News

Scarlet fever

We've added another top of the range camera to the equipment available to hire here at The Electric - the RED Scarlet, capable of capturing 5K stills and 4K motion.

Smaller and far less heavy than the traditional RED, it's the perfect camera for anyone looking to do some ambitious hi-res filming or photography. ... read more

DCP encoding

We can now encode Digital Cinema Prints (DCPs) here at The Electric, whether they be full blown adverts, simple slides promoting special offers or trailers for theatrical exhibition. The DCPs are ingested onto your projection system using a USB, and can then be playlisted alongside your regular ads, trailers and ... read more

Seeing RED

As part of our growing list of film equipment here at The Electric, we're happy to announce that we now have a state-of-the-art Red One camera available for hire, complete with four of the latest Zeiss Compact Prime lenses.

The Red One is one of the best cameras currently available in the marketplace, and has be... read more

Cambridge premiere

The date has finally been set for the official UK premiere of our brand new documentary The Last Projectionist - Sunday September 18th, as part of the Cambridge Film Festival 2011.

Directed by Electric owner Thomas Lawes, the Last Projectionist is a fascinating insight into the history of independent cinemas in ... read more

Inbred

Currently being worked on in The Electric studios by Tom Lawes is the sound mix for Inbred (pictured), a brand new comedy horror from director Alex Chandon.

Filmed on location in Yorkshire, Inbred tells the story of a group of young urban offenders and their care workers who find themselves in a fight to the dea... read more

Cannes-do

Tom Lawes and a team of Electric staff (pictured) attended the 64th Festival de Cannes this month, taking with them excerpts and an official trailer for The Last Projectionist, the feature length documentary about the history of UK cinema.

Hiring a bar at the Carlton Hotel on the Croisette, Tom and the team pres... read more

Official trailer for The Last Projectionist

Electric owner Tom Lawes has been slaving away on the final edit for his new documentary The Last Projectionist, and now there's finally an official trailer for the project. 

Documenting the UK film industry's tumultuous history, The Last Projectionist takes audiences from the first gaslit cinema all the way to ... read more

Final shots for The Last Projectionist

Filming is finally coming to an end for The Last Projectionist, but there are still a few last essential shots to get for this all-encompassing documentary about the history of British cinemas. 

Director Tom Lawes headed down to London on January 19th to film in both the Electric Cinema in Notting Hill and the P... read more

The Last Projectionist update

Production on our upcoming documentary The Last Projectionist is continuing at a brisk pace. October saw the crew head over to The Victoria pub to film a special round table with a group of seasoned projectionists, who sat down together to discuss their past work at both The Electric and a number of other cinemas... read more

Street Market Chefs

Hotbed Media have recently been making use of the post-production facilities here at The Electric for their new show Street Market Chefs. 

Screening on Channel Five, the show pits local chefs against each other as they use only locally sourced ingredients to cook up a five star meal. Presented by Amanda Lamb, th... read more

A short introduction to 3D

We like to do things a bit differently here at The Electric, which is why customers coming to see any of our upcoming 3D films are now being treated to a short film which owner Tom Lawes and a number of staff members made to stress the importance of treating our glasses with care.

Unlike a lot of other cinemas, ... read more

Cannes - The Last Projectionist

A feature length documentary about the history of the Electric and the end of 35mm projection in theatres is currently in production. Tom Lawes has taken the first trailer and promotional material to the Cannes Film Festival to look at the feasibility of selling the documentary to international markets.

The trailer can be viewed at the electricbham youtube channel.

Last Projectionist Title Sequence

Tom has been shooting the title sequence for the Last Projectionist in the projection room of Screen 1. The sequence consists of macro close-up shots of the 35mm projector taken with a Canon 5d, 70-200mm ISM lens and extension tubes.

A motorised head was used for the precise camera moves to give a smooth mechanic... read more

Completion of Backstage Tour Films

Our backstage tour films are complete and uploaded to our youtube channel. The films all produced in HD show the workings of The Electric and link to a 360 tour of the building. This ambitious production has taken four months in total and is believed to be a first for any cinema. 

Birmingham School of Acting Dubs

Bafta winning film director Michael Baig Clifford has been in the studio this week dubbing this year’s Birmingham School of Acting films. Michael has recently discovered the full-frame joy of the Canon 5d and shot scenes from Pride & Prejudice using only a handful of tea lights.

With no over-dubbing and an emphas... read more

Aquisition of 5d & 7D Cameras

We’ve just added the Canon 5d & 7d to our existing Sony EX1 camera arsenal. The shallow depth of the field these cameras allow along with their excellent low light capability make them the ideal choice for filming interviews, short films and events at the cinema.

Along with the cameras we have an excellent select... read more

Filming for the Centenary

We’ve just finished filming a series of history films for our Centenary including interviewing The Electric’s oldest living customer Edna Ravenscroft who first visited the cinema in 1917. The films will be edited and uploaded to our youtube channel over the next month. 

Lenny Henry in the Studio

Tiger Aspect, the production company behind the BBC brought Lenny Henry into the studio today to record voices for the brilliant Tinga Tinga Tales. Tom Lawes who engineered the session described Lenny Henry as "probably the most talented VO artist I've ever recorded". Lenny's character was an elephant whose voice ... read more