The property is more than your usual high-street cinema, with a huge space for live music, events and exhibitions providing a hub for the community. As TheatreWorld converses with Preston Benson the founder of Really Local Group, we dissect the concept of boutique cinemas and their latest project…

Really Local Group emphasises on ‘Accessibility,’ ‘Localism’ and, ‘Creativity’; could you elaborate on the three and help our readers understand what each of these attributes entail?
Preston Benson: Looking at accessibility, the venues are all easy to get to being located on the town’s high street. We always try to occupy a well-located centre location in the local community. We have also thought about mobility challenges as all our venues are accessible to people with disabilities. We also try to be financially accessible by having an average ticket price of £7 for our cinemas. We have days with discounted ticket prices, for example, we run a Tuesday Treat program where we have £5.95 tickets and 10 per cent off food and drink. Basically, we want to appeal to the broadest range of audiences.

Localism is pretty similar, so for us, our target audience is 15 minutes away from our venue. We also only employ people from the local area, so that’s another way we are giving back to people in the community and this adds to the unique feel of each venue.

All of our spaces are designed in a way to inspire and instil creativity. We don’t come in with a top-down approach. We don’t come into a community and tell them what is creative? We create interesting spaces with lots of room and places for people to perform, grow, learn and explore. The creativity in our venues comes from within, by providing state of art facilities for

Versatility is at the centre of your projects, what inspired you to come up with this setup?
Benson: We’re a very much a bottom-up organisation, getting in with the community, consulting with them and creating something that’s fully flexible in spaces that people normally wouldn’t associate with arts and culture. Versatility is important, as well as creating spaces that aren’t hard coded as trends, taste and ideas change. Again, it goes back to this idea that the spaces themselves are adapting with what’s happening at the moment. Each venue is very different because each community is different.

I think to say that one thing works in one place and so it works in another is quite arrogant. The versatility comes down to the idea of localism in the community and that every community we operate will have different needs, wants and aspirations.

In India, we are more familiar with megaplexes, multiplexes and single screens. Could you enlighten our readers about ’boutique cinemas?’

Benson: The boutique cinema is a cinema that shows exactly the same film as a multiplex, but in a more intimate setting. The future of cinema is not to be in a 300 feet room as it’s quite impersonal. A boutique cinema is a cinema with less seats offering a more relaxed, intimate environment with food, drink and comfortable seats. The viewer gets a better experience because they’re closer to the screen and they can hear what’s happening. They are also developing a connection with the other audience goers that are there with them. That’s what a boutique cinema is to me.

Why do you think these kinds of properties seem to be coming up more often than other cinematic projects?

Benson: More of these projects are coming up because of the versatility the spaces offer, but it also extends back to the 2008 recession. It’s the idea that between online retail and changing consumer trends, there are more vacant spaces in town centre locations. Therefore, Really Local Group is mixing up the vacant space with venues providing versatility and creativity. We’re making a positive out of a negative for the benefit of the community.

What sets your boutique cinemas apart from others? And how is Really Local Group different than other promoters?

Benson: Really Local Group our completely unique in what we do. We speak to the local communities we operate in about what they feel the area needs, which is where the cinemas, live music spaces and cafes have come from. We also have food halls, flexible workspaces, studios, maker spaces, and a crash place for working artists to leave their children whilst they’re creating. So, the look and feel of each venue is totally different and unique. We’re the only group that does a multitude of different spaces and activities under one roof.

As we are discussing the Ealing Project, could you give me a brief description about the property and what it means to the Really Local Group?

Benson: Ealing Project is a ground-breaking venue in west London. It occupies a very beloved and popular former nightclub, which lost its way over the last 15 years. So many of our current members and audience goers used to go to the nightclub back when it was called Broadway Boulevard, so the space itself already has a connection with the community. The Ealing Project features a three screen cinema, live music space and a place for people to enjoy good food and drinks. This combination of film and music is really important for Ealing because not only is it the birthplace of British rock and roll, it’s also the home of some very popular film studios, including Ealing Studios that goes back many decades.

Ealing has not had a new cinema destination for over a decade, what prompted you to create The Ealing Project apart from the evident lack?

Benson: For me, getting to know thecommunity. Ealing is one of the most creative places in London. Many of theresidents there work in film and TVand music, so the area has a naturalcase of lack of supply and massivedemand. It’s also an incredibly familyfriendly area which we want to appealto. It’s got a lovely community to it,with a real sense of togetherness andwe wanted to enhance the area byoffering a service and experience which it is currently missing.

At length, please describe the architectural style and interiors of ‘The Ealing Project.’

Benson: Looking at all Really Local Group venues, in particular Ealing, we looked to enhance the architecture that already exists in the venue. We don’t look to come in and recreate. If you look at the Ealing Project venue, it has these beautiful cement ceilings and we’ve kept that there because it’s a really nice design feature. As far as the colours go, because it’s a concrete shell, it’s got bright colours, like orange and blue, that’s meant to bring warmth to the space. All the tables and chairs are in the same colour scheme, again to add warmth. The bright colours create a nice contrast to the fact we’re in a very large concrete box.

What were the challenges encountered when building/ restructuring this property?

Benson: The main challenges for Ealing are that it is in a basement unit that never has any fresh air supply, so we have had to refigure this space so it’s in line with modern building regulations. The other challenge right now is the economy – inflations and supply chain issues, it just means we had to make quick changes in finding substitute materials to keep within Budget.

Could you discuss the technical features of the property?

Benson: Each of our threeauditoriums are equipped with full DCIcompliant NEC projectors, withScreen 1 & 2 featuring 7.1 and Screen3 featuring 5.1 Dolby surround sound.Each screen is as large as possiblefor the auditoriums they are based in,with an innovative ‘floating’ screendesign. In addition, we’re able toshowcase alternative content, such asnational theatre or royal opera, laptoppresentations for corporate hires oreven the latest gaming consoles forthe occasional e-sports tournament.By keeping our auditoriums as flexibleas possible, it means we can offer our audiences the widest possible choice of entertainment to enjoy!

How have your projects been received by the locals as well as the movie fanatics?

Benson: They’ve been very well received, the Ealing Project in particular. We’ve sold over 2,200 memberships so far, which is a huge vote of confidence and interest in what we’re trying to do. We had a number of special events in the week we opened, including a birthday party for the local MP where over 300 people celebrated her 50th. Many of the people who have visited like films and are interested in live music, they want to see something new and exciting in Ealing.

However, in most of our venues, I think we need to do a better job at bringing in the movie fanatics. Our venues are used by the communities, such as Catford and Reading offering free flexible workspaces. Many of the people that come to our venues are young mums and dads, looking to meet up with their friends for a drink. Many of them don’t even see a film, so our venues are very, very flexible for both film fanatics and those who are not.

Lastly, how do you uniquely name your projects?

Benson: We tend to work with the community and research the local area. Some of our venues had a pre-existing name, like Catford Mews and we look to reinstate that name because they have a lot of acknowledgement within the community and people remember them. Others, like Reading Biscuit Factory, we asked the local community and ran a naming competition. Reading also used to be called the biscuit town as it was home to the Huntley and Palmer biscuits factory, so we thought that would be a fun name. The Ealing Project was also a naming competition. We felt the name worked well because it incorporates all the different ways to create in the venue. Our next venue in Sidcup, which will be called the Sidcup Storyhouse, is being co-created with the new library. That name was very easy for us to decide because it’s going to be a place to tell stories with film, music and literature.