All films require a licence to be screened publicly. The licence fee goes back to recouping some of the significant costs of producing and releasing the film. Because the film has been financed by investors and government agencies, we unfortunately can’t make it available for free. The cost of our screening packs is already subsidised to help make them more accessible to a wide range of organisations.

By purchasing a screening pack, you’re ensuring that films like Wide Open Sky can continue to be made.

Absolutely, and we recommend that you do. If your event is framed as a fundraiser for a worthwhile cause, audiences will be happy to pay more. If you can’t sell tickets, or even if you can, we recommend you recoup costs through other components of the event, for example, by selling food and drinks or holding a raffle. You can also ask for donations to your organisation on the night, or follow up with attendees who’ve provided their emails on the sign-in sheet.

You can sell tickets to the event on the night, or make them available online in advance – or both! It is easy to make an event through Eventbrite to sell tickets online. This way, your viewers are committing to come on the night, and you can get a sense for how many people to expect. Also, people often value events that they’re paying for more than freebies.

We recommend you leave as much lead-time as possible (around 4-6 weeks), to ensure that you have time to organise everything thoroughly and get the word out. At a minimum, we require you to purchase your pack 14 days ahead of your screening, otherwise extra charges apply for express postage.

Selling tickets – If you’re selling tickets at $10-15, you can cover the costs with your first 15-25 tickets. See if you can “add value” to the event, for example by having a local band play after the movie. If you can’t sell tickets, ask for a gold coin donation.
Charging for food and drinks – Put on a food stall or a bake table and bulk buy drinks.
Hold a raffle – Ask local businesses to donate goods/services that can be auctioned on the night.
Get a local business to sponsor the screening – to show their support for the community.
Apply for a grant – See if your council or library has a budget to support community events and whether they might co-host the event with you.

Having a discussion after the film is really important to deepen your audiences’ engagement with the issues presented. This could be a Q&A with a panel, or you could have a guest speaker present before opening for questions from the audience. However you’d like to organise this, the discussion guide in the pack provides a great resource. Some ideas for guest speakers include people running inspiring programs in the community (e.g with kids, music or arts more broadly), high-profile musicians in the community, and/or anyone who can speak in a compelling way about how music and arts have changed their lives.

You certainly can. Your donation will make a huge difference to a child who has the ability, talent and passion to think big and dream wide. Email us at info@wideopenskymovie.com and we can make this happen.

If you’re unable to pay through the website because of the financing of your organisation, you can pay by invoice instead. Email us at info@wideopenskymovie.com

In some instances Michelle Leonard and director Lisa Nicol may be available to Skype in to your Q&A. Email us at info@wideopenskymovie.com to see if this can be arranged.