Reel Unknown – Back with a Vengeance
Rachael Jones quizzes the brains behind Reel Unknown about comedy, drive-thru cinema, and improving actors …
Back in March I checked out Reel Unknown, a new ‘secret cinema’ event aimed at giving Liverpool’s cinephiles something new to sink their teeth into. This week they’re back for a second go, so I had a chat with co-founders and chief secret-keepers Jasmine and Ruth. Both are full-time LIPA students: Reel Unknown was born out of an MI5-sounding project called the Practical Management Project.
Rachael Jones: So how did your Practical Management Project become Reel Unknown?
Jasmine and Ruth: LIPA has a list of options for the project, but you can choose to do a wildcard if you have a good idea. We were really into the idea of doing something people haven’t really seen in Liverpool before and Reel Unknown came out of that.
We decided to work together on the project, and then Reel Unknown came about because of Jas’ interest in film. We were thinking about film production and loved the idea of festivals and festival management – this has several transferable skills as well as fitting with what we like.
How do you finance a project like this one, what with being students?
LIPA financed the first one because it was a uni module – we just had to submit a budget for approval. This time around we’re investing our own money; we know we’re probably never going to make scads of cash but we want it to be affordable. We’ll make back what we spend but that’s about it.
There are ways of funding this sort of thing. There are lots of companies (especially drinks companies!) sponsoring film-related projects, but it’s not something we’ve really thought about yet.
The shows tonight and tomorrow are in collaboration with Liverpool Comedy Festival. How did that come about?
They actually contacted us, and of course we said yes. We were a bit worried about the film we chose at first, because it’s not best-known for being a comedy, but it’s going to be amazing.
This is your second event. Are there plans for a third?
Definitely. We’ve got two other venues lined up for secret cinema events already – one for December and another next year.
Eventually we want the Reel Unknown name to be an umbrella for several projects, like film seasons and so on. There are loads of great venues in Liverpool ideal for that sort of thing. We might do a 50s-style drive in event too, and we’d love to move into the sort of film screenings they have at festivals.
Do you want to move out of Liverpool, then?
Eventually. We’d like to get established here and then perhaps think about Manchester, Leeds, Brighton etc.
Tell us a bit about the performance element of the shows. How do you go about putting that sort of thing together?
Well we used the Secret Cinema model really, we just wanted to do the best we can in terms of making it a really interactive experience. Luckily, being at LIPA we have access to designers and actors – it’s just a case of getting people to say yes.
Recruiting was actually pretty difficult, we put out adverts on LIPANet, but getting people to see it is hard when everyone’s so busy. In the end we found a mix of community drama students and people we know, but they got really excited once they understood the concept and started generating their own ideas. We don’t have a long rehearsal period so it’s some script and some improv – like the fight scene for Con Air was devised by the actors. They’d studied stage combat and we hadn’t so we just left them to it!
Con Air was your first screening, a classic of the Nicolas Cage catalogue. Why that film?
It was originally going to be The Fifth Element, but several design elements fell through so we started looking at prison films. We came to Con Air via the usual – The Green Mile, The Shawshank Redemption – but Con Air had the awesome cast and the cheese factor we were looking for. Plus, we really liked the idea of the mugshot and fingerprinting activities; they were the first thing we thought of.
We then watched Con Air at least three times to find the little details, but Alex Morton our designer watched it a lot more than we did! She’s amazing; we literally couldn’t do it without her.
What about venues? Is it easy to find spaces receptive to what you’re doing?
Getting the venue sorted usually happens first, before we’ve done anything else. And having people not know it even if they’ve already guessed the movie is great.
We worked with the Kazimier on our first event and they were amazing, it’s such a creative space and they were incredibly helpful. We were free to pop in whenever we needed to – once when James Vincent McMorrow was soundchecking which was amazing. We’re big fans of his! And the price was really reasonable, they made no money from our event but they just want to work with creative people.
The venue for the new one fits REALLY well, so we’re excited. We’re not telling you where it is though!
Do people respond well to the ‘secret’ element?
Some do, some don’t. We’ve had a lot more clues this time around and while some have been cryptic some have been more obvious. The secret element means people can’t have any preconceptions about the movie or the event, which we think is an advantage.
Promoting first one was really hard, we left it pretty late to get things started. Social media is our main promotional tool because we’re doing this on such a low budget, and we’ve got a good Facebook following now. We post all our clues on there too. We’re not big tweeters but it’s something we need to look at more going forward.
Experiential cinema is huge at the moment. Why do you guys think that is?
Going to the cinema is expensive, and this sort of event gives people something different. It’s a bit interactive, it doesn’t even really have to be a secret – it just has to offer people something they can’t usually get. People are always going to go to the cinema and there are always going to be developments – this is one of them. And we want to make sure people know that they’re getting an experience, that they’ll get more for their money.
We did have feedback from the last one that people wanted drinks and popcorn though – we guess some things are just universally important for cinema-goers!
Rachael Jones
The next Reel Unknown Presents takes place tonight and Tuesday 2 October, from 7pm, at a hitherto unknown venue
Check their website for clues and tickets, or follow them on Twitter @reelunknown
