Cinema for hire

Fancy having your own cinema for the night? Want to do something different with your club or society? Fed up of your favourite film never getting through our selections procedure? Film Unit can help.

Special Shows are film screenings outside our normal schedule, and if you plan and publicise it well, they can be incredibly successful.

You should contact us at l east six weeks before you want the screening - the earlier the better, because if we can, we'll include it in our programme, creating a load of publicity for you. Let us know when you want it, why you want it, and what it is you actually want (the name of a film is more helpful than a vague theme based on your organisation or event, but we'll try to help where we can).

Things to consider first:

* First off, don't let the rest of this page discourage you. It is simply designed to stop you from being disappointed. We don't want your special show to fail where many have before, falling into vicious and hidden traps.

* Publicity should be your highest priority. Film Unit spends thousands of pounds a year advertising its films, and some of them still flop. Don't plan something at the last minute, it simply won't work. Although we can technically organise a special show in about a week, we can guarantee you'll regret it. Make sure you give us both enough time to pull it off well.

* Consider coming to us the semester before you want the special show - this way we'll be able to fit it in our programme for that term and can generate publicity for you.

* If you're arranging a film to coincide with an awareness week or something, try to find a film lots of people will want to see. Otherwise you will only get a limited audience, and you will not succeed in your aim.

What will it cost?

The main cost of a special show is hiring the film itself which will fall between £144 and £250. Requesting a film will not commit you to it - we can find out how much something will cost then get back to you without booking anything.

We charge a £50 projectionist fee for various expenses incurred in showing the film - materials, wear and tear - that sort of thing.

Depending on how you want to run the show, this may be balanced by ticket income, which obviously will be all yours. If the costs are average, you'll need to get a little over a hundred people (at normal Film Unit prices - you can specify the price of your own tickets) before you're in profit.