Welcome to the Virtual Film Club, a resource for film fans across the north of Scotland. Whether you are thinking of setting up film screenings in your community, or are in need of advice programming an existing film society, or perhaps if you are interested in making films, and don’t know where to start, or have a short film you’d like to screen to a wider audience, or …you just like watching good movies, the Virtual Film Club is here to help.
 

Why screen films publicly? These days, when we can pretty much watch any film we like, when we like, in the warmth and comfort of our own home, for some lucky people on a massive flat-screen TV with surround sound, why go to the bother of watching films any other way?

Because however big your telly is, nothing can compete with the communal experience of leaving your home to enter a darkened hall with a group of friends and strangers, and for two hours open yourself to something new, to sit in front of a big screen on which flickering images are projected, and let nothing else distract you from the story that is being told.
 

At home, you are in charge, you can pause, rewind or fast forward, you can make a cup of tea, or answer the phone, or just turn the film off. Going out to see a film involves risk, you surrender control to the film itself, and as a result you are more engaged, you see more.

Not only that, but you surrender control of the choice of film as well. Thanks to the web, we can now pretty much find any movie we like, from anywhere in the world. But we all have our own taste in films, it takes time, patience and money to seek out something new, and there’s no way that we can discover everything that’s available without a bit of help.  Public, programmed screenings can bring us films we’ve never heard of, or that we don’t think we’d normally like, films that demand more attention than we’re prepared to give in our own homes, but with ten times the reward.
 

Thankfully, technology has moved on from the days of rickety, noisy and unreliable 16mm projectors in draughty church halls. In fact, the same technology that has made home cinema so popular is rejuvenating the shared cinema experience too. DVD projection is affordable and easy to use, and the quality of image is extraordinary. In the last five years it has become acceptable for commercial cinemas to screen films on DVD to the paying public when 35mm film prints are not available, using much the same equipment as is available to groups screening films in rural community halls.

So if you are passionate about film, want to share your favourites with others, and see something new, the question should really be why NOT screen films publicly? In our Rural Screenings in Action section, we look at groups currently active across the north of Scotland, and offer advice on how to get started yourself. Our Directory provides information on film screenings near you. Virtual Screen Club is also planning tours to venues not currently equipped for projection, in order that local promoters can see what’s involved and gauge public interest.
 

The Virtual Film Club is an initiative of the Rural Cinema North project, established for an initial pilot period of two years by HI~Arts, Eden Court Theatre and North East Arts Touring (NEAT), in response to the Scottish Screen Rural Cinema Development Scheme. If you have any queries or suggestions about this site, or concerning film-related activities in the north of Scotland, please contact us via the Contact page.