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Whether it’s films on fridges or Cannes in a van, site-specific screenings are proving a summer hit. Here, the mavericks behind the magic tell us how to get in on the show Pop-up cinema is having a moment. This month we’ve seen classic sports flicks projected on a mountain of discarded fridges , as well as fossil fuel-free film , (try saying that with a mouth full of popcorn), a picture house squeezed into a canal boat , another wedged inside a transit van, and not one but two cinemas sprouting from the disused space under motorways. Pop-up cinema is becoming as Augusty as Parisians bogging off for a month in the sun. So why not have a go yourself? This handy 10-step guide, comprised of top tips from the people driving the movement, will show you how. Step 1. Create your I-wish-I’d-thought-of-that concept “Context is really important,” say Lindsey Scannapieco and Mat Triebner of Scout Limited. Their pop-up project, Films On Fridges , “was inspired by ‘fridge mountain’, a 20ft-high pile of discarded fridges that once occupied the Olympic site. We wanted to resurrect this industrial icon and turn it into a cinema celebrating the area’s industrial heritage, current creative energy and Olympic future.” Meanwhile, Paloma Stelitz of Assemble says : “We got our idea for Cineroleum [a disused petrol station turned cinema] after reading an article in the Independent called ‘Farewell to the Forecourts’ that highlighted the profusion of disused automobile infrastructure in our cities.” Still stuck for an idea? Hit the pub. “I was holding short-film nights at the 100 Club and a few other places. After a few drinks at a wedding me and my mate Si decided we should take these short films to the world’s biggest film festival: Cannes. In a Van. The name basically nailed it for us,” says Andy Greenhouse, director of Cannes in a Van . Jim Dummett, of the Lost Picture Show , a replica of a classical picture house enclosed in a festival-ready tent, agrees. “It’s one of those projects that began with a drunken conversation in the pub – ‘wouldn’t it be amazing if we could build the ultimate festival cinema tent?’ – and somehow, almost accidentally, it became a reality.” Step 2. Pick a venue that will engage your audience (and make their friends jealous) “Cinema can and does happen anywhere,” says Stelitz, who is also behind Hackney’s Folly for a Flyover , a cinema sitting beneath the busy lanes of the A12. “Ultimately you don’t need all the associated paraphernalia, just a projector. A face of a building can be as good as a screen.” Fabien Riggall, creative director of Future Cinema and Secret Cinema , says: “We select venues based on the film and what environment will fully immerse the audience in the experience we’re creating. We want people to feel like they’re stepping into the film. So, it could be anything, anywhere, at any time. For example, Battle of Algiers at the Old Vic tunnels underneath Waterloo station, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Old Princess Louise hospital or Ghostbusters at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster. Secret Cinema began with the idea that cinema could be like when you went to the movies as a child. We bring the excitement, suspense and intrigue back by creating wholly immersive worlds to stretch the audience’s imagination, and by keeping the film and location a secret until the event date.” Step 3. Make your pop-up stand out with a spot of careful programming Floating Cinema is a narrow boat turned 12-seater cinema currently traversing the waterways that run in and out of the Olympic site. Curator Emma Underhill says: “Our programme links to the places we visit. We’ve shown Fantastic Mr Fox outside 3 Mills Studios and invited the animators to bring puppets from the film. Other times we’ve shown shorts by local artists and films related to waterways.” Meanwhile, Lost Picture Show project director Jim Dummett says: “Our programme is a compressed history of film, but not just the part that gets written about in Sight & Sound. Great cinema is not just the preserve of the great auteurs such as Orson Welles, Ingmar Bergman and Stanley Kubrick, but should also include films such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, David Cronenberg’s Videodrome and even Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! – all of which are classics in their own way. We do our best to mix the two, the great art and the trips down into cinema’s dirty underbelly.” Step 4. Get a licence. It’s not as hard as it sounds “Licensing is a bit of a minefield,” says Dummett. “For major studio stuff, it’s generally straightforward. MPLC (Motion Picture Licensing Corporation) or Filmbank most often hold the [distribution] rights. But it’s often not clear who owns the rights for a particular film and you often have to go round the houses before you find the right company. For more obscure films, this search can involve multiple dead ends, people who are slow to respond, and sometimes you never find an answer at all. Start by looking at the distributor listed on the DVD box and go from there. The BFI are also a good starting point for advice. But whatever you do, don’t advertise your screening until you know you have the rights.” This process is being made easier by innovative film distributors such as Dogwoof . Dogwoof distribute social-issue films and documentaries such as The Age of Stupid , GasLand and The Interrupters . They offer licences to non-traditional screenings through their website popupcinema.net . “Usually non-traditional cinemas have to wait a long time before they can screen a film,” says Dogwoof’s Oli Harbottle. “We wanted to close that gap and give people the opportunity to screen in their community. The audience is king. They should get a film when, where and how they want it.” As the scheme evolves, Dogwoof plan to help people source projectors and screens, too. If you’re screening artists or archive footage, “it’s important to give those people proper credit, whether that’s acknowledgment or payment,” says Floating Cinema’s Emma Underhill. Step 5. Do your bit for independent film-makers “Pop-up cinemas have a role to play in supporting independent film-makers,” says Underhill. “You are able to be more experimental with the programming because you don’t have to fill a lot of seats or sell a lot of tickets. You can give people a platform.” Portobello Pop-up , a cinema carved into the walls of the Westway carriageway on Portobello Road, is also doing its bit for indies. Artist and film-maker James Static says: “We want to be part of a wider movement that offers an alternative, grassroots distribution channel to struggling film-makers. It’s difficult to get a small, personal film distributed when you’re competing against Avatar.” Step 6. Be interactive The Cycle-in Cinema is like a 1950s drive-in but without the cars. It’s powered by its audience, who are encouraged to ride their bikes to the event, then hook them up to the generators and power the performance, tuning into the soundtrack on FM radios or mobile phones. Adam Walker, a member of the Magnificent Revolution collective behind Cycle-in Cinema, says: “We’ve always been environmentally minded. People get a chance to be part of the performance and produce an event that is more sustainable and engaging than a trip to a multiplex.” Step 8. Serve some awesome snacks “Cinema is about the experience. Great popcorn is part of that,” says Tom Callard of Love da Popcorn , official popcorn providers to Secret Cinema. “A new wave of cinema deserves a new type of popcorn. We were tired of the sugary, mass-manufactured cardboardy crap you get served in cinemas and supermarkets, and we thought we could do better. So we experimented, developed some interesting flavours, like white chocolate, and sea salt and pepper. We try and make everything we do a performance. We set up interesting stalls and we dress up. Our advice is ‘don’t scrimp’. People are very discerning and will see where you’re cutting corners. Get the best food you possibly can, and make sure people leave smiling, not thinking they should have gone down to their local cinema.” Step 9. Don’t aim for perfection. Embrace disaster Cannes in a Van’s Andy Greenhouse says: “On our first outing we only took one boat battery so it didn’t last very long. We would lift up the bonnet, connect the jump leads and run the engine, chugging fumes right into our audience, who sit behind the van, watching the screen within. Thankfully we don’t need to do that any more. “The van was towed one year, which was a nightmare, but after a trip to the pound we got her back and even tried to screen some films late that night. Then there was the exhaust falling off, me driving around the day before saying in my best French accent: ‘ Mon échappement est trés mal! ‘ Needless to say, nobody fixed it and we had to drive back with a booming, stinking engine under our feet.” All this can be part of the charm. Cycle-in Cinema’s Adam Walker says: “All our screenings seem to straddle success and failure. I think that’s what makes it such a relief when the screen finally flickers to life. We’re used to everything being perfect and punctual all the time, but that disconnects us from what’s really going on behind the scenes. Life isn’t perfect, neither is pedal power.” Step 10. Have a dream Even the tiniest pop-up can aim big. Greenhouse says: “The ultimate goal, I suppose, is for one of the [short] films to get noticed via the Van, and then when the director has directed their debut feature, they premiere it back where it all began, out of a tired old Ford Transit. This is perhaps the plot of a film in my head, but you can always dream.” And finally, remember, a bit of rain never hurt anybody. “Expect rain. It’s part of the fun,” advises Love da Popcorn’s Tom Callard. “Last summer the Ford Summer Cinema series we worked on was beset by a series of unfortunate incidents. In Birmingham we had torrential rain and a string of brave Brummies who sat getting soaked. In Scotland, predictably, it was the windiest day of the year and the screen spent the entire movie flexing and bending in on itself. It made for a rather surreal and grotesque viewing of Grease, with Danny’s huge face wobbling about for two hours.” • Floating Cinema runs until 18 September 2011. • The Lost Picture Show pops up 26-28 August at the Shambala festival . • Future Cinema is screening Lost Boys and Top Gun at California Classics on 3 and 4 September 2011. Summer holidays London Ruth Jamieson guardian.co.uk