Unit 1, Part D- The Showroom

This image is by The Guardian

Located in the heart of Sheffield, inside a renovated 1930’s car showroom, The Showroom Cinema is a successful and welcoming environment, where you can watch both obscure and some mainstream films. From my experience of The Showroom as customer, before I even did BFI, I could sense that it was an environment for filmmakers to learn from others through the films that they watched and this has always made The Showroom have a professional atmosphere, but this is why I appreciate it.

Additionally, The Showroom Workstation, involves about “60 film businesses” and it is Sheffield’s leading hub for creative and digital industries. It’s in this location you can attend talks and congregate with other filmmakers, rent a production office, hire a screen, or even film. It’s an incredibly creative and uplifting environment where you can just get down, and get things done in the company of others, doing the same exact thing. They have a very wide network or community of people that work in the Workstation: from architecture to photography, you name it -they got it.

The Showroom partners with many different organisations, such as Creative England, and universities, such as Sheffield Hallam. However, by far the partnership that has benefited me the most is its partnership with the British Film Institute. I’ve learnt so much from being on this course, meeting other students that are interested in going into the film industry, and learning from industry professionals through the many workshops that BFI has put on for us.

One workshop, put on by Rebecca Mark- Lawson, I found to be incredibly helpful because for the short film that we did, I was the screenplay writer. Her workshop was all about making simple, yet successful, short films. Not only did she tell us how to think about fabricating the story itself but how to play to our strengths and turn our limitations into something good. Another workshop, that I found particularly inspiring, was a talk  by Rachel Tunnard, who was there to talk to us about a little bit of everything, but mostly writing and directing. I found what she said about writing to be very practical and interesting, and was very pleased that she gave us some ideas about where our careers could take us in the future. She, and a lot of the other speakers, gave us an incredible amount of resources that I’m super excited to use in the future.

Another workshop, that I actually found the most unusual and intriguing, was a workshop about production design. It actually was what inspired me to do my arts award on production design and mise-en-scene because it really made me think about how important it is to have someone thinking about the visual quality of what you are seeing on the screen. The production designer’s role is so widespread as well, from pre-production to post-production, and it really drew me in because if I had a role like this one, I would be in partial control of how everything looked. I’ve realised now the importance of the little things -a good prop, costume, set, or location can change the face of a film or an amazing, well drawn out, storyboard could change how people visualise what’s going to be translated to the screen. I want to be an enabler for great films to be made and I think that art direction may be a path I want to explore further.

Overall, I’ve benefited a lot from this course and the direction of the people who run it and run the workshops. Everything that I’ve learnt about the film industry on this course will stick with me for years to come. It’s a privilege to say that I’ve had this experience and it has definitely been an indicator that I want to continue to strive after this career path.