Rural cinema pilot scheme
The BFI is driving a new rural strategy to give more people in rural areas the opportunity to enjoy the communal experience of cinema.
Please note: no funding is currently available for cinemas.
The Rural Cinema Pilot Scheme strategy builds on the BFI's ongoing work to improve access to cinema for audiences across the UK. Today, many rural exhibitors use DVD-based equipment. This usually means they cannot screen a newly released film until 12-16 weeks after the film's cinema release, or when the DVD becomes available to buy. Limited access to industry standard equipment can also mean that when a film is available, rural communities are not offered the same high standard of presentation available to audiences in urban areas. The rural strategy aims to give more audiences in rural areas immediate access to new films in high quality presentations.
The Rural Cinema Pilot Scheme
To achieve this, the UK Film Council ran a Rural Cinema Pilot Scheme which brought high standard digital equipment to rural audiences giving them the opportunity to enjoy the benefits that modern digital cinemas have to offer, including live satellite events and 3D films.
Rural cinema in this sense means film screenings in rural areas, normally in non-traditional venues such as village and town halls, arts centres and other community spaces. It encompasses film societies, film clubs, mobile cinemas and community cinemas.
The UK Film Council allocated £1.2 million of Lottery funding to the Rural Cinema Pilot Scheme to be carried out in three rural areas identified as being particularly underscreened:
- Shropshire;
- Wiltshire (plus the adjoining Test Valley Local Authority); and
- North Yorkshire.
These test beds enable rural operators to trial solutions in a focused, monitored environment that can be objectively evaluated.
Consortium approach
In 2009, the UK Film Council officially launched the application process for the scheme. The intention was to build on existing successful initiatives in each region. A consortia-based approach was therefore preferred with local organisations asked to formally collaborate in order to run the pilot scheme on the ground. These included mobile cinema operators, festivals, film societies, arts centres and local and regional and national public bodies.
Applicants presented a three-year budgeted business strategy to the UK Film Council for developing rural cinema in their region with the support of this Lottery funding. The funding facilitates the procurement of high standard digital equipment that will significantly improve the quality or presentation and range of films available to rural cinemas. The award also enabled a range of coordinated audience development work, training and other activities to take place, ensuring that the new technology is maximised and that it benefits the largest number of people.
The scheme was launched in April 2010 and will run for three years. Through annual reporting and a transparent monitoring system, the data collected from the pilot is shared for the benefit of all stakeholders and other interested parties to promote best practice and provide the foundations of any future national scheme. The Rural Cinema Pilot extranet is a public website that is regularly updated with the screening data and results from the three areas: www.ruralcinema.org
For more information, please read
Rural cinema pilot scheme strategy document.
