Adventures in Cinema - Media Active

2. MediaActive is working on Adventures with young people
aged 15 to 23 years in rural Shropshire, exploring cinema
‘beyond the multiplex’
Our Young Programmers are learning about different genres of
film and thinking about new ways to stimulate interest by other
young people in trying something ‘un-hollywood’
Ideas Generation is a key part of the programme

3. Adventures seeks to:
• connect young people to the world of specialised film and film
exhibition
• create opportunities for young people to learn more about the
cinema exhibition industry, including archives
• enable young people to become film programmers and
advocates for specialised film

4. Adventures also considers how young people can make best use
of their local, often rural and part-time cinema venues, and how
those venues might better attract younger audiences.

5. USP of small community venues?
Can’t compete with multiplex seating so create something
completely different – indoor picnics for example!

6. Young Programmer sessions operate as regular short after school or
evening sessions, or as intensive 1 or 2 day sessions, sometimes as
part of a film industry work experience commitment by the
participant.
Adventures in Alternative Cinema blog
www.mediaactive.org

7. Young Programmers then go on to programme film and
cinema based events, promotional and engagement activity
with a view to engaging more young people, and the wider
public, in enjoying specialised film.
Adventures
in Alternative
Cinema
blog

8. Engagement Activity:
Events have included interactive presentations, designed with
younger audiences in mind, using a selection of film clips with input
from guest speakers and filmmakers.
• Introduction to World Cinema
• Introduction to Documentary
• Introduction to British Cinema
• Introduction to Artists Moving Image

9. Engagement Activity:
Pop Up Screenings - indoor skate park, high street shop windows,
supermarkets, busy market cafés during Shrewsbury Food Festival
filmmaking workshops using archive film

10. Special offers & branding
cinema screenings targeting younger audiences

11. Social Media
• Small scale interventions - new ideas to capture interest……….
Crowd sourcing –
post your vote to
facebook
analogue tweets
analogue tweets

12. Some of the things we have learned
• Generally participants hadn’t thought about how hard it can be
for the independent film and cinema sector to get the attention
of young people – when they recognised the “indie factor” of
non-mainstream film and cinemas they were quicker to think the
sector deserved support…..and felt it was (or could be) “cool”
too.
Some of the group visiting FLAG Film Festival
at FACT in Liverpool

13. • When surveyed, young people didn’t appear to have a problem
with the idea of subtitles – unlike older audiences – but were less
likely to watch foreign language films because of the lack of
publicity.
• Most of the young people had never experienced the WOW
factor of satellite broadcasts in a cinema either…and this could
be a potential selling point.
• Community venues that are part-time cinemas are most likely to
be set up in a way that suits the taste of the (not so young)
management committee – and are often staffed by older
volunteers too…so young people may not consider the venue to
be for them.

14. • Young people like Uni’ style
student offers not just because
of the discount, but because
it treats them as an older age
group.
• Young people had a long list
of films that they consider to
be “classics” - films that they
have grown up watching but
have never seen in a cinema
– they want to see them on
the Big Screen!
• Young people don’t want to
only programme for other
young people!

15. www.mediaactive.org