A Small Cinema Recipe

Well, the bow-ties are off and the posters are taken down after our latest manifestation of “A Small Cinema” If you missed it then you can watch a video all about the event over on our Small Cinema blog (where you’ll also be able to view some of the films and read all about the progress of the project.)

“A Small Cinema” has now been through several incarnations and we are now asking ourselves the question:

What makes “A Successful Small Cinema”?

We held an evaluation meeting for “A Small Cinema in Kirkby” in our studio over in Liverpool and discussed the many the many different aspects out of which the most recent project – “A Small Cinema in Kirkby” – has been shaped.  Behind the many bespoke details there are some key components which go into making this kind of “A Small Cinema” project successful and we boiled these down to five essential elements:

1. transformation of a space (eg empty shop) into a bespoke cinema (this includes details like a cinema screen, tickets, promotional posters, seats, curtains etc.)
2. the commissioning of at least one new, locally or thematically relevant, short film
3. screening of film footage from local archives
4. conducting research into local peoples memories of cinema and creatively manifesting these memories within the overall event (e.g. as posters, within brochure, photographs etc.)
5. staging of cinema screening event (requires promotion, volunteer ushers, popcorn, tickets, trailers etc.)