North Devon Movie Bus

And so we come near the end…

Emma — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 09:24:26 +0000

…but, at the risk of sounding cliched, the end of one thing is just the beginning of another. We have had such fun over the past year with our audiences, and the cinema has filled with laughter and even tears on many occassions. Our audiences have seen ghosts of themselves on celluloid from 50 years ago, or freinds in younger days, even being reunited with long lost spouses who have been brought to life once again on the big screen.

There’s still a few more chances to participate in this special project, as we embark on a final tour with these wonderful films around North Devon. See our events list for more details.

Hopefully we’ll see you there!

Launch Date Announced

Emma — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 11:32:10 +0000

The Vintage Mobile Cinema will hit the streets for the first time in 35 years on 15th May, when it will be outside the Museum in the Square in Barnstaple all day, screening ‘A Tale of Two Rivers’, a 20 minute archive film about the Taw & Torridge Estuary. The bus will be there all day, with festivities and fun going on throughout the day to celebrate this special event. Come and see this fascinating film in unique surroundings for free!

Celebrations Old and New

Emma — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:09:17 +0000

The Vintage Mobile Cinema has been a long time coming. Ollie Halls has been working at it for over four years now, fighting to find enough time here and there to undertake the mammoth operation that has been the restoration. There is literally enough blood, sweat and tears soaked into that vehicle. With so much behind us, it seems as if the launch date is on our doorstep, even if there are still 10 weeks to go. Tonight, ‘Inside Out’, a local documentary programme, will feature a piece about the restoration. Looking back at the vehicle as it was then, it’s heartening to see how far we’ve come. For more information on the fascinating history of this vehicle, check out the Vintage Mobile Cinema website.

We’re working on our second film now, and it’s caused quite an unexpected stir. Roger Ferrar, a local man with a keen interest in the project, rescued a few cans of 16mm film from the bin a number of years ago. I took the film to the South West Film and TV Archive with no idea what we would find, and was surprised to find myself entranced by a rare glimpse into a world gone by. North Devon has always known how to party, as it would seem from looking at images of Barum Old Fair & Carnival and Lynmouth Lifeboat Day in the 1930’s. This is a treasure, a rare glimpse through a window onto a world that less and less people know the smell and taste of, but that is part of us, part of our history. I’m looking forward to sharing this experience with all, when we launch this footage as part of our second film about customs and celebrations for the North Devon Festival in June.

Look out for our constantly evolving calendar, to which events are being added weekly. ‘Inside Out’ will be screened at 7.30pm on BBC 1 tonight, March 1st. For those outside of the local BBC area, it is available to watch online on the BBC iPlayer.

Squirrels, shipwrecks and snow

Emma — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 12:10:44 +0000

History is often just under our feet, even if we don’t realise it. Last November we all heard about the collapse of several bridges in Cumbria after devastating floods. I was astounded at the force of nature that could bring down something that had stood for so long and was so well engineered.

Little did I realise that just up the road, our locally famous bridge in Bideford that has stood since Medieval times (so I thought) also collapsed after floods in 1968, fortunately without injury to anyone. This is one of the many gems that I discovered on film at the South West Film & TV Archive in Plymouth while researching footage for our first film. This will now be edited into a 20-minute compilation along with footage about the Taw gravelmen, the Appledore shipbuilders, the brave lifeboatmen, the salmon fishermen and the dangers of being a seaman along this rocky stretch of coast, as proved by the many shipwrecks that the area has seen. Already my eyes have opened to the rich history of our area that has been captured on film, some of which I’m excited that we’ll be able bring to as many people as possible in a new digital format.

One of the laws in life is that everything takes longer than you thought it would, and so it is with the restoration of the cinema bus in Exeter. It turns out a family of squirrels made a nest, many years ago, in the air conditioning housing. They kept themselves busy chewing on whatever was handy, including the electric cables. Almost complete rewiring has been necessary, but all the cables will all be tested before the electrical certificate can be signed off, so everything will be perfectly safe.

Snow delays for everyone, us included. The novelty wore off pretty quickly when we realised that we were snowed in, and deliveries of everything from upholstery fabric to speakers were halted at source. But we’re plodding on regardless of cold fingers and toes, and with the new dome panels due to arrive in the next couple of weeks, the bus is still undergoing an amazing transformation. It won’t be long now until we can run our first trial screenings.