We were shown that letter at the beginning of the year, but not because we have a movie night. (sounds like a great idea, though) It was our understanding that it is a NoNo to even play a movie in the classroom. The PTA president asked us if we wanted to pay the license fee and we declined. If I remember correctly the license fee was something like $400. OUCH!!! At a time when we had just voted to stop paying for the watercooler in the teacher's lounge we couldn't see paying for movie rights. And since it was in our minutes to discuss the letter, we couldn't show the movies and pretend we didn't know [img]smile.gif[/img] .
Our Pta used to have movie night once a month, then our pricipal showed us a letter she received that stated you could not show any type of movie to a large # of people without a license to do so. Does anyone know anything about this?
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bear: I would like to host a movie night at our school. We've never done it before and would like any suggestions or ideas on how to go about it. I've read much on this site about other schools that do it, and have no idea were to start. Do you use a big screen or regular TV?...were do you get the movie? :confused: <hr></blockquote>
We started Family Movie Night this year and it's been a big hit. We have a parent who has DVDs, and he gets the DVD equipment from work. We show it up on a wall in the gym. We put the mats from the gym class on the floor, and put on the flyer for kids to come in their pajamas and bring a comfy pillow or chair. We also have a popcorn machine (we sell popcorn once a month and give the profits to the school social worker to purchase grocery certificates for needy families in our school), so we supply popcorn, and we also purchase bottled water. We get the ones with the pull up caps to reduce spills (although some kids squirt them at each other). So, it's totally free for those who attend - the idea is just to get people out and doing something together. We do it on a Friday night. We did it in Nov, Jan, and Mar. We get G rated movies. We got Balto (cartoon about dog racing as we were having dog race rides in December), Monsters Inc., and Toy Story 2. We have a student population of about 385, including pre-school, and we've been) getting 200-250 people (students and parents) coming to each movie. It's been a big hit, and a lot of fun. Good luck! We had a high school computer application class do our flyers, and they put a graphic from each movie on the flyer, along with all the necessary info. If you want to see copies of the flyers, let me know.
We do Movie nights as part of our PAFLE program. We odnt charge for admission, but sell popcorn and pizza and such. We rent a Big Screen from like RentaCenter and have the Principal approve a G rated movie and invite the parents and students to bring pillows and curl up ont he floor in the gym for a fun night. It is awesome! During Black History Month we watched Selma Lord Selma, We have watched Harriet the Spy, The Resuers DOwn Under and such. GOod luck!!
We were going to have a movie night, but the sound system, tv's etc to try and get into our 1950's style gym was too much work.
I did contact our High School AV department and they were willing to work with us, but you better give them lots of notice - they're busy in the spring with graduations, prom, summer jobs and such.
Also, you cannot charge admission as it would be considered "royalty" by the film industry and could get yourself into a legal mess.
We ended up having a board game night featuring math games - it may be low tech - but much easier to run and it counted for educational family nights on some of our educational grants we receive. The families had a blast!
I would like to host a movie night at our school. We've never done it before and would like any suggestions or ideas on how to go about it. I've read much on this site about other schools that do it, and have no idea were to start. Do you use a big screen or regular TV?...were do you get the movie? :confused:
