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 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.

01:32Jack Loudon who's our patron who became our patron is was first out of the traps as it were because when he

01:39got his BAFTA in 2022 BAFTA Scotland award and he 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

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

02:07and 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

02:21were 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

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

02:39own 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

02:59raise 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

03:48um it's a a wonderful city center community gathering place actually the most important

03:57thing was new seating and that meant more leg room um you know when when it was first done

04:0240 years ago people didn't mind having their knees around their ears but that's not acceptable in the

04:08modern world so we had to re-seat all the cinemas um and that was quite a big task in cinema one where we

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

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

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

04:35much better now 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 um a sort of dinky bijou screen with 24 seats

04:49which will be finished in july

04:53the important thing to understand about film house is it's completely unique in the city and that was

04:58why it was so important to get it back and the reason it's unique is that um we show films that no

05:04other cinemas do and we show formats of films that no other cinemas do for instance when Oppenheimer

05:10was released on 70 mil nobody in edinburgh could see it on 70 mil because we were closed we have two

05:17amazing gorgeous 70 mil um projectors and we also 35 millimeter 16 we could even show 8 mil if we wanted to

05:29so being here in film house and in cinema one um nearly ready uh to open again is really fantastic

05:37it's quite emotional we've been watching this evolve through being a building site um all the

05:43things 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

05:55i'm here in the newly refurbished screen one of the film house which is very exciting

06:01with andrew simpson who is executive director of the film house and rod white who is program director

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

06:10on 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 under those circumstances really and it's proved the right

06:20decision by the uh hundreds of people who've bought tickets to see it and for the rest of the week it

06:26was um we thought we would show films that maybe didn't get a fair go in edinburgh while film house was

06:33closed and uh we put that list of films together and it really became abundantly clear what it is

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

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

06:51of tickets 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

07:00um we will have a four screen now so there'll be a little more our program can be slightly broader

07:06and i mean commercially and you know the other direction as well so because it gives us just

07:13added flexibility that wasn't there with three screens so it'll be kind of more but of the same

07:20i suppose but um we're intent on we're holding on to as many of the old program partners that we used

07:27to have that's you know spanish film festival french film festival uh organizations like that and we're

07:33keen to bring uh all of those back and most of them have already got their places in our schedules so

07:39that's very much part of the of the future going forward and the forescreen also gives us a bit of

07:44flexibility for more kind of you know communities to come in and and um you know watch films and discuss

07:50them or or whatever it is but it's just the uh the added capacity is is pretty you know it's huge for

07:57us and in terms of the projection there's some quite unique facilities available here that aren't

08:02available in many other cinemas yeah um somewhere like this i think we'll always you know hold on to

08:08the ability to show all these legacy formats and while you know 35 millimeter and indeed 70 millimeter might

08:16have might have um we might have thought they would fade away uh you know with the with the onset of

08:22digital projection um we are in a kind of there's a period now where there's huge interest in in showing

08:31film in the in the original format so that's always going to be something that that a place like this does

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

08:44thing brilliant and andrew from a sort of business point of view there's still a little bit of

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

08:54outstanding and how much do you need yeah so we're we're still a couple of hundred thousand pounds

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

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

09:11building so new lifts greening various kind of you know energy saving measures upgrading to laser

09:18projection and some of our screens which will make projection brighter crisper but also cheaper and

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

09:30the project and bring film house to the level of being a you know a world-class sort of cultural center

09:37for film um located in edinburgh and and one that's really kind of fit for purpose for the future so

09:43um you know we were very gratified that there was a question asked of the the first minister in

09:47scottish parliament a couple of weeks ago um around the the funding gap that we've received

09:52um so we may be hoping for a little something there but yeah we're exploring our options and

09:56obviously we are a charity that takes donations from the public and we're only really here because we've

10:00had that enormous groundswell of support from from our audiences and we'll be continuing to fundraise in

10:05order to sort of make up that gap and and finish the project and bring film house back in the way

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

10:14get here but also since you've announced reopening you mentioned ticket sales for cinema paradiso have

10:18been very good have you had a queue outside the door of people desperate to get in for the first few weeks

10:23yeah i mean it's been you know the amount of demand has been extraordinary so you know we've sold out

10:28various um various screenings as well as cinema paradiso um several thousand tickets have gone already we've

10:35already we've already beaten our target for memberships for the first year of our being open

10:39and we've not even opened the doors yet um sold out our fam a thousand founder memberships in a day

10:44and sold another 1500 memberships since um so yeah the again kind of the that energy and support which

10:51i think is you know given the resource that that we needed but also i think kind of the the confidence

10:56that we've had as a team that the film houses wanted kind of back in back in the city um you know again

11:02it's just another platform to sort of drive our work forward and i think we're anticipating a

11:05really really busy period when we open which is incredibly exciting fantastic thank you very much

11:10thank you thank you

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