How to host a Hoovie movie

Bring the crew together

There’s truly something magic about watching a great film as a jumping off point for conversation.

Support indie filmmakers

Making a living as an indie filmmaker is harder than ever before. The average filmmaker recoups less than half what it cost to make a film, and most video-on-demand services pay pennies per view.

Hoovie ticket sales put real money in filmmakers’ pockets.

Want to make a bigger impact? When booking your Hoovie movie, choose to give your cut of the ticket sales to the filmmaker and/or distributor. This means, 80% of total ticket proceeds will go to the film rights holder.

Make some extra $

Building community is an important job. Hoovie hosts can choose to keep 50% of ticket proceeds, which support you to bring people together more often by covering your hospitality expenses, better quality AV equipment and even rent!

Host a mini-crowdfunder

Movie screenings easily become low/no-cost fundraisers with Hoovie. Simply click the box to donate your cut to a cause you care about. Guests can also choose to add a donation to the cause at ticket check-out.

We’ll disperse the funds to you directly so you can make the donation yourself.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many of our hosts have reached out to tell us various versions of the same refrain: that Hoovie is more relevant now than ever.

Why? What differentiates what we’re doing from, say, a Netflix Party?

1. Our whole deal is nurturing and empowering humans to be human together. We do a lot to inspire and support our hosts to create experiences that build relationships.
2. Face-to-face is Hoovie’s jam so Virtual Hoovies use video conferencing for the pre- and post-film discussion (not group chat boxes that distract you while watching the film).
3. Compensating artists and community builders is the foundation of our business model. Streaming a film on Netflix (if you can find one worth watching) sends no new money into a filmmaker’s pocket. Hoovie sends 30% of every ticket sold to the film owner (filmmaker or independent distributor); hosts get the option to keep or donate 50%.Many hosts choose to donate ticket proceeds to the filmmaker or a cause they care about – whether that’s a charity, org or individual (e.g. a friend whose business just went under). And guests can add donations too!

IRL Hoovies can be in tiny venues for tiny crowds – say, 5 people in a condo living room – or in larger venues for larger crowds – say, 300 people in a church sanctuary.

Virtual Hoovies can be on a laptop or a phone.

At a minimum, your job as host entails: creating an event listing on the Hoovie site, sending out some invites, testing your AV equipment and internet connection, pressing play, smiling occasionally, and then submitting a rating of the experience afterwards.

Anything else you do beyond that is going to make the experience that much more magic.

Ticket sales are all done through the platform in advance (no cash at the door).

We believe compensating people who build community (hosts) and create art (filmmakers) is essential to a healthy society, so:

• Hosts receive 50% of each ticket sold, which you may keep (perhaps, to pay for food/bev or invest in new AV equipment) or choose to donate;
• Film owners (filmmaker or distributor, depending on the film) receive 30% of each ticket sold; and
• Hoovie keeps 20%.

If you don’t care about the money, we’d love to invite you to send your 50% to the filmmaker or distributor who holds the film rights.

That’s up to you really. We love to watch a film on a projector and screen with quality surround sound speakers, but you know what? A decent-size TV can offer a great experience too. Just consider pegging your ticket price to the quality of the viewing experience.

1. Choose a film from the catalog and click “Host a Screening.“
2. Create a profile. It only takes a minute. Be sure to include a profile pic that clearly shows your face so guests know who to expect when they knock on your door.
3. Decide if you’ll keep or donate ticket proceeds.
4. Set the ticket price, based on:
   • Whether it’s a Virtual or IRL Hoovie
   • How comfy and/or fancy the IRL venue space is (and whether you have to pay to use it)
   • The quality of your AV equipment (HD projector? Surround sound?)
   • What you will or won’t provide (popcorn? beer and tacos? potluck? BYOB?)
   • What your guests will/can pay
   • Your fundraising goals (if you decide to donate to a cause).
5. Share some details about the event, the space (if IRL) and what your goals for the screening are. If you’re donating your portion, be sure to include that in the description.
   
6. If IRL, include any accessibility notes about your space to support folks with any physical disabilities.
7. Click submit and look for next steps in your inbox.

First time hosts of IRL events will need to schedule a call with someone from our team. We’ll use that time to answer your questions, get to know you and provide tips for promoting your event based on any goals you’ve set for the screening.