Wednesday 28 March 2012

Mystery film: 16

We've got another classic film for you to try your hand at guessing this week.

What do you make of this one?


Submit your guesses in the usual ways; on the blog, on twitter or on facebook.
Good luck and happy guessing! 

Monday 26 March 2012

Mystery film: 15 - revealed!

Another week, another mystery film!

It seems that this one struck a chord with a lot of people this week. Over on Twitter, Ian and Jenni recognised the iconic scene from E.T. Stephen tweeted us the theme song (in phoenetic dee dee, di di di di dee dee form!) and over on Facebook Vicky and David both knew this was the film to 'phone home' about.

Film fact: Harrison Ford originaly had a cameo role in the film, as 10 year old lead Elliot's headteacher. Director Steven Spielberg cut the scene from the film's original 1982 release, and though there was speculation that it would be included in the 2002 20th anniversary edition in the end it was not included there either.

We'll have another mystery film for you on Wednesday. See you then!

Wednesday 21 March 2012

Mystery film: 15

We've got another classic film for you to try your hand at guessing this week.

What do you make of this one?


Submit your guesses in the usual ways; on the blog, on twitter or on facebook.
Good luck and happy guessing! 

Monday 19 March 2012

Mystery film: 14 - revealed!

Congratulations to Stephen on facebook who correctly identified the film as the second from the Matrix trilogy; Matrix Reloaded. A highly commended also to David, who knew it was from one of the Matrix films.

Fun fact: Will Smith was originally amongst the actors asked to play Neo, before Keanu Reeves was chosen. He turned the role down to be in Wild Wild West instead.

We'll have another mystery film up on Wednesday!

Thursday 15 March 2012

A commercial break

This afternoon, why don't you take a break for a moment... a commercial break, perhaps?

Amongst the collection of bits and pieces of film that the Regal has collected over the years there are lots of short reels which are adverts and trailers. Advertising has always been a big part of cinema; advertising agencies can sell the prime spots before major films for huge sums of money.

Over the years, there have been many different companies who deal with advertising in cinemas; some of the more famous include Rank Screen Advertising, Carlton Screen Advertising and Pearl and Dean. These agencies would have their own adverts that would screen before a film as well, to let you know who had provided the advertisements for the film. Advertising companies still do this today; look out for it next time you visit the cinema.

In our collection we have a couple of reels of the Rank Screen Advertising trailer. This particular one was used in the 1970s and 1980s. We've included a couple of photographs and a film below. Do you remember seeing this in a cinema?






Some iconic adverts have been shown in the cinema over the years. We have adverts from the 1970s, 80s, 90s and 2000s. Can you have a guess at what these might be advertising?


Perhaps if we start singing "Just one cornetto...?"

The next advert is more recent one. Can you tell what it is advertising?



The text says "Out in Paperback from 10th July" - it's a trailer for the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in paperback!

We've got quite a few advertisements from over the years, so if you'd like us to play a game of "guess the advert from the film strip" then do let us know. That's definitely a feature we can set up for you if you're interested!

Our film archive contains more than just adverts; in upcoming posts we'll be exploring intermission reels, cinema idents and public service announcements! Hope you're looking forward to it...

Wednesday 14 March 2012

Mystery film: 14

We've got another classic film for you to try your hand at guessing this week.

What do you make of this one?



Submit your guesses in the usual ways; on the blog, on twitter or on facebook.

Good luck and happy guessing! 

Friday 9 March 2012

A Virtual Regal

The Regal will celebrate its 75th birthday in July this year; it's a fantastic building with so many stories to tell. We try to bring you some of the interesting ones of objects and film here on the blog, but some of the most interesting stories are the ones that its visitors remember.

Because of that, we're currently working with Field of Vision, a local web design company, to build a special interactive site that celebrates the stories of the people who have worked in and visited the Regal over the years. This site, a virtual Regal, will contain the words, photographs and voices of people who have visited the cinema over the years.

We're very excited about the site, which will allow you to explore a virtual Regal on the internet, discovering people's stories and memories as you go. Below, we've included a couple of teaser sections from some of the site artwork to whet your appetite...


Who's working late tonight?


Catching the late film?

If you've got any memories of the Regal that you'd like to share with the world then please let us know. Stories of the first film you remember seeing there, the people who you went with... whether it's from five years ago or fifty years ago, we'd love to hear from you. As well as taking your memories and publishing them for all to see on our site, we're also looking for some people to be interviewed about their stories. So if you'd like to be made famous for all time on the world wide web, now's your chance to speak up! If you'd rather remain anonymous that's fine too.

The more stories that we can collect, the more we can tell the world about the Regal.

Have you got a story to share?

Mystery film: 12 - revealed!

Gene Roddenberry and J. J. Abrams would be proud; I think this is the most correct answers we've ever had to a mystery film! Congratulations to Kate who boldly went where no blog commenter has gone before (well, since Tuesday anyway) and told us that this week's film was of course the 2009 Star Trek film. Steve, who says he's a doctor not a film analyst, over on twitter also recognised the bridge of the new-look Enterprise, as did Rachel and Jenni on twitter also, and David on Facebook.

Film facts: The sequel to the 2009 film is currently filming in America, with a planned release date in 2013. New British stars are featuring in the film, including Benedict Cumberbatch, who most would probably recognise as Sherlock in the current BBC series.
We'll have a new film up next week. In the meantime; Live Long, and Prosper!

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Mystery film: 12

Welcome back to our Mystery Film Wednesdays. What do you make of this week's image?



Remember, you can submit your answer on the facebook page, here on the blog or over on twitter.

Answers will be up by the end of the week!

Introducing our youtube channel

That's right folks, we've now got ourselves a youtube channel! You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/regaltenburyhlf

We'll be using our youtube channel to post videos of the project in action. Our first video is a virtual behind the scenes tour, which you can find on the channel or directly below.


If you'd like to share the tour, the link is: http://youtu.be/qn9zlv7mJ4U
We're planning to include more informational videos like this on youtube, and also use our channel there as a way of showcasing some of the community engagement projects we've got planned for later in the year. If there's a particular aspect of the Regal you'd like to see us cover in video form then please let us know; we'll do our best to create videos that you want to see.

We hope you enjoy the virtual tour, and the channel!

Tuesday 6 March 2012

Mystery film: 11 - revealed!

Congratulations to Steve and Kate on the blog this week; Steve correctly identified Monsieur Gaston from the film Kate knew to be the Disney classic Beauty and the Beast.

A tale as old as time, Beauty and the Beast was the first animated film ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for best picture. It's a classic family film.

Fun fact: in the Chinese release of Beauty and the Beast, the voice of the beast was provided by Jackie Chan.

Another mystery film coming up tomorrow. Enjoy!

Monday 5 March 2012

Behind the Scenes: Update

A big thanks to everyone who came along to our behind the scenes tours at the weekend. We were full to capacity on Saturday, and just about had enough hard hats to go around!

Feedback from people on the day was overwhelmingly positive; it was great to hear so many people interested in the Regal and its future. Such public support can only bode well for the cinema when it re-opens!

An especially big thanks to the volunteers who made it possible, and to the local journalists who promoted the cinema and the tours on radio and in our local newspapers.

For those of you who didn't manage to get to the cinema, we're working on a special surprise. More on that before the week is out!