First look inside the newly refurbished Edinburgh Filmhouse

The Scotsman

Scotsman Arts and Culture correspondent Jane Bradley gets a first look inside Edinburgh's newly refurbished Filmhouse

Transcript

00:00This is Edinburgh's Filmhouse. Originally opened in 1978, it has been dedicated to the celebration

00:12and promotion of independent cinema and a home for the Edinburgh International Film Festival

00:16since 1979. Closing its doors in 2022 following the collapse of its parent charity, a grassroots

00:23Open the Doors movement emerged with the backing of stars including Brian Cox,

00:27Jack Loudon, Charlotte Wells, Dougray Scott and Emma Thompson. It has now undergone a £2 million

00:34refurbishment with new screens, seating and substantial repairs to its roof and stonework.

00:39I'm Jane Bradley, Arts and Culture Correspondent at The Scotsman and we've been invited here today

00:44for the first look inside. Once we knew that we could actually lease the building we had to embark

00:52on a huge crowdfunding exercise as well as other fundraising but when we opened the crowd funder

00:59we were overwhelmed with the evidence as it were from from the response that people wanted Filmhouse

01:08back and that was incredibly energising for us and reassuring because of course we thought that was

01:15true but we got the evidence when people started donating to the crowd funder and it was an amazing

01:22success. We also backed that up with you know support from what you'd call well-kent faces in the industry.

01:31Jack Loudon who's our patron who became our patron was first out of the traps as it were because when he

01:39got his BAFTA in 2022 BAFTA Scotland award and he said sort of thanks very much for the BAFTA but we

01:47have to open Filmhouse again and that was that was a clue that we had a lot of support so you know he

01:54did a video for us and Emma Thompson we just asked some people to say the words open the doors because

02:01that was the name of the campaign and that worked really well because it wasn't hard work for them

02:06and Alan Cumming sent his one overnight you know three versions we didn't realize when we got

02:15together and thought we've got to reopen Filmhouse somehow what we would have to do to do that we

02:20were we were all innocents in that and we've just gone on a journey where one step at a time you know

02:27we've said we have to do this we have to do that and and we've got to that point the first thing that we

02:32had to find out was who had bought this building because it had dawned on us that we didn't have to

02:38own it we could lease it from whoever had bought it so that was a that was a real challenge to start

02:45with was finding out who had bought it and then luckily we were able to persuade Caledonia Inheritable

02:52that they would consider leasing it to us which meant that we needed to negotiate a lease but we had to

02:58raise the money in order to pay for the renovation and the refurbishment because refurbishing Filmhouse

03:06was absolutely crucial to the business model so we also had to improve vastly the the public areas

03:15of the building the foyer we had an enormous box office desk which was a bit like the starship enterprise

03:23um and it's been reduced way down to something a lot more um pretty i would say um and we've also done

03:34up the cafe bar we haven't found another name for it but um that's a brilliant space socializing space

03:43it's great for food and drink um even if you aren't going to a film but we hope you will

03:47um it's a a wonderful city center community gathering place actually the most important

03:56thing was new seating and that meant more leg room um you know when when it was first done 40 years ago

04:03people didn't mind having their knees around their ears but that's not acceptable in the modern world so

04:09we had to re-seat all the cinemas um and that was quite a big task in cinema one where we are now

04:16because um the rake um all the steps that made the rake were made of concrete and there they were a

04:23certain distance apart which meant that we couldn't just put new seats in so we've had to build a whole

04:28new rake over the old one which is why it's very high at the back and the sight lines are much better

04:35now as well so um that was the first thing and then we just improved the other two cinemas

04:42but importantly we're getting a fourth screen a sort of dinky bijou screen with 24 seats

04:48which will be finished in july

04:53the important thing to understand about film house is it's completely unique

04:56in the city and that was why it was so important to get it back

05:00and the reason it's unique is that we show films that no other cinemas do

05:04and we show formats of films that no other cinemas do for instance when oppenheimer was released on 70

05:11mil nobody in edinburgh could see it on 70 mil because we were closed we have two amazing gorgeous

05:1870 mil um projectors and we also have 35 millimeter 16 we could even show 8 mil if we wanted to

05:26so being here in film house and in cinema one um nearly ready uh to open again is really fantastic

05:36it's quite emotional we've been watching this evolve through being a building site um all the

05:42things we've had to do to get to this point and um the idea that there will be an audience in here again

05:49very very soon watching films is just fantastic

05:52i'm here in the newly refurbished screen one of the film house which is very exciting

06:00um with andrew simpson who is executive director of the film house and rod white who is program

06:05director um so yeah just wondered if you can tell me a little bit about the opening i think we're

06:10opening on the 27th of june is that right with cinema paradiso yeah it kind of seemed uh i mean what

06:16else are you going to show under those circumstances really and it's proved the right decision by the

06:21hundreds of people who've bought tickets to see it and for the rest of the week it was um

06:27we thought we would show films that maybe didn't get a fair go in edinburgh while film house was

06:32closed and we put that list of films together and it really became abundantly clear what it is that

06:39edinburgh loses when somewhere like film house doesn't exist so it really sort of served its purpose

06:46from that point of view i think and people seem to be embracing the idea as well by the amount of

06:50tickets that we've sold and have you got a kind of strategy for your programming going forward is

06:55there going to be still the old sort of film house ethos to the programming oh yes very much so um we

07:01will have a four screen now so there'll be a little more our program can be slightly broader and i mean

07:07commercially and you know the other direction as well so because it gives us just added flexibility that

07:14wasn't there with three screens so it'll be kind of more but of the same i suppose but um

07:22we're intent on we're holding on to as many of the old program partners that we used to have that's you

07:27know spanish film festival french film festival have organizations like that and we're keen to bring

07:33all of those back and most of them have already got their places in our schedules so that's very much

07:39part of the of the future going forward and the forescreen also gives us a bit of flexibility for

07:44kind of you know communities to come in and and um you know watch films and discuss them or or whatever

07:51it is but it's just the uh the the added capacity is is pretty you know it's huge for us and in terms

07:58of the projection there's some quite unique facilities available here that aren't available in many other

08:02cinemas yeah um somewhere like this i think we'll always you know hold on to the ability to show all

08:09these legacy formats and while you know 35 millimeter and indeed 70 millimeter might have might have um we

08:17might have thought they would fade away uh you know with the with the onset of digital projection um we are

08:25in a kind of there's a period now where there's huge interest in in showing film in the in the

08:32original format so that's always going to be something that that a place like this does and

08:37it's so gratifying to see you know so many and younger people as well just very hungry for this

08:43um kind of thing brilliant and andrew from a sort of business point of view there's still a little

08:49bit of fundraising to be done just to kind of dot the i's and cross the t's but what is there still

08:53still outstanding and how much do you need yeah so we're we're still a couple hundred thousand pounds

08:58short of of the full cost that we need to be able to fully finish refurbishing the building a lot of

09:04that is around improving um the environmental sustainability and access provision um within

09:10the building so new lifts um greening various kind of you know energy saving measures upgrading to laser

09:17projection and some of our screens which will make projection brighter crisper but also um cheaper and

09:24much greener um and very very important things that are sort of required in order to really kind

09:29of finish off the project and bring film house to the level of being a you know um a world-class sort

09:36of cultural center for film um located in edinburgh and and one that's really kind of fit for purpose

09:41for the future so um you know we were very gratified that there was a question asked of the the first

09:46minister in scottish parliament a couple of weeks ago um around the the funding gap that we've received

09:51um so we may be hoping for a little something there but yeah we're exploring our options and

09:55obviously we are a charity that takes donations from the public and we're only really here because

09:59we've had that enormous groundswell of support from from our audiences and we'll be continuing

10:04to fundraise in order to sort of make up that gap and and finish the project and bring film house back

10:09in the way that it should be and you've already seen massive support from from the public in the

10:13fundraising to get here but also since you've announced reopening you mentioned ticket sales for

10:17cinema paradiso have been very good have you had a queue outside the door of people desperate to

10:21get in for the first few weeks yeah i mean it's been you know the amount of demand has been

10:26extraordinary so you know we've sold out various um various screenings as well as cinema paradiso

10:32um several thousand tickets have gone already we've already we've already beaten our target for

10:37memberships for the first year of our being open and we've not even opened the doors yet

10:40um sold out our fam a thousand founder memberships in a day and sold another 1500 memberships since

10:46um so yeah the again kind of the that energy and support which i think has you know given the

10:52resource that that we needed but also i think kind of the the confidence that we've had as a team that

10:56the film house is wanted kind of back in back in the city um you know again it's just another platform

11:02to sort of drive our work forward and i think we're anticipating a really really busy period when we

11:06open which is incredibly exciting fantastic thank you very much thank you thank you

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