INTRODUCTION
This article is really two shorter ones linked together by it’s subject. The first part looks at Flix – Loughborough Student Cinema, which was my introduction to projection and cinema, and which will hopefully celebrate a significant birthday in 2006. Off the back of this, it also talks about the importance that student cinemas as a whole provide to the cinema exhibition industry and why it is important to look after them.
FILM SOCIETIES, FLIX – LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENT CINEMA
In November 2006 FLIX - Loughborough Student Cinema turns 60 years old! This is a major milestone when you consider that it predates the university itself and its original home is now a Sainsbury supermarket. Flix dates back to November 1956 and is not only one of the oldest societies on the campus; indeed it is older than the Student’s Union. Up to very recently very little was known about the society pre 1990s. However one of the current members of the committee has spent a great deal of time researching the society and its incredible history. If any readers has any more information or interesting stories about the society, it would be great to hear from you, particularly as it is hoped to have celebration in 2006.
Flix is a relatively new name for the society, which took over from the previous title of LSU Film Society or FilmSoc on the 29th September 1989.
The society has had a number of homes in its history, from the college in town, several lecture theatres on campus, the Edward Herbert Building – the first home of the students union. It moved to the Students' Union building when it opened in 1978 and this has been its home ever since. However from summer 2004 it will be in a new home as the Student's Union is changing the multipurpose venue into a nightclub and so Flix will have to find a new home, which is progress at the moment.
While these days film nights are on Sundays, before 1987 there were films shown on Saturday nights. In 1978/1979 film showing nights were on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday and Tuesday evenings, in 1979/1980 the nights changed to Friday, Sunday and Tuesday.
1987 also saw a NO SMOKING policy introduced into the auditorium during film showings, a policy which now also requires people to turn their mobile phones off.
An interesting request was presented to Flix in November in 1988. A gentleman wrote wanting to know whether Flix was able to get hold of a poster for the 'Empire of the Sun' film, to give to his wife-to-be as a wedding gift.
October 1999 saw a long tradition in Flix broken when the committee finally got committee T-shirts, these had been planned since at least 1985, if not before. Looking through old minutes of committee meetings, they seemed to be a matter which was raised every year, but never got any further. Also in 1999 a small film festival organised in association with Flix with the idea of organizing another the following year.
A society as old as Flix has had a number of bad times, when it has had conflict from all sorts of people. At times this has been so bad that the society has been in danger of closing. But there is something about Flix and the dedication of various members of committee which have made sure that it has kept going. Folklore has it that at one stage there was a committee of only five, practically all of which were graduates of the university. However, currently Flix is on a high. The committee is more dedicated than ever before, membership is up on previous years and things are going well.
Not only am I really interested to meet anyone who has been involved with the society, but I am really interested to know if the is a film society of any description is still running which predates this organisation and if so by how much? Also when was the first film society started? Is it possible that Flix is now one of the oldest continuously running film society in the UK or maybe even the world? I know that the Cheltenham Film Society (http://www.sitka.demon.co.uk/cfs06.htm) is a few years older than Flix as it started in 1945.
FLIX EQUIPMENT
Flix has a 35mm Victora 5 projector, affectionately known as Vicky. It is unknown how old Vicky is, but she is at least 15 years old. Linked to Vicky, is a 2000W Zenith lamphouse and in about 1990 a Westrex Tower was added.
The sound system is made up of an amazing combination of bought and homemade components. The Dolby ‘A’ system is a home made system with a breadboard circuit the size of a bobbin and two Dolby 'A' cards. Despite its make up and sometimes being temperamental it works very well. At some point it is hoped to buy a proper Dolby unit.
Finally Flix also has a 16mm Fumeo projector, three portable 16mm projectors, an 8mm projector and a portable screen.
For more details about Flix, please visit www.flix.org.uk
WHY STUDENT CINEMAS ARE IMPORTANT?
Believe or not there are many more activities on offer at university apart from the academic and alcoholic ones. One of these activities on a number of campuses is in the form of a student cinema. Most of these student cinemas predate more modern forms of student entertainment such as TV and videos in the rooms, the internet or computers with DVDs. But of course being a part of a student cinema is not any easy ride. Often there is a lack of money and resources, with always more things to do than there is time to do them in. I know a number of students who have failed at university because they have put more time and energy into the cinema than their own studies. So the question is why do so many students give up so much of their time to be involved with the student cinemas?
Well running a student cinema is like running a proper single screen cinema. There are the film bookings to sort out and decide upon; the adverts and trailers to deal with (a very important revenue form); publicity to create and distribute; websites to create and maintain; confectionary to buy and sell; equipment to maintain and repair; training to be done (often including fire evacuation); setting up and cleaning up after screenings; financing; charity and collaborative events; strategies to work on; and loads more - the only difference often is that there aren't any wages involved with student ones!
Of course often student cinemas have to deal with a lot of internal politics from the student union bodies themselves who often doesn’t always understand what it is they do - many of them think it is simply a case of putting a DVD on. However the student cinemas provide a lot of benefits to the whole industry.
As has been discussed early in the article there is very little difference between the student cinemas and real cinemas, except for there size. Being able to provide good customer service, thinking about what there students want. They have to be ale to think creatively about publicity and attracting people to events in a world where there are many activities and other ways of spending time and money, not least on a limited budget.
Trained projectionists who care about what they do - why else would you give up so many free hours? Many student cinemas don't have the money to get a technician in every time something goes wrong and so as a result are able to fix or build whole parts of projection boxes and projectors. They are also use to not having the most up-to-date equipment to use.
Therefore it is providing the industry with lots of people who are truly passionate about it, along with a real knowledge and understanding of it. And this is why I feel that not only are student cinemas (and other film societies for that matter) important not only to their customers, but also to the cinema industry as whole but why I feel that what is needed is more help and support from the whole industry.
