7 Mar 2012

‘In Transition 2.0′ is here! So now what happens?

Following the recent very successful previews of ‘In Transition 2.0′ in the communities who featured in the film, we are proud to unveil today how it will be released to the world over the next few months. There are various elements to this, the Website (launched today!), The Guardian Open Weekend screening, the DVD (available, as of tonight, for pre-order), and Organising Screenings. Let’s start with the first one:

The Website

So, firstly, we are delighted to welcome our new ‘In Transition 2.0’ website into the world! It features a blog which will bring all the latest news about the film, background information, reviews, a list of upcoming screenings, and a secure online shop where you can now buy the DVD (more about that below).

It is bright and colourful and easy to navigate. It will be regularly updated with news and stories, so visit it often and keep up with developments (you can subscribe to its RSS feed to be kept up to date, or follow the film on Twitter @intransitionmov). You can also post your comments and reviews of the film. It is, in short a gem, please bring it alive with your love and attention.

The Guardian Open Weekend screening

We are delighted to announce a high profile screening of the film which takes place on Saturday March 24th at the Guardian Open Weekend in London, an event they describe as “a festival of ideas, innovation and entertainment”. It will be introduced on the evening by The Guardian’s environment correspondent John Vidal, and Rob Hopkins will be there too. Unfortunately this event is now sold out which is a real shame, but hopefully this will be offset by the coverage we will get for the film.

The DVD

We have made a beautifully packaged DVD of the film, in full colour, yet entirely compostable packaging. It is a thing of great beauty and a joy to behold (really). It also, thanks to a wonderful team of volunteer translators around the world, contains subtitles in 16 languages. You can either order single copies, or Transition initiatives will be able to buy DVDs in bundles of 20 or 50, at a very good discount, to sell at their screenings and other events. We hope this will enable Transition initiatives to make some money from the film too while also promoting Transition. Pre-orders can be made from today on the site, and when you’ve ordered, if you are planning a screening, make sure you enter it in the list so people know about it! We will start shipping as soon as we get them in stock, which should be around the third week of March.

Organising screenings

From April 1st, the film will be available for screenings by schools, TV channels, community groups, businesses, festivals, football clubs, on oil rigs, government cabinet meetings or universities. We have set up an easy-to-use licence fee calculator which will ask you a couple of quick questions and then calculate a fee for your screening. Simplicity itself. This will hopefully mean that organising a screening, while also supporting Transition Network and ensuring that there will be an ‘In Transition 3.0′ couldn’t be simpler. You’ll also still be able to buy DVDs in bulk to sell at the event (guaranteed to go like hot cakes).

Why we need to charge for screenings

‘In Transition 2.0′ cost us about £30,000 to make. We didn’t get any grants or funding to do that, other than about £1,800 which was raised on top of that through crowd-funding which enabled us to film the overseas stories. We would really like to be able to make ‘In Transition 3.0′, but will only be able to do so if everyone chips in and helps out. We have tried very hard to make sure that the licences for screenings are very reasonable, and also being able to buy DVDs at a discount means that you’ll be able to make a few quid too which could hopefully offset the cost of the licence. We think this film will mean a lot to you, and we are trusting that everyone will work with us on this. That said, if you feel that that is too much of a stretch, do get in touch.

It’s over to you

We are now making the film available as widely as possible. We will do our best to promote the film, but also hope that through your initiatives and your screenings, you can be a part of that too. We hope to also introduce, around the beginning of April, some kind of online pay-per-view thing, more news on that to follow. That’s it for now! Enjoy the website, and we hope you find that this film is a huge boost to your work doing Transition.

Deep thanks are necessary at this stage for Laura and Amber at Transition Network, who have both put a massive amount of work into making the new ‘In Transition 2.0’ website what it is.