Organizing a potential school event

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Hey guys,

My school is doing a lot of special events lately and since I’m on the Film Club, I really want to be able to create an event for next year. What I had in mind is that on September 24 (Jim's b-day) next school year is to host a special Henson retrospective going through Sam and Friends in 1955 to about the release of The Muppet Movie in 1979. Kind of a whirlwind version of various Henson Legacy events. Now, potential legal issues (with footage) aside, I’m too sure about this but does anybody know who I would have to talk to about doing an event like this (e.g. school board, teacher in charge of film club, etc.)?

 

[sesameguy]

Hi Bob- It sounds like a cool idea!

It sounds like you'd like your film to be something that the whole school can enjoy. If that's the case, then you would probably have to talk to both your teacher and the principal about it. (Your teacher may like the idea, but ultimately the principal would be the one to OK the idea for the whole school.)

Then you would have to find a place where you could show it. If your school has a large library or media center, then that's probably the best place. But then you would need to get the OK from whoever is in charge of the library, and that is where the principal can help you. He can tell you who to talk to & maybe even contact them himself.

Hopefully your school already has a way to show movies or TV shows to a large classroom, but if they don't, then it's probably up to you to get the equipment you'll need. (I'm guessing a large TV and a VCR or DVD player would be enough once your film is done.)

You also would definitely need to ask the principal if it's okay to show your film during regular school time. If it's not, then you will probably have to show the film after school. That way it won't conflict with other classes and those who don't want to see it don't have to. But as long as you let everyone know about the film, you're likely to get a good crowd in there. Some schools have "daily reports" on what's going on at the school- maybe you could announce your upcoming film that way.

So yes, it is doable as long as you get permission from the right folks. Good luck & let us know how it goes!

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Well, I wasn't planning on showing it during school. It would be afterschool at night (starting at around 7-7:30pm) like another film club event coming up this week at my school (a documentary on Darfur followed by a Q&A with one of the producers). Thankfully, my school has a Broadway-type auditorium with a projection system I could use easily.

And BTW, it's not really a film, it's a collection of clips and I would be introducing them live. The program I have planned includes:

• A few Sam & Friends episodes ("Huntley and Brinkley," "Visual Thinking" and "Old Black Magic")
• A couple minutes worth of Wilkins Coffee commercials
• A clip from Tales of the Tinkerdee (I may get rid of this to save time)
• Some non-Wilkins early Muppet commercials (I'll need to get my hands on copies of those)
• One of the Rowlf skits from The Jimmy Dean Show (again, I need to get one)
• Time Piece
• Excerpts of the Sesame Street pitch tape
• Maybe the E&B clips from the SS pilot
• Maybe clips from the TMS pilots and the pitch tape to said show
• Two UK skits from The Muppet Show (one more British culture-themed and one more appealing to worldwide audience)
• A Land of Gorch skit
• Jim Frawley's camera tests for The Muppet Movie (an edited down version)
• And end with The Rainbow Connection (end on a high note!)

If anybody has any ideas of what else I could put in/take out, I'm open for suggestions.

 

[erniebert1234ss]

How about some of the Wilkins Coffee commercials?

BJ

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

How about some of the Wilkins Coffee commercials?

BJ

I have Wilkins Coffee commercials already in the program.

 

[Maestro]

How about clips from The Frog Prince or The Great Santa Claus Switch?

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

How about clips from The Frog Prince or The Great Santa Claus Switch?

I could try, but my copy of The Frog Prince has the advantage of being a 25-year old tape that can't be copied without messing it up despite good quality and I'd need to get a copy of The Great Santa Claus Switch. But I'll look into both of those!

 

[sesameguy]

Cool, it sounds like you've got most of what you'll need. I guess my only suggestion for showing the clips would be to group some of them together so that you don't have to introduce every single one. For example, you could group all the commercials together, all the Sesame St. stuff, etc.

 

[BobThePizzaBoy]

Cool, it sounds like you've got most of what you'll need. I guess my only suggestion for showing the clips would be to group some of them together so that you don't have to introduce every single one. For example, you could group all the commercials together, all the Sesame St. stuff, etc.

Yeah, I thought about that with some of clips but it's a good idea to group them up, more time for clips.

So, here's a revised program based on the idea's I've gotten:

• Sam & Friends episodes
• Commercials: A couple minutes of Wilkins Coffee commercials then a few non-Wilkins ones
• Tales of the Tinkerdee clip
• The Jimmy Dean Show skit with Rowlf
• Time Piece
• Sesame Street: Clips from pitch tape followed by the & skits from the original pilot and maybe a few well-known inserts
• Early specials: extended clips from The Great Santa Claus Switch and The Frog Prince
• The Land of Gorch skit (my knowledge of Gorch is next to nothing, does anybody a skit from this series that can be shown at a high school without the staff getting flustered about its content?)
• The Muppet Show: Pitch tape, sequences from both pilots, two UK skits
• The Muppet Movie: An abridged version of Jim Frawley's camera tests followed "Rainbow Connection" clip

If anybody has anymore ideas let me know! I still need to get some the clips I don't have yet (I'll make a post in the trading board soon). I'm going to try and pitch this next month to the head of the film club and I hope he can give it the greenlight. I've also been considering trying to contact a Henson person to come do a Q&A or help introduce the clips (during the screening of the Darfur documentary we hosted on Wednesday, one of the producers came and did a Q&A). Maybe Caroll Spinney, since he's on the Greater Talent Network website. But that's more of a pipedrem and I can wait until I get a go with this idea.