We met with Dominic Voyce, General Manager at Stratford Picturehouse, to discuss the future of cinema…

2012 was another successful year for the big franchise films (Bond, The Avengers, Twilight etc.), do you think that’s been at the expense of smaller films?

I think with the big films there are often a large number of people who are going to see that film who maybe haven’t been to the cinema for 12 months. So when the really big numbers come out it’s the people who aren’t going on a regular basis anyway.

I think there’s more support now for smaller films, I think people make more of an effort to go and see them. Documentaries that might sit well on television are getting people coming to see them in the cinemas – especially if you show it with a Q&A or some added value. Perhaps that’s more about the collective experience of watching something than it is about the nature of the film

I think that the growth of new media has helped smaller films. The fact that people can make a film, throw it on a Blu-Ray and cinemas are equipped to show them in that way makes a big difference.  People are making their films and taking them out to cinemas – small places, local cinemas – that can choose to show them. A few years ago everything would have had to be on 35mm film and nobody could afford to do it. If you didn’t have distribution you couldn’t get it around. Now you might get a filmmaker turn up with a USB stick!

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