Licensing to show movies in school hall as charity fund raiser?

[peanutbutterkid]

Has anyone dealt with this? I keep thinking, "they do it on the Archers, there must be a way"!

School PTA wants to show movies after school, twice a month, as fundraiser. Has anyone else tried this, any advice, esp. about public performance copyright license?

I think we have 2 options:

Get copyright license from MPLC and get an annual copyright license... cost unknown as yet, and doesn't cover all studios/producers.

Alternatively we could go to Filmbank . Costs are £150 annual, plus about 35% of door takings, plus a rental charge (unclear what that would be).

We used to do this years ago, with cine films (see - I said it was years ago!) They were mostly pretty crappy Children's Film Foundation films, with some Disny ones - i remember Robin Hood (the animal cartoon oIe - when King John started sucking his thumb I noticed that about half the big grown up Year 6's in the back row were sucking theirs too!) They were quite popular with the kids - we did squash & biscuits after, but I can't remember how much we charged I'm afraid. We stopped because of the rise of video -the films available were getting fewer & fewer and to move to a video licence was, at that time prohibitively expensive. I think we had a public performance licence anyway, but the rules may have been different then (1995)

You will need to get the hall licensed for public performances, too. That's what the new licensing act was all about - every space where people pay for entertainment has to be licensed. Contact your local council licensing dept (unless the school already has licensed premises status)

I thought the Entertainment license was only necessary if "the public" was invited... if we limit it to only children at the school, and maybe some of their named siblings, is that viewed as "the public"? I thought it wouldn't be.

I think MPLC is cheaper for our purposes, but waiting for them to email me back with a quote.

The MPLC license is only for DVDs / VHS and does not apply when an admission price is charged. The PVSL from Filmbank does the same thing but covers most of the studios, thus has a better range of product. If you are charging admission Filmbank's Single-Title license is more appropriate - the £150 is a deposit only and is refundable when you no longer want an account. The cost per film is the greater of 35% of takings or a minimum fee (from £75) - cheaper than you indicated in the OP. The film is sent to you in DVD / VHS form or you can get a 16mm print, but you would need a projector. Filmbank is really the leading company in this area.

Wow, Azure, that's really helpful!! Thanks. Have you actually used Filmbank? Isn't there an extra charge (postage?) for them to send the film to you each time? Or do they take it out of the 35%?

MPLC rang and said that they could offer us an "Activity Centre" license, annual charge of £294. Under that we couldn't charge for the movie, but could charge for refreshments instead and admission numbers would be unlimited. He said it would work out cheaper than Filmbank who (he said) charge £100 per movie -- I still need to ring Filmbank to confirm that, though.

I haven't actually used Filmbank but know them a little through work - I agree with giving them a call to discuss. Interesting twist on charging for refreshments rather than the film. BTW your school may already have a PVSL - it is organised by the same company that does performance rights licenses and means the school is able to show DVDs during lessons etc. I would check on what product you could get under whichever arrangement you choose - not only titles but also how soon you can get the product after the cinema release (typically "non-theatrical" product is available before DVDs are available in the shops, which may be a bigger draw for your fundraising).

According to CEFM , who probably organised the PVSL license, "no commercial activity" can take place before during or after the screening of the film, so presumably we couldn't sell popcorn+drinks as a fund-raiser. Makes me think PVSL won't help.

MPLC say we just make sure the movie we choose is done by the studios they cover, and we're sorted. Only have to pay the one annual fee. Filmbank Single Title license seems to require more paperwork about which film, keep copies of advertisements, etc. MPLC doesn't cover Warner Brothers and some of the small studios.

Not sure we care about pre-release, not sure the kids are that sophisticated.

Boy, what a headache!

Sounds like MPLC is the one for you! I didn't know whether you would be showing films to the kids or to adults as a social evening. Hope it goes well.