5 years ago
PhoenixFM - Emma and Adam were interviewed by Greg. A daunting but great experience !
Humble Beginnings. In March, 2015, the idea was first hatched as part of Essex County Council's
Press & PR. We were very fortunate that the idea of setting up @BillericayCine was incredibly popular with the press. The Billericay and Brentwood Gazette in particular carried a number of stories publicising our group, as did The Echo. Seeing this on Billericay High Street brought out the goosebumps, especially as we weren't expecting it .
Fundraising ! Anne, Gillian, Emma - and Carol (taking the photo !) took part in the 2015 John Baron Fun Walk raising money for @BillericayCine.
Clearing the Library. Our first challenge was working out how to clear the floor space - which is actually quite easy. All of the bookcases are on wheels. The real challenge is remembering to put them all back, in the right order, in exactly the right place !
A small but very big screen. Our collapsible screen is 2.6 metres by 3.5 metres - and it fits into this box weighing in at roughly 30 kilos.
Projector & speakers. It was exciting when the speakers and projector finally arrived. The Cinema was becoming a reality !
Cinema Screen Arrives finally ! This was the moment our much delayed screen arrived. We'd been given a loan screen - but it was too tall to fit in the Library. So we had to check and make sure this one fitted !
It's big !!! Our screen measures about 2.5 metres by 3.6 metres. This was the very first time it was set up in the Library (the image of Paddington is Photoshopped onto it !)
Very first setup. Quite a few people were involved in testing out our first layout - but it was fun !
Putting everything back. At the end off the show, we have to put everything back where we found it. Fortunately most of the bookshelves are very easy to move around.
Final orientation. Initially we had the screen by another wall, with more rows of fewer seats. We've found that our current layout - fewer rows of more seats - works much better for people. Again, this is a temporary screen.
Trying out the seating. The Library seating is really quite comfortable - but our challenge was to work out how to organise it.
First screen test. Initially we had to use a temporary - much smaller - standard projector screen. The story of why our own screen took so long to arrive is a story of stress, woe and frustration !
Blackout blinds. All of the Library windows are blacked out for both the Sunday afternoon and Thursday evening shows. The blinds were made from builders plastic (kindly donated to us !). Each window was carefully measured and the blind cut to fit !
Beanbags arrive....and they filled Anne's house ! The beanbags have been a huge success in our

Setting up the cinema has been a learning experience for all of us. Everything about the project was new – from getting funding and publicity to working out how to create a space in the Library and setting up the equipment.

 

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