Swank recently chatted with University of Central Florida staff and student leaders about their longstanding on-campus movie program, including their keys to success. Check out the Q&As below.

Coordinator for Selection and Leadership UCF Housing and Residence Life

What is UCF’s relationship with Swank?
We do a lot through Swank. Our main partnership with Swank is when we do our large-scale movie events. We curtail a lot of our events around the movie we pick. We also have the option to do a large-scale event and throw on a film in the background for ambiance.

What are some of the recent movie events you’ve hosted?
We’ve done quite a few different events. We did a camping “Parent Trap” event on a lawn. We included s’mores and had the worms and dirt pudding cups, plus some matching “Parent Trap” details like wearing the white and green baseball cut shirts. We watched the film under the stars; it was very cute. And then we did an event on National Matchmakers Day event with themed movies after we saw the idea in a Swank catalog.

Can you tell us more about that event?
Yeah when we got the catalog in August, it had the fall semester kind of outlined with all the national and international days and different ideas for different events. And I showed it to our events coordinator for RHA and she was stoked about Matchmakers Day. She thought it was just a super underappreciated holiday and thought National Matchmakers Day was just so random. So, she did a full heart, red, pink explosion of a room in the beginning of September. And we watched “10 Things I Hate About You.” She put blankets all over the floor and set out fake LED candles. We had a paper heart activity and DIY dessert station and it was all themed based on the catalog. It ended up being one of our best attended events. I believe 80 people were crammed into a room that held 85.

How do you ensure your events are successful?
Something we have found very helpful – not only us but our area counsels – is letting our students pick the movies for events. We have found that a lot of times we’ll pick a movie or an event theme and if there’s a movie that matches it, we’re going for it. But for like the Matchmaker’s Day, we gave a list of five rom-coms the week before on an Instagram poll and let people vote. We’ve found that if you let the students vote, they’re most likely to attend. Cause now they have this buy-in and vested interest. We also try not to just leave it at a movie. We try to create an entire event around it. If you expand the event, it’s going to create a lot more traction.

Cinema Director UCF Campus Activities Board

How do you typically enhance your events?
We typically include an interactive element. We oftentimes do make it take its, where we bring arts and crafts in and students can make something that relates to the movie. So, for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” we did pet rocks cause there’s a scene where the two main characters are sitting on a cliff and talking about life. We also do catered food so for “Lemonade Mouth” we served lemonade in a special cup and gave everyone inflatable mics so they could sing along to the movie. Just simple solutions can help make the event more engaging.

How do you promote your events?
When I started this position, I thought “I’m gonna make mood boards for all my posters.” I essentially take one of the most important aspects or elements of each movie and put them on a photo collage. Especially elements that students will recognize so they’ll know exactly where it’s from. We share them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, plus we hang mini posters in academic buildings and dorms. We also utilize TikTok if we have a great event for a film. If you’re not utilizing TikTok, you need to cause it’s a great app for pushing promotional stuff. Plus, it’s just a lot of fun and speaks to students.
Do you ever work with other student or campus organizations to host movie events?
Collaboration is one of the things I do pretty frequently. It’s great to do standalone events but I do try to collaborate. Whether it be within the board or with other student organizations on campus. For instance, over the summer we showed “Luca” in collaboration with the Multicultural Student Center. Typically, when we collaborate we table and the other org will bring promotional items to spotlight their organization.

What’s one tip you have to ensure a great event?
I’d say choosing a unique location. For a lot of my summer events, I try to make them themed to the movie in general. As an example, we have this area called Lake Claire. It’s really eerie at night, and we showed “Cabin in the Woods” there and it was super spooky. So, it’s just creating an immersive experience and thinking of ways to make the event more interactive for students.

Why is it important your campus hosts movie events?
I think the accessibility of movie events is one reason. Movies are one of the easiest ways to attract a large audience. It’s also an activity where students can meet other students. Students will actually meet in the movie and continue to come to them together because they met at the event and they have this common interest. So, I think movies are a great way to have students come together, interact, share a common interest, and meet new people.
I also think one of the things that makes a great event is the location.

Programming Coordinator for the Campus Activities Board

What is unique about your campus movie program?
I think the cinema program is really unique in our board because we have an opportunity to do individual events, collab events and make it as interactive as we want. There’re so many different types of movies, genres of movies; and each one really brings in a different crowd of people around campus. Especially with a campus of 70,000 students. We also have so many offices on campus that want to collab and use our movie equipment. So that gives us the opportunity to work with such a wide variety of people on campus. Again, touch the students that they have access to that we might not have access to.

Can you tell us about the success of your movie events post-COVID-19?
What I’ve heard is that because we do a lot of outdoor movies or screenings in big spaces, students are really comfortable coming to see movies at our events. Whereas at a movie theater, it might be more compacted and tighter. Students don’t feel as safe.

What’s your biggest piece of advice for programming movies on campus?
Try a bunch of different movies. You never know what’s going to hit. We do Disney sing-a-long movies that bring in a specific crowd, and then our horror film series brought in people I’ve never seen before.

Campus Activities Board Associate Director

Can you tell us about a past movie event you’re proud of?
One of our most successful events last year was a Broadway double feature on National Broadway Musicals Day. I wanted to show throwback classics, so we screened “Grease” and “Hairspray.” We teamed up with our Fine Arts Committee for a vinyl record painting craft as an homage to vinyl music. We had about 400 students come to that event to watch the movie and paint.

How do you promote the events?
This year we branched out on social media to promote our events. We share event details on Instagram but we also started doing TikToks. So, we make videos to promote the event. For instance, we went around asking students their favorite line from a movie we were showing. Or for a future “Twilight” showing we’re doing, we asked people if they’re Team Edward or Team Jacob. Just engaging students so they know about the event and build excitement around it.
UCF’s Top Movie Tips:

• Don’t be afraid to create out-of-the-box promotions.
• Explore different film genres to attract different audiences.
• Try to make your event as immersive as possible. Whether that’s through a giveaway, the location, snacks or a pre-show activity.
• Let students vote on the movie title so they have a vested interest in the event.
• Whenever possible, collaborate with other organizations to reach students you don’t typically have access to through your events/marketing.

If you’d like to work with a Swank Account Executive to enhance your movie program or if you’re interested in being featured in a customer testimonial, give us a call at 1.800.876.5577.