INDIE CIRCUIT

Filmmaker Guide

Setting Up A Private Screener

A screener is a private online copy of your film for programmers. Indie Circuit asks for an unlisted link: hidden from search and from your channel, watchable only by people who have the link.

Why Unlisted Instead Of A Password

When you post to the Screening Room with an unlisted link, we can check your film automatically and it goes live right away. Theaters only reach the link through the room, and every view is logged. A password adds little on top of that, because theaters see the password when they open your screener. You can still use one; your film then waits for a person to check it.

On YouTube

  1. Open YouTube Studio and go to Content.
  2. Choose your film and open its details.
  3. Under Visibility, pick Unlisted and save.
  4. Copy the link from the video's details.

On Vimeo

  1. Open your film's settings.
  2. Under privacy, choose the option that lets anyone with the private link watch, which Vimeo calls Unlisted.
  3. Save, then copy the private link.

Both sites change their menus from time to time. If a step looks different, look for the visibility or privacy setting on the video itself.

Lock Your Screener To Indie Circuit

When a theater opens your screener, it plays inside the Screening Room. Your link never shows in the address bar or on the screen, the player is marked with the name of the theater watching, and the view is logged.

For full protection, use Vimeo's domain-level privacy so your film plays only when it is embedded on Indie Circuit:

  1. Open your film's privacy settings on Vimeo.
  2. Set where the video can be embedded to specific domains only, and add circuit.page4films.com.
  3. Set who can watch so the film cannot be watched on Vimeo itself, only where it is embedded.
  4. Save, then post or keep the same private link here.

Not every Vimeo plan includes these settings, and a locked film may wait for a person to check it before it goes live.

Without domain-level privacy, the room still keeps your link off the screen, but a technical viewer could still find the underlying link in the page and watch it outside the room. YouTube has no matching setting, so an unlisted YouTube link can be watched by anyone who gets hold of it.

Good Habits