Setting up your own summer film festival might seem a bit daunting, but it will be all worth it once you get the celluloid rolling! Imagine… after those long days spent in the sun, coming home with all your friends to kick back on the couch and settle into a summer film festival session where you only watch whatever you want with whoever you want. Good-bye pricey cinema trips and hello private screenings in three easy steps…
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1. The plan
Set up a list of movies that you know you can gain access to and divide them into groups. Probably no more than 3 a group. Each group can be themed and you can assign a theme a week or a theme per fortnight so that you have an automatic movie marathon on your hands. Here are some movie theme ideas:
- Decades: think it’s all been downhill since Casablanca? Pick your favourite era and bask in the nostalgia.
- Thriller: gather your jumpiest friends and horror-fy your home to set the scene.
- Wartime: make your friends think about death and feel sad and stuff.
- Jungle adventure: seems specific, but it’s not hard to think up a bunch great flicks happen in the trees!
- Super cool spies: for added effect, leave a series of clues for your friends telling them to show up to your place at nineteen-hundred hours with ‘the package’ (containing enough snack food to shut down all non-essential brain function)
- Action heroes: POW! ADVENTURE.
- Dark comedy: because everyone should see In Bruges at least once. A day.
- Fantasy, Quest and Magic: everyone pick a character to dress as and watch every LoTR back to back, including the DVD featurettes.
These are just a few ideas. Let us know in the comment section below which themes you are planning to find movies for after you finish up here.
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2. The set up
- The source: Now while DVD stores are an option, movies on demand streamed from sites like Lovefilm and Netflix are not only accessible 24/7, they have a lot of films that aren’t always in store. That and you don’t have to worry about scratched DVDs and possible DVD zoning issues. If you need fast, reliable broadband to stream films then take advantage of things like 6 months’ free broadband deals and see which movie streaming site is offering the best starter deal as you may get a month free on online movies too.
- The device: A tablet is great for couples viewing as it can be set up in its stand in bed or on a coffee table; this is also great if you’re streaming off an app. If your summer film festival is for a group based around the country (or the world!) then ensure everyone who is screening should have a really fast PC for online viewing, or a reasonable TV screen and DVD player if you’re kicking it old school.
- The snacks: You may want to read back to our Movie Snacks for a rainy night in post for some gourmet ideas on 3 course movie snack ideas but at the end of the day, as long as you have something to crunch on and something to slurp on you’re sorted. You could match your snacks to your theme and depending on your audience number, you could all bring something to the TV table for a group pick n’ mix chow down while you tackle your movie marathon.
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3. The invite
Setting up your own summer film festival needs to be an organised affair before you can pop back in your chair and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Start with a Facebook group and set up a calendar with themed movie marathon events. Invite everyone you’d like to come and get going on which films to source and what snacks to get making before the big sesh begins.
Make sure people actually can make it before you go all out and start setting things up. This is probably the most taxing part of setting up your festival but getting it right could save you a lot of re-organising later.
Make sure you have your venue, films and viewing rig secured prior to each session and perhaps even get people talking on your Facebook page on what they liked and didn’t and suggestions for next time as this could lead to more interest in your movie sessions.
Tell us if you’re convinced to go about setting up a summer film festival after reading this and if so tell us your plans in the comment section below!
