Once again, I would discourage popcorn for the following reasons:
Popcorn dumping on floor like mentioned in the last post. Hard to make popcorn in quantity without a machine, which you might have to rent, or otherwise borrow and transport.
Why not candy and soda pop and/or water? Can be just as profitable, and other than wrappers and cans, not quite the mess.
For those with gym problems, either you need to seal off that part of your building or accept it and let people play in there, hopefully with a little adult supervision.
The presence of our principal and maybe a Dean (for middle school) might discourage the bad behavior. Parents supervising their kids? Well we are devoted volunteers and for me this makes us more likely to be 'together' enough to supervise our own kids, but not all parents are so enlightened.
Our school has held movie nights 2 nights a year in our gym, using our pull-down screen and a projector connected to a laptop.
The movie is free, as is popcorn for all. We sell juice pouches, water and candy for 50 cents apiece.
We encourage families to bring their sleeping bags or pillows to make themselves comfortable on the floor; some parents bring folding chairs if they have trouble with sitting on the floor.
At our last movie night we trouble with students behaving inappropriately, ie running around the gym, up on the (folded-up) bleachers, and on our chin-up bars, all of which they well know are against the rules. We also had students repeatedly going in front of the projector, and with large quantities of popcorn being dumped on the floor.
This was particularly disheartening because all of the students are required to attend with an adult, and parents stood by and allowed this disrespectful behavior, which interfered with other people's enjoyment of the movie.
For our next movie night we hope to have more volunteers "policing" the gym, and I plan to make a statement before the movie starts, reminding parents and students that they need to behave appropriately (not really looking forward to that one!)
If anyone has had similar experiences, or has ideas, I'd love to hear them!
We just had our Movie Night in the gym with a DVD player attached to the LCD project and used a screen that pulled down from the ceiling. We met with the Librarian and Music Teacher ahead of time to make sure everything worked properly and that we knew how to run the system. We had folks bring pillows, sleeping bags, chairs, you name it.
The event was free and only cost us the $75 license fee. Our 4th and 5th grade Marimba Band took care of concessions as their own mini-fundraiser and it worked perfectly. No hassle trying to find volunteers for us!
About a month ago, we allowed the students to vote on 3 movie choices and then showed the winner on Movie Night. To advertise the event, we adapted a flyer we found on File Exchange which stated that admission to Movie Night was one adult. It worked wonderfully. In fact, we had several families that all came together!
Overall, it was a fantastic event with well over 100 people attending. We will definitely do it again!
Hi folks-
Thanks for sharing all the great info on logistics!
Just wanted to jump in with a link to the movie licensing info and the wording on their requirements regarding charging admission:
[copied from www.movlic.com] Are there limitations to this Public Performance Site License?
Yes. This license is for K-12 schools only. This license does not permit entertainment movies to be used when an admission fee is charged, other than to cover costs. Outdoor showings are not allowed or covered under our movie licensing agreements. In addition, the movies may not be altered, duplicated, digitized or transmitted electronically in any form without specific permission from the copyright owner.
That is up to you and whether or not this is a violation of yourlicense is a good question. I would agree that concessions or a rafflewould be a reasonable work-around if you do not wish to charge an admission fee...
is what I should have said.
Bret, Middle School PTO dad
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14 years 3 months ago#151907by Bret, Middle School PTO dad
That is up to you and whether or not this is a violation of your license is a good question. I would agree that concessions or a raffle would be a reasonable work-around if you do not wish to rent a machine.
2. Regarding popcorn...
You would think that "movies and popcorn" go together. But considering the mess and the cost, I would consider not doing popcorn. Candy, water, and pop is sufficient!
3. Regarding equipment...
Most laptops easily run DVDs and most can output to a video projector. So where to get the projector? Many schools already have at least one of those projectors that you could tie into. Otherwise try and borrow one from a charity or a local office or parent. Our local branch of my software company where I work has a projector we use for sales presentations. Such a projector can be attached to a laptop.
By the way, projector costs are falling rapidly. The is a new class of portable projector called "Pico projectors" (search this term on Ebay) that will soon be suitable for use as portable projectors for showing movies. Right now Pico projectors do require a pretty dark room, but the higher end ones could work. The Pico projectors run up to around $300 and regular projectors like I am talking about from my office start at around $500. Renting such projectors is not worth the cost.
4. Regarding screens...
The reflective surface of a screen does make a movie "pop", but I would consider this - a screen - a luxury. A regular white wall or off-white wall in a reasonably, but not pitch-dark room is fine!
5. Regarding sound...
This is where we struggled most...a PC with powered speakers - like those you got when you ordered your home system, the kind that plug into your laptop and have a wall power cord...that is a good start. Still, if your school has a room with a built-in sound if you can tie into that by plugging into your laptop, it would be best. Hopefully you can test this in advance of setup. Again, I would strongly consider close-captioning be turned on with the sound on. Your laptop's DVD player should have an option to turn on close-captioning if the sound is marginal.
6. Regarding school "containment"...
Our schools have those metal gates to control where students can go. They should be down. Now if your principal is up for it, if you have a separate gym and they can open it up and you can supervise it, you might consider having it open too. The big risk is that the gym might be more popular than the movie.
