Movies on Campus: Behind the Screen

One thing that most colleges and universities have in common is movies and films on campus.  A movie on campus is one of the most popular ways to entertain the student body. 

It all depends on the movie or film being shown and the number of people who come to see it.  For instance, over 200 people showed up to watch Friends with Benefits compared to The Thing who only got 50 to 100 people watching it.  They usually show what was popular in theaters a few months before hand.  While weeks go by, the school will alternate genres, for instance comedy one week then horror the next.  Lyndon State CAB is the club that runs the movies on campus. 

Now it is not all just purchasing a movie and showing it for a week.  There are a set of rules and guidelines to showing a movie or film on a school campus.  All the hosts of the movies have to follow the Federal Copyright Act.  The schools need a public performance license and proof of rights to show a movie on campus. 

The selection process for Lyndon State goes through the SGA representative for the college board of activities.  To get the movies they go through a company called Swank Motion Pictures.

The representative gets to choose which movie will be best for the campus student body.  To pick the movies out, she goes to the company's premiere of the movies and chooses 14-15 movies she believes the students would like the best.  She will then contact her advisor,  giving them the list of the movies.  The advisor then contacts the company asking for the movies to be shown on campus.

CAB gets 14-15 movies for a semester, so that is 28-30 movies for the school year. Now each movie probably doesn't cost what you think.  Each movie price ranges from 500-1000 dollars; the more expensive movies are Twilight and Harry Potter, or any movie that the college age range would most like to see.  Going through the company Swank, they also get two posters, which they have to pay five dollars per poster for.

Coming from most of the students who attend the movies and films on campus every week, it is something everyone can look forward to during the week.  Lyndon State CAB shows the same movie twice a week so students can have two chances to see the movie.  If not all colleges and universities do this, they should defiantly configure about adding it to their weekly events on campus.