An Edinburgh cinema, that’s remained largely unknown for the last 90 years, is welcoming the public into their bespoke premises this weekend.
Located in Edinburgh’s new town this unassuming building on Fettes Row has been home to the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society since the late 1930s – with the club being the oldest movie making society in Scotland.
This weekend, visitors will be able to watch films at the society’s cinema, meet society members and discover the resources the club society has to offer for budding film makers. And for family and younger guests there will also be a range of events at nearby East Circus Gardens, including face painting, a movie themed costume parade and a bouncy castle.
The New Town Family Film Festival takes place this Sunday, August 27 between 12pm and 4pm.
For information on how to book tickets and a full listing of events you can visit the link below
www.tickettailor.com/events/edinburghcineandvideoclub?ref=edinburghminute
Located in Edinburgh’s new town this unassuming building on Fettes Row has been home to the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society since the late 1930s – with the club being the oldest movie making society in Scotland.
This weekend, visitors will be able to watch films at the society’s cinema, meet society members and discover the resources the club society has to offer for budding film makers. And for family and younger guests there will also be a range of events at nearby East Circus Gardens, including face painting, a movie themed costume parade and a bouncy castle.
The New Town Family Film Festival takes place this Sunday, August 27 between 12pm and 4pm.
For information on how to book tickets and a full listing of events you can visit the link below
www.tickettailor.com/events/edinburghcineandvideoclub?ref=edinburghminute
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NewsTranscript
00:00 An Edinburgh cinema that's remained largely unknown for the last 90 years is welcoming
00:06 the public to their bespoke premises this weekend.
00:09 Situated in Edinburgh's Newtown, this unassuming building on Fetis Row has been home to the
00:14 Edinburgh Cine and Video Society since the late 1930s, with the club being the oldest
00:20 moviemaking society in Scotland.
00:23 This weekend, visitors will be able to watch films at the society's cinema, meet society
00:28 members and discover the resources the club has to offer.
00:32 And for families and younger guests, there will also be a range of events at nearby East
00:37 Circus Gardens, including face painting, a movie-themed costume parade and a bouncy castle.
00:43 Titled the Newtown Family Film Festival, the event will help fundraising efforts to restore
00:48 and enhance the space, and also hopes to attract a new generation of filmmakers and creatives
00:54 to the society.
00:55 Well, the society has been going for many years, since 1936, when it started off as
01:00 Edinburgh's Cine Society.
01:01 Back in those days, it was mainly professional people who could afford cine film and the
01:08 costs of developing it.
01:10 And they wanted a club where they could actually learn how to splice it together and project
01:13 it onto a screen to show off their holiday films to their friends.
01:18 And that's how the club actually formed.
01:19 It was mainly a social circle of professional people showing off their holiday films and
01:25 learning how to do the mechanics of it at the club night.
01:28 But over the years, the cine people have diminished quite dramatically.
01:35 We've got one or two left, they're in their 90s now.
01:38 The oldest member is 93.
01:39 And he's still keen on his cine projectors and his cine film.
01:44 But the other people have been brought up in video.
01:47 That was even declining because due to COVID, we were closed for two and a half years.
01:52 And dropping our numbers, it was quite traumatic.
01:55 So we ended up with about 14 members, older members that wasn't sustainable for the club.
02:00 So with a recruitment campaign back in a couple of open days, we've recruited another 28 new
02:06 members since then.
02:07 So the club's in a healthier position.
02:09 We're hoping to have, through this fundraising event, get money in to help soundproof the
02:14 floor of the film theatre here, to stop the transmission noise to the neighbours below,
02:19 and to improve the amenities of the club room as a whole, some decoration and painting and
02:24 a few other things like that.
02:27 Since the 1930s, the club's made about 600 films.
02:31 With COVID and everything, things have kind of slowed to a halt.
02:33 We now have three films in production.
02:38 So we're trying to get back into the swing of making films.
02:42 More films have been made now than have ever been made before because of TikTok and smartphones.
02:46 And what we'd like to do is try and tap into that generation and get people to go from
02:52 making two-second TikToks to short films and then longer films, and maybe even feature
02:57 films.
02:58 We're trying to get the story that there is a club here and we make films and we exist
03:01 out, which I don't think many people know.
03:05 Ahead of the club's new season that begins in October, the Society are keen to recruit
03:10 new members who have an interest in a range of disciplines, from scriptwriting, directing
03:14 and cinematography, to costume design, animation and sound engineers, just to name a few, and
03:20 for people who want to try their hand at green screen production.
03:24 Sunday's fundraiser will also host a workshop, teaching people how to incorporate the technique
03:29 into their videos.
03:30 We start with script aspects, how to write scripts, how to translate a script into action
03:34 and block in the films, what type of equipment to use, lighting equipment and sound equipment.
03:39 And then we put it all together and the club members then start making their own small
03:44 productions.
03:45 We've got five different scriptwriters.
03:46 In fact, one of our scriptwriters has left because he's got a job working in the screen
03:52 room for the Rebus new production.
03:54 See, he was going to do a series of scriptwriting for us and we've lost him because he's moving
03:59 up north.
04:02 The Newtown Family Film Festival takes place this Sunday, the 27th of August, between 12
04:07 and 4pm.
04:09 For information on how to book tickets and a full listing of events, you can visit TicketTaylor.com
04:14 using the link below.
04:16 And for more information on the Edinburgh Cine and Video Society and how to become a
04:20 member, you can visit their website at www.ecvs.co.uk.
04:27 This year is a real big, you know, memberships now up back to above 40 and films in production,
04:33 so that's good.
04:34 The initial thing is to get the rooms back into a bit better shape and then see where
04:40 we go from there.
04:41 I mean, I can't imagine we're going to stop fundraising any time soon.
04:47 This is the first attempt to bring some money in.
04:49 We're getting a lot of freelancers and people involved in film production, directors and
04:55 producers.
04:56 The Thursday meeting is a kind of meeting up of like minds.
04:59 It helps them and it helps us as well.
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