With SparqFest, you can handle your filmmaker Q&As associated with screenings in a number of different ways depending on whether they are online, simulcast, or both and how much interactivity you are looking for from online participants. This article covers some of the different approaches.

In-Person Q&A

When the Q&A happens only at the venue with no online component, you do not need to do much in SparqFest. Simply note the Q&A in your screening description. Attendees can thus use this information in determining which screenings to attend, but there's nothing else from the online perspective to address.

Simulcast Q&A

A simulcast Q&A occurs when you have a live audience attending an in-person Q&A, but you are also streaming it in real-time to an online audience.

A simulcast Q&A can be tricky because the online audience is not necessarily screening at the same point (or even the same rate) as the in-person screening. It also requires all of the complexities associated with live streaming, often at a venue that is not very friendly to live streaming.

Setting up such a Q&A requires the following steps:

1. Configure the screening as an in-person event and note the Q&A afterwards.
2. You can also configure a separate Q&A event (recommended).
3. Setup a live stream that is a simulcast of either the screening or, if you set up a separate event for the Q&A, the Q&A. Make sure the start time for the live stream reflects the start time of the Q&A session, not the in-person screening block.

If you want the online audience to be able to ask questions, you should have a moderator reviewing any audience chat windows (assuming your live stream platform supports audience chat). SparqFest live streaming includes a special moderate chat window for just this purpose.

Interactive, Online Q&A

For an interactive Q&A session, you will need to configure a live stream in SparqFest and use either SparqFest as your streaming platform or another tool that supports audience chat. While you can do the interactivity using Zoom, doing so can be exceedingly complex. 

You will need a moderator monitoring the audience chat in your streaming platform so that they can relay questions to your filmmakers.

Pre-recorded, Online Q&A

Pre-recorded chats are the simplest way to do filmmaker Q&A and you can do it in a way that doesn't require any “appointment viewing”. Simply configure your Q&A session as a selection and program it at the end of your programming block. Alternatively, you can configure it as its own screening block and set that link as the post-block link for the main block.