Host A Screening

HOW TO HOST YOUR OWN COMMUNITY SCREENINGS

This toolkit is designed to be used by community organizations, nonprofits, faith-based and grassroots organizations and youth groups that want to screen Happily Ever After in their communities as a fundraiser, to create a dialogue around the issues in the film and to draw attention to local issues.

We have tried to make this toolkit detailed and comprehensive to empower you to do the best event possible, and we realize that some sections will not be applicable in every case. For example, if you run a monthly screening series at a local church, you may decide that you don’t need to do any media outreach because you have a regular audience that normally comes to your events. That’s fine! We are making suggestions, but you will have to decide what is best to reach and impact your audience.

Community screenings require a community-screening licensed DVD or one of our special “Community Screening Kits” that contain posters. Our experience is that people normally want to buy DVDs after a screening! If you would like to buy more DVDs at a bulk rate to sell as a fundraiser for your organization, contact us at customerservice@tylernewmedia.com.

Happily Ever After:A Positive Image of Black Marriage - Small Community Screening Kit - $600

Kit includes 50 DVDs and 5 posters. You can sell the extra DVDs (retail value: $19.99) and posters so the kit effectively pays for itself.

GETTING THE WORD OUT

1) ELECTRONIC/VIRAL OUTREACH
This is one of the most effective ways to reach people, but attention spans are short, and it works best when it is accompanied by other sorts of outreach and publicity. In all electronic outreach, be sure to include a link to happilyeverafterthemovie.com so people can view the trailer, or better yet, embed the trailer from our website–people love seeing previews, and this trailer has proven to be very effective!

2) LOCAL MEDIA
Before you make complicated plans about how to promote your event, spend some time thinking about who is most likely to understand and appreciate your event, and what your target audience listens to, reads and logs on to. By targeting your core audience, you might decide that it makes more sense to focus on, say, an alternative weekly paper that already covers community initiatives vs. the headline-driven daily paper that tends to focus on other matters.

Below are some basic tips for your media outreach:

* Issue the release to a wide range of mainstream, alternative, community and specialized media.
* If press wants photos or a press kit about the film itself, you can always direct them to the website where those materials are available for download.
* Get the event on calendar listings in your city’s weekly publication(s) and on the web.
* Make calls to local television and radio programs. Let them know about your event, and be prepared to give them contact and title information of local experts or advocates that can be available for interviews. Here’s who to contact:
o Local TV news: assignment editors
o Public affairs or magazine programs: producers
o Talk radio or local/community radio: producers or hosts

A couple of days prior to your event contact the people to whom you sent press materials and encourage them to attend the event.

3) CO-SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS
We strongly encourage including other organizations in your event plans, as it helps you
broaden your reach and establish new, potentially long-term coalitions. Allied organizations
can get involved in a range of ways depending on their capacity. This can include getting the
word out about the film through listservs or websites, contributing time or resources to the
screening event and/or participating in a post-screening panel discussion. The key in approaching co-sponsors is to help them understand how your event fits into their priorities as an organization, and how they will ultimately benefit from being associated with your plans.

4) CAMPUS SCREENINGS
As with community screenings, finding on-campus co-sponsors is really important. Contact
departments, research centers and youth organizations that have an interest in the topic and
ask them to be part of this event. This will increase the visibility and success of the event and
will help put a spotlight on the issues in the film.

Happily Ever After Event Planning

Once you have defined your target audience, objectives, and framing, begin planning the event:

Preliminary planning – at least 6 weeks prior

* Book the venue and date for your screening.
* Recruit local organizational partners to broaden your reach, and help identify roles for each one – such as publicity, panelist coordination, reception planning, etc.
* Determine speakers, panelists, and moderator (if applicable).

Logistical planning – 3-4 weeks prior

* Create a flyer to publicize your screening
* Confirm that you have the right equipment to screen the DVD. You’ll either need a DVD player and a large TV, or a DVD player, a projector, screen and sound system.
* Secure food for reception (if applicable).
* Draft agenda and vet with partners.
* Contact the filmmakers if you’d like to sell more DVDs as a fundraiser for your organization (contact us at customerservice@tylernewmedia.com.

Logistical planning – 2 weeks prior

* Create an email blast to publicize your event electronically. We suggest sending one announcement 2 weeks prior and another several days prior.
* Contact community calendars about your event.

Media outreach – 10 days prior

* Send out press releases to media outlets.
* Make calls to local television and radio programs.

Final planning – several days prior

* Important: test screen your DVD of the film in advance of the event to make sure there aren’t any glitches.
* Send second round of email blasts.
* Follow up with press who expressed an interest in covering the story.
* Finalize agenda.
* Make copies of handouts, including literature from your organization, fact sheets, etc.

At The Event

* As people arrive, ask them to sign up to receive updates from your organization.

Before the discussion

* Pass out index cards for the Q & A following the screening along with any other materials.
* Announce that you have DVDs for sale and that these sales will help cover the cost of the screening!
* Set up a table near the exit and have someone stationed with the DVDs during the discussion.
* Have a timekeeper so that panelists/speakers remain within their assigned speaking time.
* Encourage participants to spread the word and let them know that they can learn more about the film at happilyeverafterthemovie.com.