Welcome!
Whether this is your first time hosting with us or your 20th, we are delighted to have you as part of the Kinema community. This is the Virtual Kinema Best Practices Guide, which will help you host the best event possible!
Create your event
Follow our How to Guide for setting up your Virtual Kinema event.
You created your screening event, we approved it, now it’s time to invite your guests!
Whether your event is free or ticketed, an RSVP is required to attend (even for you as the host)
Using your unique event link, start reaching out to your audience! You can use social media, email, text, carrier pigeon, whatever will reach them quickest
We also provide social media graphics that you can download from your Kinema account to use for promotion
Remember- It’s never too early to start promoting your screening event, but it can be too late
Make sure everyone gets a ticket ahead of time - once the film starts, ticket purchase is unavailable
Kinema will send your guests a reminder email 30 minutes before show time so they won't miss the event.
Check out our best tips and tricks for Promoting your Event
Communicating changes/cancellations. It happens! If you need to change the date/time of your event, sign into your Kinema account and go to Manage Screening. We strongly suggest you email your attendees about the change. You can download a CSV file of your attendee list and their emails through your Kinema account.
If you have to cancel your screening event, you will not be refunded your licensing fee, which is why we always encourage you to reschedule. If you cancel a ticketed event, your attendees will be refunded.
Understanding the Virtual Kinema. It’s important you understand our technology so that you can help your attendees understand it too! Below is a screenshot of the Virtual Kinema, which opens 30 mins before your event starts. At this time, any ticket holder can enter and begin using the chat.
Your guests will be greeted to an auto-populated welcome message in the top right corner of the chat
They can hover over the film content to see the user controls. Clicking the square icon in the bottom right will remove the chat and enter full screen (click on esc to return to chat)
Clicking on the 3 dots will allow you to select Closed Captions
If you have added a host logo and name it will appear in the bottom left next to the custom description you've provided about your event - this is where you can add any information about the film, speakers, links to resources or calls to action
If you want to include a Live Intro or Q&A to your virtual screening
Live video! We are proud to offer the ability to incorporate live video conferencing within your Virtual Kinema. Here are detailed instructions to help get you set up.
Monitoring the chat: Hate speech v. free speech. Ah, this is a tricky one. As the host, you have the power to delete a comment in the chat or ban the user from using the chat for the duration of the screening. Click the name of the person in the chat and you will be given those two options. We ask our hosts not to monitor opinions and use their best judgement as to when a comment crosses over into dangerous or offensive territory.
Engaging your attendees. Don’t let the movie’s ending also mean the end of the discussion! You have access to your attendees’ emails (if they opted to share) to continue the conversation. For privacy reasons, we ask that you do not email your attendees more than once after your screening event concludes — no one wants to be spammed! Please use discretion in your email communication. Note: Kinema emails all attendees a ticket confirmation and a 30 min reminder before the screening (so you don’t have to send event reminder emails).
Something goes wrong. Stay calm! This happens and especially when we are reliant on a strong internet connection to make an event successful. Guide the audience through the chat, suggest that they check their internet connection, or use a computer if watching on a mobile device. You can also direct them to our troubleshooting guide. If it’s an emergency you can email: hello@kinema.com and we will try our best to get back to you within the time of your screening event.
Still have questions? That’s what FAQ’s are for :)
Thank you! If you have other questions, email films@kinema.com.