“Great to come to Aberfeldy…”

Well, here we are, just a matter of weeks to go before a brand new cinema arrives in the heart of Aberfeldy. My name is Paul Foley and I am your new Cinema Manager, hopefully we’ll be seeing plenty of each other in the months to come!

I’ve been variously a General Manager for live music and arts venues in Glasgow as well as a jobbing session musician which has seen me work with venues such as Nice N Sleazy and the Glasgow School of Art, as well as playing for bands including Snow Patrol and The Vaselines. This work was great while it lasted and took me as far as Japan and South America but after my last tour, I felt the need to get out the city and get to somewhere that has a little more relaxed pace of living.

By chance, I had been checking out boutique cinemas all over New Zealand and the USA while travelling and had ambitions to open something similar in Glasgow when I got back. After meeting a very interesting chap who ran a pop-up cinema from out of an old convenience store in New York, my mind was made up. Little did I know that an opportunity to get involved with something a little bigger than that was coming along!

 So – the cinema is going to be a fully-kitted-out, all bells and whistles and fully-functioning modern, digital cinema. You won’t have to wait weeks and weeks to see new releases as we’ll be putting things on as near to release date as we possibly can. We’ll have a packed program that is sure to please everyone, from opera and ballet to gaming sessions to festival tie-in’s that will focus on the theme of the festival, be it music, adventure sports or any of the other wonderful things that Highland Perthshire offers. If you want to watch 2D or 3D, we can do that to and we’ve future-proofed as much as we can to make sure that we can deliver the cutting edge in visual entertainment.

The important part is that we are opening in April, with a special screening on the 19^th for the lucky winners of our ‘Golden Ticket’ competition. Look out for details of how to enter in the local press and on our website – www.birkscinema.co.uk. Before then, we’ll be doing special preview screenings for schoolchildren, social groups and local residents between the 13^th and 18^th of April with paying customers welcome from the 20^th onwards. It’s all very hectic as we count down to the opening, so keep an eye on the website for regular updates of how to get involved, from volunteering to job opportunities. See you all soon!

Window on the Square

"Great to get back to Aberfeldy after 5 weeks away and see the amazing progress on the cinema refurbishment: new roof in place, auditorium walls up, space created for beautiful new floor to ceiling windows looking out on to Chapel Street and the Square. Lots of activity by the builders to make sure that we all meet the deadline of end February for completion. Then it will be just a few short weeks before the cinema will open around Easter. Can't wait! Keen to get views from everyone in the community about what kind of film and alternative content they would like to see in the programme so that we can pass them on the to Cinema Manager who should be in post by the first week of December. Please send your ideas to: info@birkscinemafriends.org.uk

 

Thanks to P&K Council for offering to smarten up the area in front of the cinema once the building work is finished. Hoping to see new paving and some landscaping to bring it into line with the rest of the Square. A face-lift for the Square after years of having a near-derelict building spoiling its appearance - and all in place in time for the next tourist season."

 

Behind the scenes..

Summer is speeding by – and so much is happening ‘behind the scenes’ at the cinema.  We have got to that stage where from the outside it might look like very little is happening – but actually we are busy busy getting things in place.

Hadden’s are making brilliant progress inside the building; the amazing cooling labyrinth is in place – a whole series of pipes laid in concrete under the auditorium – accessing the well of ‘coolth’ under the building, so that on those fine summer days when we need the auditorium to be a little cooler – we draw cool air from deep below the floor.  Altogether, really cool.  But now that the pipes are buried in concrete – they will never be seen again!

The foundations for the internal walls and a solid floor screed – so we are beginning to see the shape of what is to come.  Very, very exciting. 

During August the roof will be replaced – and this requires scaffolding around the entire building, which unfortunately means that the Chapel St bus stop will need to be temporarily moved for the next ten to twelve weeks.  Our apologies for any inconvenience caused by this.

The other really exciting development has been the creation of The Birks Cinema Ltd.  This is now an incorporated company (SC428528) and we have a board of nine Directors; three from FoTBC and six new people. The new Trading Board members are:

Karen Banyard

Patti Walker-Booth

Ron Dekker

Mike Dukes

Charlotte Flower

Peter Guthrie

Daniel Maslen

Kevin Ramage

Douglas Swan

We have had our first full Board meeting, and what an amazing room full of local expertise, enthusiasm and experience. 

And elsewhere?  This is an exciting time for cinema in Scotland – The Thurso Cinema (http://thursocinema.co.uk)  reopened in July and Oban Phoenix Cinema (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Oban-Phoenix-Cinema) is re-opening  in August.  Good luck to them both and Vive le cinema!

Other news:

The AGM of the Friends of The Birks Cinema takes place on 30^th August at Dewars Distillery from 730pm.

Recruitment of a General Manager of the Birks Cinema will begin in mid-August. Please see the Birks Cinema website for a link to the advert and further details, go to: www.birkscinemafriends.org.uk

... and the walls came tumbling down

Time is just flying by and work is progressing in the office and in the cinema itself.   I've been busy submitting claims to funders for reimbursement of invoices received, preparing and updating cashflow projections and creating systems to ensure efficient and effective management of the funds for the refurbishment project.  I need a holiday now!

You may have seen a brief clip on BBC Reporting Scotland showing the digger in the cinema building.  This was to remove wooden and concrete floors as well as ground floor walls.  The existing foundations have been found to be in a sound condition and this has enabled work to progress.  The first concrete for the foundation has been poured around the inside of the existing walls incorporating all services ducts and this has passed Building Control inspection.

I believe the next step is to lift the roof!  Hope it stays dry long enough.

The FoTBC Board has been working with our solicitor, J&H Mitchell, to develop Articles of Association for a new company The Birks Cinema.  At an EGM of FoTBC on 30 April 2012 a resolution was passed authorising the Board to establish a Trading Company and to invite members of the Highland Perthshire and Killin communities to come forward and volunteer as the new Directors.  There has been an excellent response to this invitation and the FoTBC Board will be asked to approve proposed new Directors on 2 July 2012; the first meeting of the new Trading Company, The Birks Cinema, will be on 24 July 2012.

The post of Financial Co-ordinator and running costs of our office in the Locus Centre is being  financed by the Scottish Government and European Community Rural Tayside LEADER 2007-2013 Programme

Well, I've been in post now for just over 2 weeks and I thought I should introduce myself.  My name is Angela Hanvey and The Friends of The Birks Cinema have contracted me as Financial Co-ordinator to oversee the administration of funds during the refurbishment process.  I've lived in the Tay Valley area for more than 13 years and love this part of the country.  From a work perspective I bring with me to this post a wealth of experience from business, charities and the public sector. 

What a privilege it is to be part of this fantastic project to bring life back into the old cinema building and, what's more, to bring it back to life as a community cinema.  You'll see that work has now begun and over the next few weeks and months we'll keep you updated on progress.  We have also managed to get the office up and running in the Locus Centre where I am based.  We're now fully functional and enjoying the views over the rooftops.

Several meetings have taken place over the last few days, most importantly with Ronnie Horne, Anne Nicol and Bob Cobban of Hadden Construction Ltd near Perth; SGRIPD, who will process our claims for funding from Scottish Rural Development Programme; and our Quantity Surveyor, Alan Smith from Ralph A Ogg .  All of these meetings were interesting and very informative and hopefully I've climbed someway up the steep learning curve.

We now await with trepidation the work programme and cashflow projections from Hadden early this week.

and,,, Action!

Just towards the end of last week Haddens put fencing up around the building and at last it feels we are on our way.  So much has happened over the last few weeks but none of it was 'visible'.  I was at Logierait Market on Saturday and so many folk came up to say how delighted they were to see building activity around the cinema.

What else has been happening?  Our team has expanded, and a big welcome to Angela Hanvey, our wonderful new Finance Adminsitrator, started this week.  She will be working with us to ensure that all the grant funds are administered in good time - paying our bills and reporting as needed to funders. 

And of course we had a visit from the Screen Machine, a foretaste of things to come.  One of the things I love about going to the Screen Machine is that you are bound to see someone you know in the audience; there is always great chat before the film starts, a real buzz to the place - whether catching up or anticipating the film, or discussing the film seen the day before - the chatter is loud and lively.

We hope to have three or four more visits of the magic lorry before The Birks Cinema opens next year - so keep looking out for the posters.

Good bye to the old building

Hello, Charlotte Flower here, and I will kick off the Blog

Today, the builders moved in.  This is a milestone that like so many others over the last few years passes with no great fanfare.  For many this is just a statement of fact.  For me though and others involved in this long campaign – it is momentous.  A day I have often not really allowed myself to imagine.

I missed the Open Doors on Saturday but was keen to go in and say ‘Goodbye and Good luck’ to the Old Birks.  I have this cinematic image in my head; closing the door on the old and opening it to the new!  Just like that!  If only life were that easy!

I am so glad I went in.  The building is empty now; all the paraphernalia that has drifted in over the years has been removed.  Just a quiet echoing expectant space.

With no one else there to disturb me, I embarked on something that I have tried a few times before to do – but never really managed.  But this morning it felt very real.  As I have seen the Architects plans so often, I can walk through the empty building and ‘know’ where the walls, doors, reception desk, etc are.  So I decided to ‘walk to my seat’; visualising the experience as I walked across the empty space.

So, walking from the front door and into the building, I visualised the reception desk and counter;  for a moment I wondered if I should go left towards where the ATM would be to pick up prebooked tickets, but then changed my mind and went straight to the counter.  I bought my ticket and then a cup of coffee; I took this into the café area and sat for a moment, enjoying the bustle and chatter of the café, looking out onto the Square watching the world go by.  Then, time to take my seat – I made my way to the auditorium; I climbed the steps to the back and found my seat.  Sitting back, I waited for the lights to dim, the chatter to still and the show to start.

This time, this whole imaginary experience felt almost tangible and real.  I don’t need to hold my breath and hope.  The builders (and I met the lovely Finlay this morning) are going to transform the building and every time I have a chance to walk through these doors over the next few months, our dream will be ever more close.

So, as we move forward, I hope you might find interest and pleasure in this blog, as we share our journey with you.  And please do join in.