Helping You Be Successful in the Giant Screen Industry
The Giant Screen Cinema Association (GSCA) is a vibrant international organization devoted to facilitating communication, information sharing, and the development of best practices to support the production and exhibition of original, high-quality, educational and entertaining giant screen cinema experiences. GSCA’s network includes more than 250 member organizations from over 20 countries representing theaters, producers, distributors, manufacturers, suppliers and others in the industry.
Members build strong business relationships, alliances, and partnerships in the giant screen marketplace to the benefit of everyone in the industry. These relationships are cultivated in person at the highly attended and content-rich industry events and online via our website, Facebook page, Twitter feed, and LinkedIn group. Members also benefit from a variety of membership discounts and access to members-only portions of the GSCA website.
Watch this webinar for an overview of benefits, tools, and resources that are available to GSCA members.
Programs
Discounted
Registration to the Film Expo and International Conference and Trade Show
Attending
events organized by the GSCA is the best way to be continuously involved in the
giant screen marketplace. Twice each year GSCA hosts major events in which the
industry comes together to see films, share best practices, meet with
colleagues, and celebrate success. It is the most significant way to be engaged
in the industry. As a member you
receive discounted registration for these events. Why
attend?
Networking
GSCA events are the
marketplace for developing partnerships, negotiating film deals, and uncovering
job opportunities.
Show
your film
GSCA events including screenings of new films,
films in production, and projects in development, and get invaluable
in-production feedback from film buyers. You must be a member to show film projects at a GSCA event.
Present
and Promote Your Business
Present and promote
products and services at GSCA events through sponsorship, exhibits and
advertisements at special member-only rates.
Share
Your Expertise
Participate as an
expert on a professional development panel at one of our conferences.
Certified
Giant Screen™ Program
GSCA
developed the Certified Giant Screen™ Program to differentiate the giant screen experience
and support theater members in their efforts to communicate and market that
differentiation. The program is available to GSCA theater members in good
standing (i.e. dues have been paid) whose theaters qualify for GSCA’s Certified
Giant Screen™ designation. More information about the program can be found
here: Certified Giant Screen Program
Theater
Attendance Reporting Program (TARP)
With the Theater Attendance Reporting Program (TARP), theaters report how many people saw a movie in their theater each
month. GSCA guarantees that individual theater data is anonymous and is used
only to calculate aggregate numbers. Individual theater data is never shared. This
information helps not only theaters by benchmarking their attendance against
industry trends, but it also helps producers who are seeking financing and
sponsorships for their productions by being able to tell investors what the
potential audience is. We publish an annual summary of attendance trends, and theaters can request a reporting compare their data against the aggregate data.
Digital
Immersive Giant Screen Specifications (DIGSS)
DIGSS (Digital Immersive Giant Screen Specifications)
describes the technical specifications for immersive cinema films and theaters
with the goal of maintaining and expanding a global network that is clearly
differentiated from conventional movie theaters.
Film
Buyer Surveys
One
of the primary goals of GSCA’s strategic plan is to help build a pipeline of
quality educational and entertaining content, and GSCA’s film buyer surveys are
a key factor in achieving that. GSCA asks conference attendees who are film
buyers to provide confidential feedback on films in production and projects in
development via surveys they complete after each screening, and the results are
given to the filmmakers. This input from film buyers early in the production
process can be invaluable to filmmakers in helping them make a film that
theaters will put on their screens.
Mentor
Program
GSCA’s
mentor program is designed to help new members, those who are new to their roles, and first-time GSCA event attendees navigate the giant screen industry by matching them with a more experienced member of the association, based on their area of expertise. The giant screen industry is an exceptionally collegial and supportive community. We all need to thrive for the industry to succeed, and sharing expertise and experiences helps ensure our success. Both mentors and mentees benefit from participating in the program. Not only is information shared, but many long-time business relationships and friendships have been established through GSCA's Mentor Program. If you are a giant screen industry veteran, we strongly encourage you to volunteer as a mentor. And if you need a mentor and some industry guidance, we strongly encourage you to sign up to be matched with a mentor.
Achievement
Awards
GSCA’s
Achievement Awards recognize excellence in giant screen filmmaking, marketing,
and education, and only members are eligible to win awards. In addition to
recognition during the awards ceremony, we feature marketing campaigns and
education programs on the GSCA website in the marketing library and lifelong
learning success stories, so it’s a great chance to showcase your staff’s
efforts and share your successes with an industry-wide audience.
Committee
Participation
Committees are not only
crucial to guiding GSCA and the industry, but they’re also a great way to learn
more about the industry and network. When you’re on a GSCA committee you…
- take
an active role in guiding the future of the association…
- you share
your skills and experiences to strengthen the community and develop solutions
for the challenges our industry faces…
- and you get to know people in the industry by working with
them on projects and initiatives.
Online
Tools and Resources
E-News
Receive a free subscription to the GSCA e-News covering news
and important association information. Reach other members with a message in
the GSCA e-News by announcing a new product or service, providing a film
production update, or listing a personnel change.
Member Directory
A searchable list of industry contacts.
Film Database
An online databaseof every giant screen documentary film ever released. You can search films by
title, distributor, format, genre, and more.
Film Release Timeline
A list of future releases, along with producer and
distributor links.
Industry Research
In 2014 GSCA made a significant investment in an in-depth study of more than
5,000 theater visitors from 36 venues in 12 countries to gain information and
gauge their thoughts on the industry, the theater experience, films, and more.
The results are available to members in the Member Center as an executive
summary, full report, and there’s a recording of a session where the topline
results were presented at the 2014 conference. There’s additional research
available as well, including surveys on educational materials, programming, dome
theaters ticket prices, and more.
Webinars
GSCA has held
webinars on marketing and member benefits, with plans to host more in the
coming months on production and other industry-related topics. If you can’t
join the webinars live, recordings are available in the Member Center.
Lifelong Learning Research
A library of articles pertaining to the
lifelong learning aspects of the giant screen industry.
Professional Development Sessions
If you missed a professional development session or would like to have a refresher on one you attended, recordings and
presenter materials from past conference sessions are available. You’ll find
sessions on marketing, programming, lifelong learning, and the annual Giant
Screen 101 session. Sessions from the Filmmaker Symposium we held in 2015 and
2016 are here as well.
Marketing Symposium Sessions
Marketing is one the most requested session
topics by members. So, as part of last year’s conference, GSCA hosted a
full-day Marketing Symposium dedicated to exploring consumer trends, new ideas,
and helpful tools focused on increasing theater attendance and revenue. Sessions
covered insights into the audience, challenges theaters are facing, audience
engagement, maximizing revenue, and digital marketing tips and trends. Video
recordings of all the sessions are available with your member login in the
member center.
Marketing Library
We
share marketing campaigns in the Marketing Resource Library to give you ideas
for launching specific films or to adapt for other campaigns.
Lifelong Learning Success Stories
Education and lifelong learning are important
to GSCA and our members, so we highlight educational programs in the GiantScreen Lifelong Learning Success Stories so you can see how other members are
extending the learning experience beyond the film screening, and hopefully you
can take away some ideas to use when you’re developing your own programs.
Production and Postproduction Workflow (P3W)
GSCA developed the
Production and Post-Production Workflow (P3W), to inform filmmakers of the
generally accepted practices and workflows used in the giant screen filmmaking
industry to make films efficiently, effectively, and with the highest quality
images. There are workflow diagrams and definitions for both picture and audio,
Newsroom
GSCA’s
newsroom includes industry news and our most recent social media posts. GSCA
members can send press releases to kelly@giantscreencinema.com
so we can share the news with other members and on social media.
Blogs
We
have a number of blog posts and are always looking for contributors, so feel
free to send us topic suggestions, writers you’d like to hear from, or let us
know if there’s a blog you’d like to write.
Job Board
Looking to fill a position? Post it on the GSCA job board.
Other Resources
Social
Media
Follow us on social media and send us your news so
we can share it with our fans and followers.
GSCA
Staff
GSCA staff is
here to answer your questions and help you get the most out of your membership.
And if we don’t know the answer to your question, we probably know who does.