The Unsatisfactory Medium: the Transition from Mobile Cinema to Television in the Post-war Highlands and Islands

Becky Conekin et al. identify the Queen's Coronation and its mediation by television in 1953 as the defining moment in post-war British modernity (Conekin, Mort, Waters 1999). The population of the Highlands and Islands mostly watched this event on 16mm film, via the mobile cinema shows provided by the Highlands and Islands Film Guild. Film assumed the audio-visual functions of television because the geography of the Highlands and Islands did not readily accommodate television broadcasting. Television arrived slowly and unevenly. This paper traces arrival of television into the Highlands and Islands and the uncertainty over accessibility and quality of reception. It argues that whilst the Scottish Education Department assumed that the mobile cinema service had been succeeded by television; the inherent problems of delivering television enabled the more communal, educative, legitimate and reliable cinema to prevail. This asynchronous relationship compels us to recognise the geography of British modernity. Drawing on archival sources, oral history interviews and media histories, this paper presents an account of the Highland experience of a transition typically aligned with an urban perspective.

The Craft of the Rural Cinema Operator

The UNESCO report of 1949 that surveyed the use of mobile cinema and radio vans in education around the world documents the use of the 16 mm apparatus on a scale that is not reflected by film history, where the substandard gauge is regarded as a useful, essentially secondary cinema to the permanent cinema of 35 mm. This post-war moment of film history captured by the report was, arguably, the apex of the 16 mm gauge and depended on the work of the cinema operator/projectionist to deliver film programmes to audiences in non-theatrical spaces. The report’s references to the UK describe 16 mm exhibition in the British Colonies and to ‘the Western Isles of Scotland where a highly efficient pioneer service, assisted from public funds, has been developed under the Highlands and Islands Film Guild to surmount the barriers of distance of rural isolation’. This chapter outlines the work of the cinema operators in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and considers the significance and specificities of their role in the improvised exhibition spaces of rural cinema-going. It suggests that the non-theatrical space typically shared by the film apparatus and its audience represents one of the distinct features of this overlooked cinema that provided many remote populations with their first experience of film. This intimate, communal spatial formation made possible by the operators is fondly remembered by surviving communities in the Highlands and Islands. The operator’s role is notable for its particular combination of craft and sociability that defined the experience of rural non-theatrical cinema.

Provision of film-showing facilities and propaganda in the second half of the 1940s (on the materials of the Tambov Region)

We examine the process of restoring the cinema network of the Tambov Region in the post-war period. This process went gradually and quickly enough. And this is despite the fact that the Tambov Region, in fact, as well as the whole country experienced the severe consequences of the Great Patriotic War. It is proved that the cinema was given a great propaganda function and this art form was actively used by the authorities. During the considered period, films were filmed catastrophically little and not the least role played here by the ideology of the film repertoire. In the Tambov Region, in addition to feature films, agricultural short films and scientific films were shown on portable film projectors. As a matter of fact, this is due to the fact that in a short time it was necessary to restore the industry. Agricultural films carried cognitive and motivating func-tions. It was for this purpose during the planting and harvesting campaigns that collective farmers, employed in the fields, were provided with mobile cinema installations. It is noted that the authori-ties actively interfered not only in the process of film production, but also in provision of film-showing facilities. In particular, much attention was paid to how much money goes to the local budget. Measures have been taken to implement the approved plans. The failure to comply was condemned in every way, and in some cases the violators were punished.

Users’ Perception of their Satisfaction and Experience on a Mobile Cinema Application

A subjective usability evaluation was carried out on a mobile cinema application (GSC mobile cinema application) to evaluate the satisfaction and experience of its users. The evaluation was done in two areas: Politeknik Balik Pulau, Pulau Pinang and Kolej Poly-Tech Mara (KPTM) Alor Setar, Kedah. The rationale for the assessment was to evaluate the satisfaction and experience of users in terms of their reactions to the mobile application’s interface, terminology and information, application capability and general impression. Twenty volunteers participated in the study. Ten of these participants were at Politeknik Balik Pulau, Pulau Pinang and the other ten were at Kolej Polytech Technology Mara, Alor Setar. The findings indicate that the application’s interface was easy to use, simple, consistent, clear, operable, understandable, fast, error recoverable, learnable and enjoyable.

Dr Dario Llinares in Conversation with Dr Sarah Atkinson

Dr Dario Llinares interviews Dr Sarah Atkinson about the core themes addressed in her recent monograph Beyond the Screen: Emerging Cinema and Engaging Audiences (Bloomsbury, 2014). The conversation explores the context for new conceptualisations of cinema, which encompass and reflect the myriad ways film can be experienced beyond the auditorium in a digitally networked society. They also explore the historical antecedents for embodied cinema, discuss examples of expanded, extended and mobile film spectatorship, and postulate as to the effect of these transformations for film production, criticism and scholarship. KEYWORDS Expanded Cinema; Film Criticism; Film Theory; Digital Technology; Mobile Cinema; Spectatorship