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.

• Facebook
• Twitter
• LinkedIn

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.