The Venue

Overview

Now that you're armed with a film and the rights to screen it, you now need somewhere to screen your film.

Aside from already having access to your own venue there are two other options. A pre-existing venue or an available space. Pre-existing venues could be places like independent cinemas, pubs, bars, clubs, museums, community centres or any public building where people cna congregate to watch your film. Other spaces tend towards more specialist environments such as parks, historic buildings, wildlife spaces, cemeteries or places where you would consider it unusual to screen a film.

The benefit of a traditional venue is that a lot of the additional work has been done for you with equipment already being installed and legislation covering licensing, health and safety, accessibility; already covered. They also provide an obvious first place to promote your event and includes a regular crowd of people who patronise the establishment.

The more esoteric venues will require you to take up a lot more of the organisational and technical arrangements. If, for instance, you wish to put on a screening in a small park environment in addition to finding out who maintains and leases the space you will also need to consider the hiring of equipment, additional licencing requirements, Health and Safety conditions, accesibility requirements, insurance and other bureaucratic procedures. While we don't discourage these types of screening, they can be a magnificent match between art and environment, if this is your first screening it might be better to familiarise yourself with the core procedures before branching out into other areas of responsibility.

Finding Local Venues

As with our initial film selection it is best to select a variety of potential venues and whittle it down to a final selection, rather than pursuing a single venue. This can be beneficial for several reasons but chief among them, as with film selection, you can save yourself repeating steps if you approach three venues at once to enquire about details.

A first useful step to finding what venues are hospitable to independent film screenings is to see where other film clubs in your community screen their events. Google searches such as film club MYCITY or independent screenings MYCITY will start to give you ideas about not only what other film clubs are around but also the kinds of venues they are working in. Additionally searches on Facebook and Twitter can help you track down clubs and venues that are already part of the film community around you.

Not every potential venue looks like a traditional cinema.

If this does not provide as many results, or sadly, no results, then the next step would be to see what venues might have the necessary equipment for screening but haven't considered, or been approached for, film screenings. This requires a more thorough search than those previously indicated and require some contextual consideration. While a pub may have a projector and screens for showing sporting events this isn't going to be an ideal way to screen your film for a paying audience. Venues that have a separated area where a film can be screened are often the ones to strive for and in the case of pubs or bars, independent properties are more open to hosting events than those owned by large breweries or established chains.

Once you have found several venues you can either gather email contacts from a website, call the venue to ask for those details or to speak to the person concerned (try to avoid calling at peak times) or pop in and speak to a member of the staff to get an idea of who is likely responsible for booking events and if possible speak to them directly.

Premises Licence

Once you've found some appropriate venues it's time to start finding out what the setup is like.

In particular the venue should hold a valid premises license. Be sure to check with the venue manager that the current licence includes the ability to screen films. If they don’t have a valid premises license, or if they need to add film screenings to it, you can apply for a Temporary Events Notice to cover your event.

In the UK the premises licence law has recently changed meaning that if you are holding a not-for-profit screening at a community venue (hall, community centre, church, etc), you do not need to have a license.

Once you've established if a licence is in place or if something more needs to be done, get as full a rundown of the technical setup as you can. While this can sometimes contain jargon or overly technical specifications do not be afraid to double check the details with someone at the venue so that you can be sure the screening will be possible. It is also a good idea when you speak directly to the person responsible for events at the venue to ask what other kind of screening events they have had in the past. This will not only help you focus on what is possible at the venue but may also throw up some anecdotal information about things that went wrong or difficulties encountered by previous screeners at the venue.

In addition to a premises licence your screening will need to be covered by a PRS Licence (or similar). This covers the music component of films. Most traditional venues will already have one but it is another item to specifically check.

If you are considering a screening in a venue without an established events history or and events manager you will need to take responsibility for organising these things directly. If the space is hired or leased by someone they will know if a premises licence is in place but, dependent on the space, there will likely not be any technical equipment availble for your screening, you will need to consider additional insurance for your event and a myriad of other things that come with screening in such areas. While there is more work to be done in setting up these types of screening they can be far more rewarding and interesting to a potential audience. The key is to be prepared before you start to contact people. Have a list of questions and requirements that your screening will need in advance. A basic, but not exhaustive list, is given below:

• What does your current Premises Licence cover in terms of film screening?
• Do you currently hold a PRS Licence for music?
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Equipment

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Health and Safety

Dependent on where you want to have your screening and where you live in the world different Health and Safety legislation will apply. If you are screening in a traditional venue then most of these conditions will likely have been met in accordance with assessment for various licences.

It is your responsibility to keep the audience as safe as possible.

However it is worth familiarising yourself with the venues setup should something series occur. This should include (but not be limited to) fire evacuation procedures and the location of fire exits and extinguishers; location of first aid kits and details of staff trained in first aid; pat test checks on any electrical equipment you bring to the venue and other pertinent emergency procedures relevant to the venue. If you are screening in a non traditional environment or at a space that does not have these checks already in place, responsibility lies with you as the event's organiser to keep people safe and to oversee the meeting your area's prevailing health and safety legislature. The most prudent way to approach it is prior to committing to a venue speak to either a local council authority, film hub, government office or similar to discuss what responsibilities you will bear for your screening. These officials are tasked with ensuring the law is upheld so are in the best possible position to advise and guide you.

Accessibility

Accessibility for patrons who do not have full range of motion should also be considered. While the above caveats for both types of venue apply here the legislation on what a venue must do in terms of accessibility can differ greatly from health and safety requirements. As such the same advice prevails, check with the venue where appropriate, otherwise talk to somebody who knows the law and can advise you on the specific responsibilities you may bear.

Film screenings should be as accessible and safe as is possible for all potential patrons.

Money

Let's get down to basics, venues need to make money to remain in operation and it will likely cost you some money to put on an event. With that in mind talking about money, outgoings and income, is an important step and not one that should be shied away from.

If your selected venue has an experienced event manager then they will likely know what kind of setup they expect out of any screening, whether that be a flat fee from you for hiring the space or a percentage on tickets or some mix of them both. They will usually be quite clear about this and while some accommodation can be made (on both sides) a venue's terms should generally be respected.

You should not commit to a screening until you have the basic costs for the film rights, the venue and any additional promotional materials you might be considering budgeted out. While an important part of screening films is passion to do so, that passion should not be a drain on your personal finances. There's more guidance in our section titled The Money.

Summary

Once you have all the cost, licencing and technical information about your potential venues you can compare venues and make a decision about where to screen. There's no hard and fast rule for deciding what makes one venue better than another but if this is one of your first few screenings then a venue whose setup gives you confidence in your ability to put on a good event is key. This is your event and to make it a success you should be as confident as possible that the venue will, within reason, support you in that aim.

Once you've made a decision on a venue and made an initial booking with them it's time to start promoting your event, but befoer then you'll need to start working on an identity for your film screening exploits.

Screeners

Resources

Finding Venues

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Venue Licencing

• Cinema For All - has more details about the recent premises license changes.

Equipment

• BFI Neighbourhood Cinema - A run through of setting up a venue and potential costs
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