Life and letters

Bring your own cushion

Barbara Millar

Many of the very best ideas, it must be acknowledged, have been fired and oiled by the generous application of booze. The Colinsburgh Community Cinema project is no exception.
     'Four of us were having dinner, with a fair amount to drink, and bemoaning the fact that it was rarely possible to see anything other than the latest blockbuster at the nearby cinemas,' says Pete Rabjohns, one of the project's founders. 'Someone around the table, in a fit of madness, said why don't we start a cinema club?'
     Even in next morning's cold light of hangover, the idea still seemed to be worth pursuing. That was a little over two years ago and, since then, the Colinsburgh Community Cinema, based in a tiny village in the East Neuk of Fife with a population counted in hundreds, has a regular audience of 60 or so for its twice-monthly offerings, and has introduced locals to a range of cinematic gems – from those less likely to hit the multiplex screens, including 'The Lives of Others', 'Goodnight and Good Luck', 'The Painted Veil', 'The Road Home' and 'Goodbye Lenin', to those which certainly did, such as 'Slumdog Millionaire', 'Gran Torino' and 'The Reader'.
     The original four imbibers – Pete and Sue Rabjohns, Pete Marshall and Marion Howie – remain the driving force, but all are quick to pay tribute to the British Federation of Film Societies (Scotland) (BFFS), which helped the Colinsburgh Community Cinema to leave its dining room table launch pad and become airborne.
     The BFFS offered to come to the village and show, for free, a film chosen by the project's organisers and advertised by them. The BFFS provided all the essential kit and also offered to train anyone interested in the use of the equipment – projector, sound system, 12" screen, amplifier and the rest. Basic cinematic set-up costs are around £6,000, but the BFFS was prepared to loan the equipment for the first year, until it was established whether or not there was a cinema club market in Colinsburgh.
     The inaugural film was the then relatively new James Bond flick 'Casino Royale', and the brand new 007 Daniel Craig hogged centre-stage in the rarified environment of Colinsburgh Town Hall before 43 locals – myself included – who wanted to see what this new club was all about. We were suitably impressed – and not just because there was a convivial bar in the corner.
    'We decided to opt for a dual system with club members signing up to pay £30 to see 10 films a season but also offering the opportunity for people to turn up at the door and pay £4,' explains Pete Marshall. 'This way you maximise your possible audience.' The mathematics of film club economics are fairly straightforward, he adds. 'To hire a film costs about £100, add to that the cost of the hall and a small amount for advertising and incidentals and we came to a cost of £120 per film.'
     A membership scheme gives a degree of financial security to a club, he points out. With 40 members paying £30 for a season you can afford to show 10 films. 60 members for the same fee gives you 15 films – as the membership rises the cost per film drops, making the club even more attractive.
    
At the first screening all four committee members 'took names and addresses like demented detectives', Pete Marshall recalls, asking everyone to fill in sheets with the names of films they wanted to see. 'The list that was drawn up was very useful,' he says. 'It gave us a good idea of the range of films our audience wanted us to show.'
     'Programming is the secret of a successful film club. An endless run of costume dramas or action movies will pall, and it is essential to ensure variety in scope and genre. The clue is to keep talking to your audience and in making their feedback an essential part of the club.'
     The BFFS recommended the 'button vote' system. 'Like all ideas,' says Pete M, 'it is ludicrously simple – a box of old buttons and five dishes ranked from 5: excellent to 1: I wish I hadn't come. The audience votes with the buttons, and the averaged out score is published each month in a table.'
     One of the early problems – the fact that the seats in the hall were the hardest and least conducive to a relaxing night at the flicks I've ever encountered (I cried at the end of La Vie En Rose, the biopic of Edith Piaf's life, but wasn't sure whether this was because the film had moved me so intensely, or because I was doubled up with sciatic pain) was resolved initially by providing a cushion bank (though many people quickly learned and brought padded efforts from home, some even brought their own chairs). Now a new set of properly upholstered, rackable chairs has been bought – which are also available for any other town hall users.
     After the initial year of being loaned equipment, grants from various organisations including the Lottery, Fife Council and Hi-Arts has allowed Colinsburgh Community Cinema to buy all its own kit, including the recent upgrading to a magnificent 16" x 9" screen. (As a complete aside, some juvenile technie installing my new pc a year or so back asked me if I wanted the facility to watch a DVD on it – the very idea of sitting in my office to watch a film on my computer screen was enough to make me weep, and for those who choose to see a movie on their mobile phone, no matter how state-of-the-art, well, I really do despair).
      And the success of the Colinburgh club has encouraged other local towns and villages to follow suit. The organising team from the village has helped community cinemas to get off the ground in Crail, Leslie, Milnathort, Leven and Glenrothes.
     In Colinsburgh, meanwhile, the demographic mix and audience preferences means the cinema club tends to concentrate on 'serious' and European films, together with the best of US, British and Scottish cinema. Last season, together with Crail Cinema Club, an evening of Egyptian film – plus Coptic church music and food – went down extremely well in both villages.
     There are now around 50 community cinema throughout Scotland – and the number is growing. 'Between Dundee and Aberdeen there are no commercial cinemas,' says Pete Marshall. 'All over Scotland there are thousands of small communities who do not register on the commercial radar of multiplexes and are not catered for by that system. Community cinema – organised by the community outwith the neurosis of the commercial world – is an idea whose time has come.'

There will be no edition of the Scottish Review tomorrow, but there will be an edition on Friday

Barbara Millar is a journalist