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On Tour Resources 2020: Film Program Info

  1. Discover Our Films:

Film programming tips:

An ideal film program carries its momentum from start to finish, maintaining audience attention throughout while delivering key information in a manner that will ensure that the audience retains what they’ve seen and heard and gets excited about the issues discussed.  Certain tactics are valuable when constructing a film program:

  1. Anchor films: longer films should generally be placed close to the end of the program or of each half of the program. This keeps the momentum up, and offers the audience a structural point of anticipation. On the flip side, placing longer films earlier in the program will induce fatigue in an audience. When an audience watches a long film followed by a series of shorts, the program begins to feel interminable, and their attention wanes. Because these longer films are where the audience’s attention gets driven, it’s worth looking for an anchor film that highlights the crucial information you’d like to transmit to your audience, whether it be relevant to your mission, related to the importance of an issue you’d like to highlight, or simply the film you’d like to promote most heavily in your marketing. By selecting your anchor film carefully, you weild significant control over the tone and the efficacy of your overall program. In the film info sheets below, we have highlighted some excellent examples of anchor films in yellow.
  2. Opening hearts before opening minds: Certain films are ideal for placing at the beginning of the film program or at the beginning of the first half. These films should accomplish the following: establish legitimacy, open hearts, engage the audience. By placing films like this at the top of the hour, you draw your audience in before you begin to introduce them to the topics you want them to learn from or take away with them. We have highlighted some heartwarming films in the film info sheets below in green, as well as some good openers in orange.
  3. Calls to action: if the goal of your film program is to galvanize your audience toward action–be it activism, volunteer work, science, adventure, memberships with your organization or donations to your organization–you may want to include a call to action following your anchor film. We have highlighted some good call to action films in the film info sheets below in blue. These films are useful in spurring audience members to involve themselves in the issues laid out over the past hour. They should be empowering and (ideally) brief.

Many films have not been highlighted in the info sheets below. These films are the meat of your film program; they create diversity and ensure that your audience will enjoy an eclectic evening of films that they would otherwise be unable to access. The highlighted films are simply general guidelines to help inspire your decision making.

Watch Your Favorites

Construct Your Film Program*

  • Film Program Workbook (Excel)
    Sheet 1: Film Selection Scoring Table
    Sheet 2: Film Program Template
    Sheet 3: Film Names & Times
    Sheet 4: Noteworthy Films
    Sheet 5: Filmmaker Contact Info

*We are invested in the quality of Wild & Scenic On Tour Events.  For this reason, we reserve the right to adjust the order of films in your programming.

Construct Your Film Program Slides

Market Your Films