Sunday 24th June 2018

This copious second day in the Sala Cervi “Black box” revolved around three work sessions entitled “From Spaces to Places” (where we heard about the successful reopening of cinemas), “Breaking down Barriers” (that actually happened within the group with a warm and more relaxed mood settling in) and  “Include us”. We heard no less than a dozen presentations, nibbled altogether probably more than a hundred pastries, gulped down kilos of pasta, litres of coffee, were startled by the systematic presence of 2 odd red seats in Nadine Bemelmans’ Lumière cinemas (an architect’s trick she said!), and heard one joke about a nice belt (0-8, think about it).

 

Madeleine Probst unleashed her usual social media power and wit as exemplified below:

Daniel Sibbers provoked some of the viral smiles of the day with his illustrations of the Das Kino campaign entitled Läuft bei uns.

 

And what really seemed to arise from all the discussions, surgery slots, case studies, workshops, informal chatting during the regular breaks is that staying positive in front of challenges, being aware that a lot of people already encountered the same kind of struggle, is essential. Humor, having fun, is quite often, if not always the antidote. The video created by Madeleine’s team at Watershed to invite people to be more cautious about their behavior in a cinema theater is a perfect example; so is Isabelle France from Showroom cinema in the UK who adapted to young audiences by humbly accepting the cold truth: they won’t open her emails. So she rather developed creative if not Machiavellian scenarii on Instagram stories to attract them to her venue (pretending a heist to communicate around the film Baby Driver).

Young audience was precisely a huge concern today since everyone can feel their potential but also how tricky it can be to attract and keep them in the community. Daniel was reassuring on that point, polls have been done -he explains- which show that there is an affection from the youth for cinema theaters although their experience of actually going remains limited. But there is hope…the kids are alright !

Post-its were all the rage again, as the lab leaders constantly try to get the participants to be active and reflect on what is being said. The little pieces of colored paper are covered with solutions, questions, expressions of relief which reveal that everybody here has big ambitions, are resourceful and humble enough to reach out. A pretty cool bunch indeed, who was kind enough to lend itself to the game of interviews:

Here are a few samples from the day TOOLKIT  :

• Don’t box your audience in
• Don’t evaluate success through number of people who are here
• Always use a human touch in front of angry spirits
• Be aware of the importance of networking, lobbying even if the process takes time
• Post on social media behind-the-scenes glimpses of your cinema…

That’s it for today !

COMING NEXT  Day 3

Session 4 : Place making and branding

Visit of the Odeon Multisala

Session 5 : Campaign building

C.W.