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Guide To Organising A Screening of The Age of Stupid NB Lots of this stuff is optional - please don’t panic or feel you have to do it all.

1. Choose a Date and Book A Venue Venue: The easiest option is somewhere that’s already set up for watching films: schools, colleges, lecture theatres, libraries, community centres, pubs or even, duh, your local cinema. But if all you’ve got is a bare room, you can borrow the equipment (see below), and set up in a cafe, church, bookshop, front room or whatever weird and wonderful location you fancy. How about screening in a woodland with batteries? You’ll need “Bold, supremely provocative and hugely to book the room for 2.5 -> 3.5 hours, depending on whether important.... a cry from the heart as you’re having a debate or other extras: the film is 90 mins, plus much as a roar for necessary change.” you’ll need 45 mins to set up and 15 mins to clear out. The Telegraph Date: Could you screen on May 22nd 2009, as part of the launch event? (Sorry, UK-only for now, global version coming later in the year). There’ll be 50+ screenings throughout the day - including several very high profile locations - and a live internet event at 9pm, which you’ll be able to watch along with your audience if you time your screening to start at 7.30pm. There will be some nice publicity for you being part of the launch, but if May 22nd doesn’t work, just choose any date/time after. But make sure your screening doesn't conflict with big sporting fixtures or exams or whathaveyou. 2. Book A Speaker or Two Consider organising some speakers to answer questions or hold a debate after the Q A film. It makes for a much more inspiring occasion if people can immediately start engaging about climate solutions. You can book Stupid speakers (director , producer Lizzie Gillett, climate expert Mark Lynas, actor and lots more) directly through the Indie Screenings website, for an additional fee, depending on their availability. Or you could invite local climate experts or activists to bring your audience up to speed about what’s already happening locally. Or how about inviting politicians (climate minister has already attended various screenings) and challenging them on their record so far? Or even take a leaf from some activists in Edinburgh’s book and hold a ceremony where you present Stupid and Not Stupid certificates to local climate heroes and villains. 3. Buy A License From May 1st, you’ll be able to buy a screening license directly from our website, paying by credit card: www.indie-screenings.net. Our cunning software will calculate a bespoke fee according to who you are, where you plan to screen, how many people will watch and various other factors.

Guide Prices (£) - Individual in front room/house party: 30-200 - Business (medium/large): 250-800 - Campaign/faith/union (small, local): 50-350 - Business (multinational): 1000-50,000+ - Campaign/faith/union (medium/large): 100-500+ - Conference (small/medium): 100-800 - Campaign/faith/union (international): 300-1500+at www.indiescreenings.net- Conference (large): 1000-50,000+ - School: 40-200Book Now - Festival (small): 100-500 - University/College: 150-600+ - Festival (medium/large): 300-10,000+ - Business (small): 100-500 - Government Dept / political party: 500-10,000+

p www.indie s creenings.net o revolutionising film distribution since 2009 Why Isn’t it Free? Some people have said that if we “really “A Deeply Inconvenient Kick Up the Backside ... cared about the planet”, we would give our film away. you won't see a more important film this year” Here’s why we’re not going to. Firstly, the £450,000 budget The News of the World (yup) was raised by our “crowd-funding” scheme: 228 people invested between £500 and £35,000 of their own money. (Which is incidentally the largest amount any project has ever raised using similar schemes.) We want to repay our investors’ belief by returning at least some of their money. (We would have to take £10 million pounds to pay everyone back completely, so that’s never going to happen - it’s not a profit making exercise.) Secondly, if we can prove that this alternative funding system works, we might persuade other filmmakers (or writers or artists or whatever) to step outside the mainstream media and start making independent films, without advertising execs or corporate suits watering down their content. Thirdly, the film was made by 104 people - including top 010011001101 animators, editors, composers and everything in between - working at minimum 01001001101 wage or just above, some of them for five years. If we can take their wages up 010011001101 from almost nothing to ridiculously low, then they are more likely to give their skills to future low-budget projects. Fourthly, we can only make more films if we make our business viable - clearly we have to pay rent and eat. And if we had to get dayjobs, we wouldn’t be able to concentrate on our films - or our new distribution models - or the Not Stupid action campaign. And finally, we have put our hearts and souls into the film and feel that it has value: the fact that you’d like to hold a screening kind-of means that you agree. So in the same way that car manufacturers don’t give away their cars, publishers don’t give away their books and hot dog sellers don’t give away their hot dogs, we’re not going to give away our film. Having said all that, you can of course find a pirate copy of the film and screen it illegally without a license and we’ll probably never find out. And you can steal from charity shops, evade your tax and change your granny’s Will when she loses her eyesight too. 4. Await your DVD - and then don’t lose it Three days before your screening date, a high-quality screening DVD will arrive on your mat.... and a whole new era of film distribution begins. No, really, that’s not a complete exaggeration: nobody has attempted this before. When you order the DVD on the website, you’ll confirm that you agree to the conditions: the DVD must be returned a few days after the screening, by registered post and obviously if you lose it you’ll have to pay a fine. (The DVD isn’t on general release until much later in the year – you’re paying for the right to show it before it’s in the shops or on TV). “Enough attitude to power a large city... Slaps you round the face, then 5. Set Your Ticket Prices punches you in the stomach.” The Sun It’s totally up to you whether you charge people to attend your event and what you do with the proceeds. We don’t ask for a cut of the takings. Put the profits towards your climate campaign or that hummer you’ve been dreaming of. Setting the ticket prices is a balance between how much you are trying to raise and how much you think is fair. You can also raise more money at the event, by passing round a bucket, holding a raffling or whatever you like. Again, the money’s all yours. 6. Advertise, advertise, advertise Make sure you get bums on seats by any means necessary: - Student or local papers, TV & radio stations. They may feature your event, GREAT FILM especially if you have high profile speakers or a heated debate - Local listings papers (which need a couple of weeks advance notice) JUNE 3 - School/college noticeboards/newsletters, health food shops, alternative @AT THE CAMPUS magazines - Email lists, blogs, websites, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter - Posters & flyers. Lots of resources available on our website

When you book your event into our system, you will also be listed on our website (unless you say that you don’t want to be).

Check how ticket sales are going a few days before the event, and if they are looking a bit slow, redouble your efforts and, if all else fails, bribe your family and friends to come with the promise of free beers after.

p www.indiescreenings.net o revolutionising film distribution since 2009 7. Borrow the Equipment & Check That It Works Equipment. If you didn’t manage to get a venue with its own equipment, you’re going to have to borrow a DVD player (not laptop) plus a projector/bigscreen TV, plus a sound system (amplifier and speakers). If this means nothing to you, find someone who understands that stuff. If you’re having speakers, you’ll probably also need microphone (depending on the size of the room), plus chairs and a jug of water (plastic water bottles don’t go down well once people have seen the film...)

Tech Check. Ideally you will check your system in the venue a couple of days before, but if this isn’t pos- sible, make sure you’ve tested the DVD in the player you will screen from machines work differently). Once you’re in the venue, play the film and look out for: - Does the picture look ok? Adjust the colour until faces ? look normal and skin coloured - Are the proportions right? Circles should be circular, !@% not squashed (there is a globe about 2 minutes in - check that it is the right shape.) If it looks weird, you need to change the "aspect ratio". Make sure that you display in “16:9” or "widescreen”. - Check that the whole picture is being displayed by watching all the opening credits and making sure none of them are cut off on the edge of the screen. - Does it sound nice and clear with no distortion or hums (listen to a quiet bit)? Set the volume so every- one can hear easily (though this will sound different when you have a packed room, so make sure some- one can make adjustments to the volume once you’re off) - Listen to the room, are there any annoying fans, fridges or building works that you can turn off? - Find out where the house lights are and then turn them off and close the curtains 8. Stall? Leaflets? Mailing list? Bucket? It’s always a plan to have a table where guests can take any infor- mation hand-outs from you or your panelists. You can also give away or sell Not Stupid Activist Packs (order them from our web- site), which are loaded full of posters, stickers, stupid certificates to get your viewers active immediately after the screening. Also bring a bucket to collect donations and have some sheets where people can sign up to your mailing list (we would love you forever if you could collect emails for the Not Stupid list too - please send them to [email protected]) 9. At the Event Check the film one last time, in case anyone has fiddled. Start late so latecomers don't disturb the show. Take photos so that you’ve got a record of your event. Film video reactions if you like. Collect e-mails as it’s by far the best way to keep people engaged. Make annoucements about upcoming campaigns and actions. Ask for donations for your campaign. 10. Go to the Pub Make sure you announce which pub everyone’s going to after the show, which you will have scouted out in advance. Shy people who didn’t speak up in the Q&A may prefer to speak one-to-one about how they can get involved. And you’ll hopefully have loads of enthusiastic new activists wanting to buy you drinks to thank you for your pulling off such an inspiring event.

Any Questions? Hopefully this handy guide - and our website, www.indie-screenings.net - has answered all your questions. If not, please email [email protected] and we’ll respond as fast as humanly , given that we’re wildly overworked and underresourced.

Hope it goes brilliantly well and you inspire your neighbourhood into action. Best, Daniel, Katie & Lily, Team Stupid

p www.indie s creenings.net o revolutionising film distribution since 2009 What To Say As the event’s host, you have the opportunity/responsibility to inspire your viewers into action. We don’t want to put words into your mouth, but here’s what we’d say if it was our screening:

Urgency. Time is running out to prevent runaway from both the scientific and political perspective. There are just a few months left to act.

Copenhagen. The only way we can rapidly decrease global emissions is with a binding international treaty. The world’s governments must finalise the successor to the Kyoto Treaty at the UN climate summit in in December 2009. This is the last opportunity to get the deal in place within the timescale necessary to stop catastrophe. It is the most important meeting in human history.

Inadequacy of the political response. The politi- “It is not a film to make you happy. It's cal solutions are falling desperately short of what the science says a film to make you sit back and think is necessary. Even if the politicians agree the best deal that is on 'What is my role on this planet?” the Copenhagen table - which is highly unlikely - they would give us only a 50% chance of avoiding crossing the crucial 2˚C Ashok Sinha, threshold to runaway warming and causing the deaths of hundreds Director of millions of people. This would be a suicide pact. Doesn’t humanity deserve more than 50/50 chance?

Change is possible. We have everything we need to stop the worst impacts. We’re not waiting on science or technology or knowledge. All that’s stopping us is ourselves. Specifically, the politics.

The low carbon future will be happier and healthier. A new society with human happiness as its goal must be better than our current system which has damaged every part of the ecosystems on which we depend and which has condemned half the world’s people to live in poverty. Rebuilding society to operate with dramatically less fossil fuels will create thousands of meaningful jobs.

Wrong Name. The preventable deaths of hundreds of millions of innocent people is not an “environmental issue”. Forget polar bears, this could be the biggest human rights catastrophe of all time.

History will judge us. Our actions in the coming months and years will define our generation. It is both an enormous privilige and an enormous responsibility to be alive now, as we are the people who will either succeed or fail. Other generations stopped slavery, landed on the moon and overturned apartheid. We will be remembered for “I defy anyone to come out of the how we act in the next few months. film and not feel like they've got to make a difference" Caroline Lucas, What if Copenhagen fails? Then our political system has Leader of the Green Party failed. If our elected leaders cannot make an agreement that safe- guards humanity’s future from the nightmare scenario of runaway warming, then they will lose all claim to legitimacy as leaders. The present geopolitical system will have proved it is incapable of serving the long-term interests of humanity over short-term profit, and the people of the developed world will have no choice but to rethink our governance. We are the only ones who can make this happen. Left to it’s own devices, the UN process will fail. We must come together to form the most powerful peo- ple’s movement of all time. Very very quickly. Every able person must play their part: there are a million different solutions to climate change and there is a role for everyone. What people can do immediately: 1) Sign up to the mailing list. 2) Join campaign/protest groups to pressurise the politicians. 3) Start cutting personal & community emissions. 4) Spread the word

p www.indiescreenings.net o revolutionising film distribution since 2009