[imc-oxford-features] RE: [IMC-Video] Video Venue Locations

[hamish]

The has been some good stuff on IMC video - here is one on how to make
screenings work (:

Hamish xxx

-----------------------------

Here's some good suggestions for setting them up locally

Look for library rooms, Pizza places, independent theaters, cafes,
restaurants. Places like these are great because you accidentally show your
stuff to an unreached community and minimal promotion is necessary because
you're using their patrons. However do promote because the more patrons you
bring, the more militant you can get with your content without being asked
to not come back. To secure these venues, do not charge admission and
explain to the owner who you are and what you're planning to do. You can
easily get your funding from passing a jar and this way the owner will not
charge you or ask for a cut.

Do not use activist centric spaces no matter how tempting it may be. Often
activist centric spaces do not feel open to the public and/or are not close
to popular areas of towns. Plus almost always they'll need to charge to
maintain the space and then you'll have to charge to pay them leaving you
with no money or worse minus money. Always a lot of promotion work is
necessary to get the public to these types of spaces.
However if your goal is to get people to start using the space and get the
general public there. Then yes do it. But keep in  mind who exactly you are
targeting and why.

For multiple shows, reserve a day every month ie the last monday of the
month for one venue and the first wednesday at another. Schedule them for
the next 3 months(usually this is the farthest ahead allowed). When you make
your monthly flyers, radio, print, and electronic announcements include all
these dates for the month on each of them. Try hard not to change the
routine. This way people will follow the routine and your promotion efforts
can kick back a notch while your audience does the 10-10 friend game(as long
as the shows run smoothly and everyone's happy). Also pass around an
announce email list sign up sheet. We currently have somewhere around
300-500 on ours. With doing all this I was able to do up to 8 shows per
month. If promotions and venue placement are done thoughtfully, often these
shows can be a persons first intro to indy.
Always direct the audience to other current projects in your imc. Always
stick around afterward to cleanup after your audience and direct all
interested folks individually to other imc projects through 1 on 1
conversation. It really helps to have folks from the other projects
available to point to.

That's all I can think of for now. If anyone has any questions feel free to
ask, I did this for a year and a half or so and tried a lot of things.

Solidarity,
            Victory!
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