The Money
Overview
Unless you are very lucky money is a key component in any film screening. Film rights, venue hire, licences, marketing material and a host fo other things crop up. Most of them you can prepare and budget for and some may never come to pass but you should be aware of anyway. Outgoings will either come from you or from a funding source and any profit or income will come to (or through) you as well.
We have a broad view of both of these flows as well as budgetary preparedness and legal considerations.
Expense
If you are considering film screening, you should prepare yourself for some expenses.
The enjoyment of film should be open to everyone, a film screening relies on a number of commercial organisations to proceed successfully. As these commercial organisations are just that, commercial, expense is an anticipated part of dealing with them.
While you will encounter different expenses for different types of screening there are three areas to focus on:
- Film Rights
- Venue
- Premises Licence
- PRS Licence
- Marketing
- Flyers
- Posters
These are the three basic areas of expense that, as a very minimum, cover almost all kinds of screening that take place.
Income
Income, sweet delicious income. For the majority of screenings income primarily comes from ticket sales to your event. This means that a lot rides on your ticket price, it needs to be low enough that potential audience members don't see it as a barrier to attending but high enough that selling 50% of the tickets would come close to recouping your expenses.
Cinemas traditionally prefer a fixed fee for tickets, or rather a tier of fixed prices. However film screenings like yours can experiment with other models and utilise them to create a succesful event. An alternative to fixed pricing is to offer a Pay What You Want system. This means exactly what is sounds like, anyone that comes to your screening can pay what they think is appropriate for the event. This has a dual effect in making your screening seem within reach for people who might have been dissuaded by a fixed cost and it also allows patrons to pay over what you would have charged for a fixed price ticket. The aim being to at least average out these two positions to where a fixed ticket price point might have been, if not slightly higher.
Another alternative to fixed ticket pricing is dynamic pricing. This is where price will vary over time, generally the closer to the screening date or the fewer the tickets the price per ticket will increase. If you do decide to utilise dynamic pricing for one of your screenings your initial aim should be for the range of the cost to average approximately what your fixed ticket price would have been. Once you are comfortable with this type of dynamic you can begin to vary it more and depending on additional factors for your screening, it may be preferential to have more people come in early at the lower ticket price than for fewer people to come in at the higher price, even if the value of those two groups in currency is the same.
Realistically dynamic prices are something to look at after you have done a number of screenings, gathered some post screening analysis and familiarised yourself with the whole process of putting on a screening. A useful first step towards dynamic pricing can be to set a different advance ticket price vs on the door.
There are some other ways to garner income from screenings (such as revenue sharing with other parties) but during your first and early screenings it is best focus on revenue from ticket sales as the sole method of generating income.
As with all your dealings in money it is always good to be clear on ticket prices with the venue and the audience. The choice to offer concessions (for senior citizens etc.) or not is up to you. It can be attractive in certain venues, particularly a student discount in venues near or at a student campus, but it can cause unwarranted headaches with ticketing. Just remember, you can't sell child tickets to your screening of Evil Dead.
Single Cost vs Repeat Cost
As you put on your first screening and subsequent screenings you will need to consider how to balance your costs.
Single
Single costs tend to be larger expenses that apply generally to your ongoing screening activities. Purchasing equipment is one of the main initial costs that film clubs and screeners consider. Most importantly you should assess if the single cost is likely to save you money over repeated costs for the same item or service.
Let us say that you have decide to start a film club that specialises in showing films from Laserdisc. Most venues, if not all, won't be able to support the format so you will at the least need to provide a Laserdisc player for your screenings. The cost to purchase a player may be £500 and the cost to rent one for a day £125. If you believe that you will do more than four screenings as part of this club then purchasing a player outright will work out cheaper in the long run and while the initial cost is greater, for every screening you run after the fourth, you will be getting better value for money from your purchase and more profit from your screenings.
This is a slightly obtuse example but it gives you a good frame of reference for making decisions about larger costs.
- Will you get repeated use out of the item or service you are paying for?
- How many times would you need to consider the repeated cost before the single cost was a better deal?
- Realistically, can you afford the single cost?
Repeat
Repeat costs tend to be smaller and specific to each screening. These include administrative things like the rights for the film, any additional licensing for the venue, flyer and poster creation, venue hire or any other number of small costs that pay for the different components of your screening.
Often it is hard to find ways to replace these repeat costs with larger single investments. Film screening rights need to be bought on an ad-hoc basis and unless you are very well organised far in advance, you will not be able to purchase bulk rights for multiple screenings. Posters and flyers by their very nature are specific to the screening and should not be printed overly far in advance in case of changes to the screening that will render your flyers obsolete.
The upside of these repeat costs, if you can consider it an upside, is that you will be able to adjust them on a screening-by-screening basis. When you do your post event analysis and find you still have fifty posters for the event unused in the back of your car, that's probably fifty less required for your next print run. You will eventually be able to strike a better balance for your budgeted repeat costs and hopefully increase revenue for your evening while still making it enjoyable.
Taxation
Depending on local legislation you may be liable to pay taxes on certain types of income or profit from your events. The different factors can be complicated in any one particular jurisdiction, let alone offering sound advice that applies to all communities, save for the following: If you are uncertain about what your obligations on profit or income might be from your event it is best to seek some advice in advance.
If you can, speak to a local Citizens Advice Bureau or a similar agency of government. There job is to help you understand the prevailing laws and give advice on what precautions you can take to avoid being on the wrong side of the legislation.
Budgeting
With all of this in mind you should prepare a budget before making your commitment to a screening. While your enthusiasm for putting on a screening might be unrivalled, you should do so with a clear idea of the potential costs versus the likely income from your screening.
No matter where you are in the world, or your level of financial or Excel acumen, the BFI provides a good starting document with their Community Cinema Budget Template which will allow you to try different models for income costs against the likely static costs per screening. You can also further tailor the spreadsheet to accomodate other forms of income or expenditure. Perhaps some revenue share from a local food maker who shares your event or paying someone to come and give an interesting introduction to your film.
While budgeting might seem like a dry and dull step, it is as important as the other core steps of choosing your film and venue because without some budgetary preparation your film screening could fall at the first hurdle and leave you with nothing to show for it but a hole in your wallet.
Summary
Money is a lubricant to making film screenings happen, it helps you get rights and a venue, cool looking posters and flyers. But you should not let it overshadow your experience of screening a film.
Don't take on costs you cannot bear simply for the ideal of putting on a film. When dealing with others over money be respectful but honest, do not agree to arrangements that will put you at a disadvantage in order to get your film screened.
Budget appropriately and keep revising your budgeting method with each subsequent screening till it is a refined and dynamic thing of fiduciary beauty. Breaking even is an acceptable outcome for your evening, not a failure.
Screeners
Resources
Expense
- BFI Neighbourhood Cinema - A run through of setting up a venue and potential costs
- resource3
- resource4
Budgeting
- BFI Community Cinema Budget Template - A good first step to assessing your setup and ongoing costs.
Resource Set 2
- resource2
- resource3
- resource4
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