Sitting in the red plush seats of a big cinema screening as the lights go dark with your snack of choice perched in the cup rest; that’s the ideal evening activity for so many film fans.
But going to the cinema has got more and more expensive, making it harder to afford on a regular basis. Plus, it can feel like a bit of an isolating experience if you go on your own and don’t have a mate to chat about the movie afterwards.
That’s why film clubs are popping up all over the UK in an attempt to solve both of these issues. Will Mead is the founder of one in London, and set up Midweek Cinema just over three months ago.
Although it’s a new addition to the scene, the club has already amassed thousands of followers on Instagram and a loyal WhatsApp community group.
Like many of us, Will loves going to the pictures, especially the Prince Charles Cinema in central London. But he said that after finishing a film, there was not necessarily a space where you could easily socialise before or after.
“I just thought there could be something more,” Will says. That prompted him to set up his own club where attendees can talk to others after the screening at an affordable price.
He continues: “I always try to put some music on before and afterwards, and then people chat about the film.”
As you might expect from the name, the showings are usually held on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, and a single ticket currently costs £10.50.
Finding the right equipment
To set up a film club, however, you have to have the right kit. “My mission was to get as close to a cinema experience in a non-cinematic environment,” says Will.
Will uses the Hisense C2 Ultra, which is a portable 4K projector with a handy built-in stand. He says: “I think it’s the best projector for what I’m doing,” especially considering it weighs just over 6kg.
You might think that the projector would be the hardest part of the setup, but it was the screen that actually posed the biggest challenge. Will needed a screen that could be folded so he could take it from venue to venue, but it still needed to be big enough and height-adjustable so everyone in the audience can see.
Light is also a strong consideration – but ambient light-rejecting screens present their own problems. “As far as I know, there’s not a foldable ambient light-rejecting screen on the market because they are so delicate.” Some can be folded “in a very precise way”, but he says he “needs something that can roll up and fold fairly quickly”.
Will notes that he ended up going for a “non-name brand” that was both foldable and height adjustable, as the latter was the most important consideration. “If you’ve got 20 or 30 people in the room, some of them won’t be able to see the bottom of the image in the second or third row,” he explains.
For the audio setup, he opts for a portable PA system that could fit into his bag so it was easy to take on the road.
Working with a range of venues presented its own problems too. “The audio in each room is really different, right?” Will says. “The surfaces are made out of different things, there’s a different amount of people each time, and the room requires quite a lot of setting up.”
Choosing the films
Before you can even think about showing films, there’s the admin of licensing to get sorted.
“If you want to show anything in public to an audience, you need a license. You need the right permissions from the distributor; that could be Warner Brothers or a very small distribution group,” says Will.
“Whatever film you want to put on, you have to find the distributor and see if you can get that permission,” he adds.
Once that’s done, Will can get to work choosing what films to show. “I do it based on what I think would be cool to watch,” he smiles.
“If you start looking at the box office or how many headlines it’s been in, it’s not so much fun, and you’re not choosing it for the right reasons.” That approach has resulted in a varied and eclectic selection of films that will come as a delight to even the most niche of cinephiles.
Some of his back catalogue ranges from the classic Taxi Driver to Gummo (a 1996 experimental sketch-comedy drama). And there are still plenty of movies that Will wants to show, including the 1980 release Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate.
Will explains that it is “super long”, but its history is what makes it especially interesting. “It came after The Deer Hunter [also directed by Cimino], which won loads of awards. He basically got given a blank cheque to make the film, and it is arguably what killed that era of film where they were giving loads of opportunities to young directors like Francis Ford Coppola,” he says.
Will tells us that he has recently been given access to the newly reopened Plaza Camden, which was thought to have closed its doors as a cinema back in February. But the venue is being given a new lease of life, and Midweek Cinema will be able to operate from a 72-seater cinema screen for some of the week.
“The aim is to show more things there, but keep the travelling cinema aspect,” Will says. “I’m called Midweek Cinema,” he continues, “but because of this, I’ll be able to do Fridays and Saturdays because pubs are very busy on those days.”
It's still early days for Will, but it seems that this new screen is the start of a bold new chapter for London’s latest film club.
MORE:
Check out our review of the Hisense C2 Ultra
These are the best projectors
And here is how to set up a projector screen
