What to collect at your screening
Every sponsor receives a post-season impact report, and every grant we apply for asks for the same figures. Almost none of it can be reconstructed after the fact — it has to be captured on the day. This is the full list. Assign each line to a named person before the doors open.
1 · Attendance
Use the festival check-in screen at the door — it produces the count automatically. A clicker or a paper tally is the fallback, never an estimate.
- Total admissions, per screening (not per day)
- Gala or reception headcount, counted separately
- Number of registered volunteers who worked the event
- Notable guests present: filmmakers, consulate or embassy officials, elected officials, university faculty — names and titles
- Anything that suppressed attendance: weather, parking, a competing community event. One sentence, so the figure reads honestly.
2 · Sponsor visibility — proof
This is the section sponsors put in their CSR file, and the one most often missed. Each item is a photograph, not a description.
- The screen: a photo of the sponsor slide projected on the cinema screen, taken from the audience, before the film starts
- Print: the poster and the program booklet, photographed on site with the sponsor logos legible
- Step-and-repeat or banner: one clean frame of the backdrop, and one with people in front of it
- Signage: any table cards, badges, or door signs carrying a logo
- If a sponsor representative attended: one photo of them at the event, with permission to publish
3 · Press & media
Collect links as they appear, not at the end of the season — community outlets take pages down. A screenshot protects you when a link dies.
- Every article, listing, radio segment or podcast: outlet name, date, link, and a screenshot or recording
- Interviews given by anyone on your team, in any language
- Diaspora and Turkish-language media, counted separately from local English-language press
- City arts calendars and university listings the festival appeared in
4 · Photography & video
Assign one person to photography for the whole event. Phone photos are acceptable; blurry ones are not. Send originals, never compressed copies from a messaging app.
- A full house from the front — the single most useful image we can publish
- The Q&A or filmmaker conversation in progress
- Arrivals, the welcome table, and the reception
- At least one wide shot that shows the venue and the audience together
- Short clips of the Q&A, if a filmmaker consents to being recorded
- Written photo consent from any guest who appears in a close portrait
5 · Audience response
- Audience votes cast through the festival voting page, with the code you handed out at the door
- Two or three quotations from attendees, with first name and city — these carry more weight in a grant application than any number
- Anything a teacher, professor or association leader said about bringing the festival back
6 · Local costs & in-kind support
Grant reports require the value of donated goods and services, not only cash spent. An unrecorded donation is a dollar we cannot claim as match.
- Receipts for everything paid locally
- Donated venue: the normal rental rate, in writing from the venue
- Donated equipment, catering, printing or transport: the market value, and who provided it
- Volunteer hours worked, in total
- Any local cash sponsorship raised in your city, with the sponsor's legal name and contact
Check four things while you are still in the room: the attendance number is written down, the screen photo exists, the poster and booklet are photographed, and the house shot is in focus. Everything else can be gathered later — these four cannot.