House Managing - What you do
45 minutes before the film starts, the House Manager sticks up signs and tidies up the auditorium. Fifteen minutes later, when the ushers arrive, they tell them what to do (explaining how to tear tickets is actually slightly easier than tearing tickets). Before the film starts, they make an announcement - the main reason some people avoid training to House. However, if you can raise your voice and wave your arms around, you can make a perfectly good announcement.

Finally, and most importantly, the House Manager needs to be able to cope when things go wrong. This doesn't happen often, and in training you'll be taught how to react to the most common of problems. If you have an ounce of common sense, you'll be fine.

What you get
Once qualified, you get a complimentary seat to every single film we show. This is in addition to getting in free when you're working, so if you're Housing a film you can get a friend in for free too. You don't have to see all the films we show - the more volunteers we have, the less work you have to do. Plus you get a load of other random perks: you can hang around in our office, with its sofa, fridge, computer, server (if you want your own website), Empire subscription and Film Unit types just gagging to argue with you over the finer points of Pulp Fiction. We get invited to free press screenings at UGC that you can come to. You'll be eligible to wear the always obscurely hilarious Film Unit T-Shirts. You'll be invited to any social events the committee concocts, plus one other thing that we can't publicise but is very cool.

How to sign up
It takes three training sessions to qualify to Housee - first you're shown what to do, then you do it yourself (with occasional help), and finally there's just someone looking over your shoulder in case the whole world explodes. Not all House Managers can train other people to be House Managers, however - so rather than sticking your name on the log sheets outside our office you need to contact us so we can organise someone to train you. After you're qualified, of course, you can sign your name up yourself.