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From The Star And Shadow Cinema Wiki

Christo - 12 june 06.

Here is an interview with narc mag to be edited and then sent off on Friday 16 june by Debbie. x

Ilana 16 Jun - what i sent in: only some mini changes, also answered the last qu's

what was the jack Stevenson screening like on Saturday? did it give you a feel for what's to come?

Well, Jack is the perfect person to do the inaugural screening because he is a connoisseur of DIY cinemas having written about lots of the European ones in his very worth reading book 'Land of 1000 Balconies'. The screening was lovely. We had about 20 people on very comfy stacking chairs that we discovered going for free from the Bruvvers Theatre Company down the road. We sparked up our old portable 16mm projector and there were only a few hitches. Thanks to Chris also for the guitar amp which just about coped with the slightly bad sound from the projector. There was no candle light, but we did have some emergency lighting solutions to create ambience. There was no donation bar and people did not drink bottles of beer while not watching Jack's excellent programme of rock and roll films followed by the totally entertaining drugs paranoia films. The US navy's warning film about the effects of LSD was great - especially the opening credits - totally psychedelic with the text US NAVY PRESENTS over the top, an attractive paradox. This was a strictly private screening though, for our volunteers, which felt appropriate. There is of course still a lot to do.

who are the main people involved with the creation of the Star and Shadow? The IDEA is that there are no main people involved within the creation of the Star and Shadow cinema, but the reality is that it is a subsidiary of Fox Entertainment. Our patron is Rupert 'Iris' Murdoch, the inventor of myspace.com. We are another experiment trying to get into the minds of the young and creative to assess future market possibilities. Many people have been inspired by our business plan and have therefore offered to help us for free so far, including some people very often who it would be embarrassing to name check here.

at what point and why did you decide to setup the Star and Shadow?

We decided to set it up when we were informed that our lease was not going to be renewed at the Side Cinema. We immediately started looking for a property elsewhere and found the one we are renovating a year and a bit ago. We always wanted a bit more room too, so that we could fulfil the social potential of cinema through having a bar which really creates a warmth around things. The bar is a big pair of arms and a chest that wraps around the cinema to keep it cosy. There is an argument too that influences us when keeping up the motivation for building the Star and Shadow, and that is that there are very few spaces in the world where people are free to create their own culture and have an audience right there to experience it in real time. We will have some very culturally significant resources at the Star and Shadow - Polytechnic, a group who are heavily into the creative potential of computers and networking and open source systems will be housed here, helping people get a bit more control over a technology that tends to keep the user at a barge pole's distance from properly understanding how it all works. We will also have an excellent darkroom with the possibility of processing our own black and white 16mm and colour reversal (like slide film) super 8, 16mm and 35mm film, and editing super 8 and 16mm, organised by Filmbee (who just finished their Maximo Park tour video and are also responsible for a coupla music vids – the first Maximo Park and Field Music ones - and supporting The Set Up production which included members of those bands along with Chippewa Falls, Les Cox (sportifs) and The Futureheads.). We will also have basic video editing and cameras. Live Art will feature in the programme as the group Platform North East, who support the many artists in the region making all sorts of experimental work, will also be based at Star and Shadow. Then there is talk of screen-printing workshops and of course self-educating about film through programming for the cinema, and who knows what else? The interesting thing about this though is that as a collective, there is no real person in charge censoring what you want to do creatively, and we hope this leads to a level of freedom of expression that has hitherto been restricted to individual actions in the studio or in the bedroom.

could you tell us a little bit about the gig this month organised by no-fi? who will be playing etc? That is a strictly invitation only affair, as a soundtrack to the neo-structuralist movie 'what happens if i don't put the projector on' premiere, and is restricted to invites - it is a private experiment to test out the building and work out what should go where with staging, P.A. and screens etc. Sadly we can’t open it up to the public yet, that will happen in July, which isn’t too far away now.

Of course, we are very excited to be teaming up with No-Fi who are spiritual fathers of the cultural re-revolution that hasn’t yet and will never happen in anywhere but our minds and in small rooms like perhaps the bar of the Star and Shadow cinema.

Will live music be a regular feature of the Star and Shadow? how will this tie in with film?

well, ideally we would encourage live music in the Star and Shadow, and it will incorporate film elements always, especially if we can make it feel like early Pink Floyd concerts, which were really as much expanded film events as music ones. We would love to carry on doing live soundtracks to silent films, which we did quite a bit at the old place with meandthetwins, The Rebel, Matinee Orchestra and others. We have tried to sound proof the whole place as far as we could, and we are right in the middle of a building surrounded on all sides by other stuff between us and the neighbours but we value a good community spirit more than making noise, so it all depends. We start off slowly and then see what happens.

will there be chances for members of the public to recommend films, or indeed to organise their own screenings and parties at the Star and Shadow?

That was really the guiding principal of the whole project, that we are a participatory cinema. We are you/the public and we all want to watch films in the cinema so yes we (you/the public) should find out who holds the rights to the films we/you/the public would like to see, find out what format it comes on (dvd/16mm/35mm) and how much it would cost to screen (between £75-£100), and then decide on a date and propose it to a Monday night meeting which is open to anyone. There are lots of people with plenty of experience at doing this, so if you have something you would like to see and fancy going through how to put it on with someone who knows, then please do email starandshadow@gmail.com.

do you think you have a big legacy to live up to with the stuff you've done in the past with the Side or do you view the Star and Shadow as a totally fresh entity?

Umm, not really do I feel we have a big legacy to live up to. I just hope people will see the value in this place and the fact that so many hands have helped erect it and that it is a great gift to ourselves to have a place like this. I desperately hope everyone appreciates and acts on the possibilities it holds within it. I mean it is a very radical thing we are doing here - a volunteer run venue where no one gets paid but we manage to sustain ourselves just like a conventional business. So if you are reading this and you think there is a value, please consider helping by doing a shift a year at the bar or a bit of ushering.

how important has support from volunteers been to the creation of the cinema?

Crucial. In fact if it was only paid workers doing the cinema, we would have precisely nothing to show, nothing more than fantasies played out over a pint in the pub. It is quite astonishing how many people would give their time to a project like this. I think we have about 200 people on our list of volunteers, and so far about 80 people have done something or other in the construction of the cinema. We hope once we are fully open that this pool of people stays involved and grows. Again that is a very radical concept - 200 people working on a project together, for free! WOW.

has everything gone to plan so far, or have there been a few unexpected occurrences?

Most of the unexpected has been down to finding out the regulations for certain things slightly later than would have been sensible, thus landing us with some rather hefty bills. But everyone we have worked with (electricians, builders, heating and vent contractors, architects) have been incredibly good to us, and often given us very useful advice and help with special tools etc. The best unexpected thing was having such a good response for the building festival - people travelled from Hungary, Portugal, Belgium, Berlin and all over the UK to help out which was an awesome feeling. Another unexpected occurrence was the reality of how long it takes to build a cinema, which we slightly fancifully thought could be done in about a month, but doing things by hand takes a long time and we are all very much looking forward to having a building with things going on inside beyond purely construction work.

how will the Star and Shadow's programming differ from that of other independent cinemas such as the Tyneside?

The fact that we are independently programming sets us apart from many cinemas. From a film point of view, one could say there is a desire to self-educate through programming film as an artform, which involves seeing a lot of old movies to compare with the new, and art/experimental, underground, home-made and lo-budget films, to compare different approaches (for artistic/economic/social/psychological reasons). We are all very interested in entertainment though too, and strong emotional reactions, not just brimming with glee at the happy ending of Amelie, but also queasy discomfort, apocalyptic doom, the thrill of good satire and even feelings of optimism about the possibility of changing the world. The programme will be whatever it will be and whatever is available and whatever people would like to see on the big screen. We would love it if new audiences that never really stepped out to the pictures started programming films at the cinema - every country in the world has its own cinema, and we would like that to be represented in the programme and in the audience.

how will you decide on the programming? will you actively be going to film festivals and the like?

There is a programming team which meet and is open to new people each meeting. There may be elements of practical feasibility such as how many people do you need to staff that film, how are you going to market it etc which need to be gone through before a film is booked but we hope it will be fairly spontaneous. We are hoping that soon our high tech website will be up and running, designed to make organising a film screening pretty easy and also well-communicated to other volunteers. From a research point of view, people choose films their own way really, whether it be one you read about in a book and have never heard of but know the director or something, or one you saw at a festival (some folk do head off to festivals, but not very regularly, as it can be expensive, though having said that there is the possibility of getting funding to attend festivals).

on a wider scale, what are the main differences between the Star and Shadow and other independent cinemas?

Well, we will have to see. Apart from the alternative structure, volunteer run and programmed, we may find we differ very little from other independent cinemas. But it is not a competition. It is just we are doing it our own way while they do it theirs and we hope we can be mutually supportive (maybe we need a bit more mutual support than they do!) but the key thing is that at Star and Shadow there is the possibility of creating your own culture, whereas in all the other cultural outlets you can only really consume culture. I mean there are workshops and ways of doing participatory activity at most cultural places nowadays, but I still see a difference between going to something that is being sold to you, and going to something which your support (in a non-financial sense) helps exist, or that you yourself have organised. I don't want to over egg the pudding though, because this is just one way of doing things, and it definitely proves an alternative is possible. We still value and patronise The Odeon, The Tyneside etc, we wouldn't be alternative without them, and we wouldn’t get to see any new releases! But also I don't want to dilute our mission - to create powerful cultural experiences.

what can folk expect from your lovely bar?

There is talk of a Star and Shadow single cask single malt whisky which will be extremely delicious. We will have beers in bottles or maybe kegs depending on how fast we get through stuff, and perhaps some nice soft drinks. Well, suggestions are welcome. We want to get things which are well made and tasty, and which didn't exploit people too much in their production, for example home made cakes, VERY trendy Zapatista endorsed coffee, fingers crossed one of the local breweries will consider us as a customer. We will have an espresso machine and take our coffee very seriously. I am slightly treading water here because like everything with this blessed enterprise it is completely open to have whatever people want to organise themselves.

which films will you be showing at your opening weekend? That is extremely top secret information, that our patron has not let us know yet.

will the cinema be open every night of the week?

That’s going to very much depend on our volunteers and our audiences! How often do you want us to be open?! We’ll probably aim for 3 to 4 nights a week to start things off and then take things from there.

do you see the Star and Shadow expanding in the future?

it will expand and contract, a bit like a black hole or metal. I can't wait for the little expansions followed by momentary contractions and then another small expansion. As long as it doesn’t create fatigue it will grow and shrink and display all the normal behaviour patterns of the element 'small to medium enterprise.’ But that’s all to be seen…watch this-Star-and-Shadow-space…

Laura - 6 April 2006

Has everyone seen the newspapers today - Journal page 10 and 12 and Chronicle page 14 Check it out!

People interested: James, Ilana, Georgia, Becca, Debbie, Sofia

Meeting: 29th Wed 6pm at The Bridge

Agenda (please add things that need to be discussed at the meeting) Local Marketing - especially leafletting all the houses in the neighbourhood letting them know what we are up to.

Posters/Leaflets

Brochure

Opening night event (once the date has been decided upon, send out invitations and press releases. Start working on the list of people that should be invited)

Call for volunteers

Decide on promotional activities (ex. student concession at tickets/ group tickets and season tickets/ get feature in city guides etc)

Create a database and send out monthly mails on upcoming events (Maybe people can register at the door if they want to?)

Budget

Deadlines (maybe work on a draft timetable)

MINUTES: 29.03.06, 6pm, Bridge Hotel

Present:

Rebecca Knight Sophia Mavrivou Owen Gilfellon Jack Chen Debbie Bower Susie Green Laura Harrington Ilana Mitchell

1. Local Marketing

Discussion over how to involve the neighbourhood and engage them in whats going on. It was decided an invite needed to be posted, including info and an invitation for a private view in May before cinema opens. This needs to go out before the building festival starts and also before the brochure. Becca Suggested we could ask for ideas on films people may want to watch too. Debbie Suggested screening Ambers 'Byker' film Susie also suggested to keep all informed in St Vincent de Paul, community centre on the corner of Crawhall road. Jack asked how will people know where the cinema will be? mentioned the idea of signage on the floor that leads people to the cinema from say, the University or Northumberland St, discreet graffiti, from charcoal or something impermanent.

It was also discussed that we should find out how to get a yellow AA road sign.

Owen spoke of 'DoJo?' films that has a 48 hr filmmaking contest at the end of may. we should contact them to see if they want to use Star and Shadow as their venue

2. Posters and Leaflets

The 'no film' brochure is back at the beginning of next week. there are 450 people on the postal mail out so far but we need to do a massive distribution to venues around the city and beyond.

Becca suggested we need to make a day of it whereby we all collect the flyers, head off and meet up afterwards. Could Christo possibly drive them into a central point in his car, as Sophia mentioned that Harkers is a bit out of the way.

We need to access the universitys and also post programmes etc to the heads of departments

Laura mentioned that Northumbria university have business talks around this time of year and that it would be a good time to recruit placements at the cinema

Susie will design a poster this weekend to advertise the building fortnight

3. Opening night event

A list exists apparently that was drawn up of who to invite A press release needs to be written to be sent out to media inc. radio. (It is Debbies mission to get Mat and Christo on the radio again). Star and Shadow needs a solid list of marketing contacts. A good database, to be contacted each season like the mailout is. Laura suggested this is a job that could be done by someone on placement. Aswell as Press, other databases needed are: Mailing list (postal), distribution list and email. (sorry if these do already exist!). Debbie mentioned how the LUX newswire is a good example of an email that offers clear information

4. Promotional Activities

Ideas were: Gift Vouchers Student Concessions Season Tickets A ticket like you often get in coffee shops. punch holes in it every screening. 10 holes = 1 free screening Becca mentioned how the membership packs that side had when it first started were lovely. Jack mentioned the 'red envelope' offers in Taiwan. you pay a certain amout of money for a gift bag, some may have 3 tickets in, some may have 5. its a gamble. but is that legal?

5. BUDGET/ Programme

Brochure costs : design £300 print £600 distribution £250 postage £200 labels/ env. £75 general advertising £200

Because there is to be more regular brochures (every 6-8 weeks) then either more money is needed or the above costs need to be cut. Owen asked why we needed to pay a deigner, why could it not be done in house? There was a defense for Annette!: Constant, beautiful aesthetic, identity. Support of her talent. discussion over whether it could be more of a template therefore less work needed? Some questioned whether it was essential to change the brochure so much each season?. this would only work if it was strict as to how many words could fit into a certain space. Debbie concluded that Annette needs to be part of this discussion.

Could the Tyneside free press, who currently print the brochures, possibly be persuaded to come up with a reduction price if there is to be more regualr work?

6. Marketing of BAR

Ilana emphasised points made at previous nights bar meeting. that the bar itself is a selling point and needs to be marketed alongside the cinema. there could be drinks offers etc.

ACTIONS

BECCA with help from DEBBIE will make leaflet to post to local neighbourhood

SOPHIA will email her lecturer to make sure S&S is on their list of Orgs. who accept placements. Will also email 'Heather' at univerity

DEBBIE to remind christo to bring up possibility of AA signs at next meeting with council about the lease. Will call NOrthern Round Will send a group email when brochures arrive (to then be distributed)

OWEN will look in DoJo? film competition JACK will contact Phil Powrie (N'bria media production)

SUSIE will make poster this weekend, for building fortnight

LAURA will write press release with help from DEBBIE