Pulling off a school movie night is not as easy as some may think. Aspects like the setting, mood, and of course the movie itself, all have to compliment each other. ICSA’s Social Gatherings committee tried to accomplish this seemingly impossible task.
This year’s movie night didn’t just happen. It took planning, preparation, and time. Members of the committee had to send out a voting form to the entire school for a movie to be chosen. At the end of the day, with over 38 percent of the votes, FNAF, a horror movie, ended up winning the hearts of the people.
That Was So Last Year!
Last school year’s movie night was one to remember, mainly because, “It wasn’t well put together,” says 10th grader Yolanda Bu.
It took place at the upper school basketball court, and that’s a major reason why it wasn’t as successful as it should’ve been.
“There were people running around and some people tried to escape the scene. We had to get chaperones like Mr Pontius and Mr Kouassy.” It seems that the people that were at the event that night were not actually there for the main event. It could also be that people got bored or didn’t like the movie.
“It was also really last minute,” said Mwamvita Barnabas, Social Gatherings committee member, when asked what went wrong with last year’s movie night. It is safe to say that this year’s planning of the event had to be more thought out and organized, and it was.
What Went Down This Year
This year had a change of venue and happened at the school library and the MPR. The location was meant to be strategic, because the chance of kids running around decreases.
Sadly, this still caused some issues because chaperones had to escort noisy middle schoolers out of sight. It was clear that many did not want to watch the movie.
Unlike last year’s event, this one was planned out much better. Sadly, there were a lot of technical problems. At one point, the power went out, and there was a 20 minute delay. This resulted in the high schoolers not being able to finish their movie. There were also reports that people couldn’t hear anything because other students were being noisy.
When asked what would have made the movie night a better experience an anonymous person said, “Make the kids shut up.”
One thing that did go well was the attendance, which was a bit over a hundred people. The food at the event also sold a lot. Who knows? Maybe people just went for the snacks, and not the movie?
Students Speak Out
When asked in a survey to rate the movie on a scale of one to five, five being “best movie night ever” and 1 being “ehh… it was terrible,” a high percentage of students rated the event a three.
According to some of the students, it was “mid.” More people said that it wasn’t worth their time than the people that stated it was. The people also had a say in what could have been done to make the event a better experience. Their suggestions were to have a bigger screen and a better sound system.
“I believe that making the atmosphere too free and casual was a drawback. Perhaps implementing rules to reduce the noise and disruption by the audience would be important. A louder speaker may have also helped reduce the noise.”
-Anonymous Student
Making the people that were at the movie night actually focus on watching the movie would have been a game changer. Maybe the movie itself was the problem, even though the students were the ones that voted for it on two separate occasions.
This year’s movie night was planned better, so logically it should have been better than last year’s event. Some students think differently because more people said last year’s event was a better experience than this years. The setting was way quieter last year, and people also enjoyed the open space atmosphere more than the enclosed space.
What Makes a Successful Movie Night?
To many, the most important part of a movie night is the movie itself. It has to match the season. For example, if it’s Christmas time then it would be good to have people watch a holiday movie.
When giving options to students, it is advisable to include oldies but goodies. Movies like Despicable Me and Shrek that came out a while ago but are still hits would’ve been better options than FNAF and Creed3. These movies came out this year and haven’t been proven to be hits yet.
The display of the movie also has to be on point. People come for a movie night to hear and see the movie properly. Promoting the event at least a month beforehand is also key. If people don’t know about the event, or don’t have some amount of time to get ready for it, the attendance ends up being low.
Although this year’s movie night could have been better, when asked if students would go to another movie night at ICSA, 80% of them said yes. For a student-led event, those are very high ratings. Reflection on past events and learning from mistakes is a great way to improve and grow.