b/w $300 & $500 max. And at the $500, we need 100 people to become positive in general depending on ticket price and other costs associated with that.
  • You can negotiate the price based on this:
    • The film has a non-profit status through the San Francisco Film Society, and I can make the contract available.
    • Tell them you can’t afford it, and ask what kind of discount they could get you. Make the math with them. Example: 100 seats at $9 average is $900. Minus their rental fee 9 ($300), minus traveling if I come over ($100-$300), minus a few poster printing ($10-100), etc.., it could easily become $200 revenue, with a full house. Basically it’s not worth it. Some theaters have told me $700, 15 minutes later, it’s down to $400.
    • Sometimes the theaters rent for a full night (6-11pm) at decent price. If the theater has 100 seats, but $400 to rent it full night, it might make sense if we can get 200 people in 2 separate shows (7pm & 9pm for example).
  • Check their calendar and see if there’s much going on
• Schedule:
  • The film is 85 minutes long. But it takes 15 minutes very minimum of preparation, and another 15 minutes to get everyone out. So we can fit it in 2 hours, which is important if the theater rents per hour.
  • Week nights are better in bigger cities, such as a Thursday night. People might be going out to parties (you know we might be heavily promoting to Burners) on Fridays & Saturdays.
  • Weekend can sometimes, not always though, work best in smaller towns, where a 2-hour film from 8 to 10pm might be a great way to go out before drinks. But they can also work well in bigger cities (not NYC though) if planned properly at the right time, and well in advance for people to make room in their busy schedule to go see the film.
  • 2 Shows in one night if affordable, can be a great way to get cheaper rates, and more people since that gives more flexibility to people.
  • Make sure there isn’t another major event in your town that day, especially a Burner friendly one OR combine them together. Film at 6/7pm, then party at 10pm. Check on street fairs, local big events that could really take the crowd away. Simply go online and check the events calendar (newspapers have them, like the free weeklies, radios, local TV stations).

Technical facts about the film:

• Film Format:
  • miniDV: I have a deck with RCA output for both Audio and Video
  • BetaSP: I only have a BetaSP tape. Large 90min format.
  • No DVDs
  • Hard drive possible to plug into a computer on the system of the theater.

• Film Spec:
  • Color
  • Stereo (not dolby sound). It’s great if the theater can output some of that stereo onto their surround sound speakers as well.
  • NTSC. PAL not yet, but eventually I can make it available.
  • 85 minutes

Theater Check list:

• Audio: good audio system so that people can hear what’s going on in the film.
• Video: need a digital projector. Please check what they have, sometimes it’s an old PC projector, and the quality is so bad, it’s unwatchable.
• Screen: Better to have a real screen if we have more than 100 people. In smaller venues we could work with a white wall, but the wall should be flat, no irregularities.
• Tapes: Must be able to play miniDV, or BetaSP. Or at least let us plug in with RCA audio/video cable.
• Seating: For large venues for more than 100 people we need to have decent seating for people to be able to enjoy the film.

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