On Saturday 4th November, the Making Waves Film Festival hosted our one-day live cinema Creative Producers Lab and launched our BFI Film Audience Network-funded Community Curated Live Cinema Exhibition project.
After initial introductions, 3 workshops covered how to market, design and perform in an immersive cinema experience, each of which focused on bringing the 1991 film The Commitments to life with their chosen subject. An understanding of marketing, designing and performing in cinema commenced the workshops before discussing The Commitments and how it could be translated into the Portsmouth & Southsea area. The film is set in Ireland and has themes of Irish Nationalism and disconnection to their identity and as a result leaves main characters feeling inspired by African-Americans, and more specifically, Soul music. The title references the name of the band in the film that performs in and around the fictional town of Barrytown, invented by the author of the book, The Commitments, Roddy Doyle.
Utilising these themes, attendees of each workshop came up with ways in which to bring the film to life, starting with the venue. Since members of the band in The Commitments spend most of their music career performing in bars or warehouses, looking at a local event space, like the Staggeringly Good Brewery in Southsea, it makes sense to look for a venue with a similar look and feel. This space would need to facilitate live music as well as food and drink stations to further tie in themes of Irish culture to the event. For example, hosting a run of Battle of the Bands nights sponsored by MWFF would draw attention to the immersive experience and allow the event to gain traction through a unique marketing funnel.
Inviting local food and drink vendors like Pie and Vinyl to replicate classic pub food in a similar style as seen in the film would enhance the experience. This would also give local businesses a chance to make an income and bring together several Portsmouth and Southsea institutions.
Since such a vast percentage of this area’s population are students, the attendees included several ideas to give opportunity to those interested and provide them with a platform. Examples included putting on a competition for students to design a logo for the evening/event which would be used in all forms of marketing.
After the workshops, we were joined by Professors Sarah Atkinson and Helen Kennedy who gave attendees an insight into the world of live cinema using their extensive research of one of the leading companies in this industry, namely Secret Cinema. Looking at the immersive cinema experience from more than just a design perspective meant that attendees could learn more about engaging audiences and the specific type of live cinema they desire to achieve.
It was an extremely productive day, we are now steaming ahead with plans for the screening of The Commitments at a popular local venue in March 2024. Watch this space for further updates.
