By Colin Farquhar / December 16, 2022
Regional Screen Scotland is delighted to announce the launch of The Guide to Screening Films, designed to give local communities and individuals the know-how to start their own community cinema, and to nourish Scotland’s Screen Community and existing network of community cinemas over the coming years.
The Guide to Screening Films has been created in partnership by the four leading national organisations supporting all sizes of cinemas in communities; Regional Screen Scotland, Screen Scotland, Film Hub Scotland and Cinema For All. It aims to give community screens the grounding they need to find their audience, raise funds, write budgets and then show films to their local communities.
Developed through RSS’ A Cinema Near You and Now Showing programmes, The Guide to Screening Films, is a how-to and a how-to keep going. We know the huge role that community culture can play in the well-being of local communities, and ensuring that film plays a part in these spaces going forward will be hugely important.
The Guide helps you plan your screenings, from conception to delivery; how to speak to your communities and find your audience; how to find a venue and the right tech set up; where to book films and which ones to book, and crucially how to find the funding needed to pay for your pilot screenings and then to move forward with everything you’ve learned.
Maybe you’ve considered starting screenings in your local community for a while. The Guide to Screening Films can get you over some of the fundamental questions in starting out, building your confidence and keeping your screenings accessible and environmentally friendly, and how to build the interest of your friends, neighbours and other local groups, so they’ll attend and love what you’re doing.
Regional Screen Scotland recruits Colin Farquhar as NOW SHOWING support.
We also want you to know that with The Guide to Screening Films comes the support of a network of talented, experienced and enthusiastic individuals and organisations, who are there to help you along your screening journey. We all want sustainable and successful screens in all corners of Scotland, and we’re here to help.
Along with The Guide to Screening Films, RSS is delighted to announce the recruitment of Colin Farquhar to support the launch of the guide and the delivery of the Now Showing programme until March next year, alongside Shona Thomson, Networks Coordinator RSS. Colin is the former Head of Cinema Operations at Belmont Filmhouse in Aberdeen and brings 15 years of experience in Scotland’s screen industry to Regional Screen Scotland.
Colin will be promoting The Guide to Screening Films and encouraging you to get in touch with your local screen community network – brought up on the Buchan coast in Aberdeenshire he knows first-hand how much good local community arts folk can do for communities out with large population areas.
Colin will be working with the screen network coordinators to offer our new fund, ‘Go And See’, which will enable those in the networks visit other venues to share knowledge and have a natter about what works best in community screens. We’re keen for volunteers or staff in organisations to visit another event to be inspired, learn more, or just get a feel for what community cinema can be. If you’re interested in The Guide to Screening Film or the ‘Go and See’ fund you can reach Colin at colin@regionalscreenscotland.org.
To find out more about The Guide to Screening Films please download the guide via the links below, or read through further information on the RSS website.
The Guide to Screening Films as a PDF or Word doc.
You can read more about The Guide and how we can help here and here.
And click through the links for more about Now Showing, Cinema Near You and Towards Universal Cinema.