Thursday 10 July 2008

Website Design

Today we worked on website designs with Bill Thompson. We looked at existing websites to see which features we would like on our website. We then drew up some designs and presented these to the group.

Thursday 3 July 2008

Cinema Memories

Older members of the community visited us today and they spoke about their memories of the old cinema.

Monday 30 June 2008

Getting a Logo for the Project!

We want to get a logo for our project and so we spent some time talking about what the logo might look like. We worked in small groups to make designs and we talked about them. It was quite difficult as you have to think about colour and shape.




Filling in Forms!


At our last meeting we talked about what had happened at the Project Launch and filled in a form about it.


What do you know about the history of Cinema in Sawston?

I don't know anything. (BN)

I didn't know there was one. (MS)

I can't answer this question. (JG)

I know who made it but I forgot the name. (RS)

It was opened by Mrs Spicer. (JY)

I know it was opened by Henry Spicer. (LH)

Nothing apart from the fact that it was in this building. (SW)

Nothing (TB)

Some Thoughts on the Project Launch

We had a lot of people talking. A fim-maker spoke. We had a lot of food. (TB)

Firstly we received a t-shirt and badge. Then we sat down and were introduced to various people that will play a major part in this project. After we (still sitting) were shown a few websites then a short film on a similar project and what would happen in this. Then there was a short question and answer thing. After there was refreshments and a chance to talk to each other. (SW)

When everyone had arrived we sat down in the chairs that had been set up and several people gave talks on the aim of the project and their role in it. Then we watched a film much like the one we are planning to create on a similar situation in Tyneside, although on a grander scale. Then when that ended there was a bit more talking and then it was the end with biscuits and drinks and you left on your own accord. (AG)

Young people wishing to be involved in the project and members of the community attended a presentation about the project and were told of its aims to explore the history of cinema in Sawston using film, media (website/blog), artwork. A film was shown of a similar project on Tyneside. (SW)

We had biscuits and we did filming (practice). Bill showed a clip and we got a t-shirt. (RS)

We met the director (Peter) and the web designer (Bill). I also got to hold the camera and we had food and Bill showed me a website. I talked to people who remembered the cinema. (JG)

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Our Project has begun!


We launched the Sawston Cinema Archive Project with an event on 19 June. It happened directly after school. Some students put up the mobile cinema kit so we could have a presentation and all of the students who were there put on t-shirts which had come from the Heritage Lottery fund.

We met some of the people who will be working with us on our project. Bill Thompson, who will help us develop our website, was there and he showed us a website from another project that he has been working on in Tyneside. He also showed us a film about the project in Tyneside. We also met the film-maker, Peter Harmer, who will run film-making workshops with us after the summer holidays. Peter had his camera there and he filmed some of the event. He also let us use his camera for a short time and that was fun.
Some members of the community, who remember the original cinema in Sawston, came along to the event. After we have done training in taking an oral history, we will interview these people and use their stories in the film we'll make.
We had tea and juice and biscuits at the launch so it was good.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has awarded a Young Roots grant to help young people trace history of cinema in Sawston


The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has awarded a grant of £24,900 to Sawston Village College to allow young people to research the history of cinema in Sawston.

Working in partnership with Sawston Village History Society, the Sawston Archive Group of the Cambridgeshire Community Archive Network and the Cambridge Film Trust, young people from Sawston Village College will undergo oral history training, which will equip them with interview skills. They will then speak to older members of the community about their memories of the original cinema in Sawston. These interviews will be collected in a film which will then be screened for the community in a celebratory event at the end of the project.

In addition to this, a dedicated website will also be set up where the memories collected and other project research can be stored. Young people will also work to create an artwork inspired by the project findings.

This artwork will go permanent display inside Sawston Youth Centre, a former cinema building and where the project is scheduled to be launched on June 19 at 3.30pm, to which anyone with memories of the original is invited to attend.

Commenting on the award, Lesley Morgan, local arts development manager, said, ‘It’s fantastic that the Young Roots Heritage Lottery Fund has enabled young people to find out about cinema in Sawston. Many did not even know that the Youth Centre had once been a cinema and that Sawston had had an association with early colour film production. This grant will allow film to return to Sawston once more.’

Explaining the importance of the award Robyn Llewellyn, the Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund, East of England, said, 'It is so important to get young people involved in the heritage that surrounds them by bringing it to life and making it relevant to them, and this is a wonderful project that will do just that by providing them with the opportunity to find out about the history of their local cinema.'

For further information, please contact:
Please contact: Lesley Morgan, Arts Development Manager at Sawston Village College on 01223 712825 and email: lmorgan@sawstonvc.org .