Two very exciting things happened to us at the same time this week. Before your imaginations run wild (they’re already running wild aren’t they?) the two things were: 1. going into a cinema projector room 2. meeting someone that has been on The Apprentice. This was accomplished by meeting Clapham Picture House manager and guest star of the 2008 Apprentice series, Mike Matthews, who took the time to speak to Love Clapham about the cinema’s history, its renaissance and its future moves into digital and 3D.

Clapham Picture House is a legend in its own right. Its trendy film-buff feel works well with the unashamed casual blockbuster showings to make it the ideal venue for any film lover. Throw in wine and beer to take in with you and we’re in movie heaven. As Mike goes on to say later, the cinema is as much shaped by the wants of the local Clapham community as anything else, and that’s what makes the cinema a Clapham icon.

A film reel being put together in the Clapham Picture House projector room. It may not look much, but there was something fantastic about it.

Clapham Picture House is one of Clapham’s best known living landmarks and business, but can you share some of the cinema’s history?

The history of the cinema goes way back. The building actually took up the whole of Venn Street and started at Londis. That used to be the front door of the cinema and it used to go right round, literally to the end. This was before the war, and as times changed it had all sorts of different purposes. Then fifteen years ago when Picture House took it over, it was a snooker hall.

We originally opened it as a three screened cinema, two screens downstairs, one upstairs and a small bar. Eight years ago, we bought the building next to us and expanded down, extending the bar, opening the restaurant next door and building the fourth screen above it. It gave us a lot more foot space and more seats. I arrived in Clapham as the general manager about five years ago, but I’ve been with the company for fourteen years at other cinemas around the country.

I jigged things up to get it going again because obviously after fifteen years it needed a push. At the end of 2007 we started the refurb of the entire site, taking twelve weeks, opening the bar up more, putting in new screens, soundproofing, new projectors. Big changes – which is what you can see now.

Cinema in general is performing really well at the moment, why do you think that is?

People have batted around terms like “recession proof” and to me that’s silly to say, we’re all working very hard at the moment to keep the cinema busy. As long as I’ve been a cinema manager there’s been something against cinema, if it hasn’t been videos it’s DVDs. One of the things I’ve done as manager over the years is to change the cinema from being a spur of the moment thing, to more of a night out.

People plan their evenings to go to the cinema now, and what we’ve tried to do as a company is cater for that, hence why we have bars and food. You can have your whole night at the cinema; sit down, have something to eat, drink, take the drink into the cinema while you watch the movie. It gives you the whole night out, which is what people look for, particularly in a recession when disposable income is shrinking, they’re looking for good value for money. I think cinema provides that good value for money.

It’s about escapism really. You can go for a meal out and it costs you £20 – 30 a head, you come to the cinema on a Monday and it costs you £6.50 a head. If you’re a member of the Picture House we give £2 off, so that’s only £4.50. People get two hours of pure escapism, a good film and you’re happy. We try to steady the ship, like every business we’re looking where we can tighten more budgets but we feel confident that we’ll ride the storm out which is great.

Mike Matthews, manager of Clapham Picture House (and star of The Apprentice!)

And there’s a great line-up of films this summer to help…

Yeah, obviously this weekend it’s Transformers, then Public Enemies, Bruno, Harry Potter and at the end of the year from September onwards it’s the Cannes films, the high end, high brow films.

As a local cinema, you have more flexibility, what sets Clapham Picture House apart?

We do completely different things, we obviously show the blockbusters because that’s what the majority of people want to see but we mix it up with events like wine tasting, Q&A sessions, film quiz nights, kids clubs on Saturday mornings, silver screen for over 65’s on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and then we do mums and babies on a Thursday morning. We do lots of different events to try and keep the community involved in the cinema.

That monster of a machine is what powers one of Clapham Picture House's digital projectors. Forget your DVD player at home, this is the real deal.

Is digital projection making an impact at Clapham Picture House?

We’ve got four screens and three are digital already – screen 1, 2 and 4 – with plans to make screen 3 digital as well, going completely digital. This is great because for a hundred years or so film hasn’t changed. Sound has, with mono to digital surround sound but the actual film hasn’t really until this new digital generation arrived in late 2007.

Now, the quality is unbelievable; I’d never seen anything like it before. Film stock is great when it first comes – and I love film stock, it’s what I grew up with – but the problem is that the more times you show a film it runs through machinery and degrades resulting in black spots. With digital, it’s the same quality ten years later and people notice how crystal clear the colours are. It makes the experience different.

Are you looking into the new 3D phenomenon?

Yes, we’re trialling it in the Ritzy cinema in Brixton, starting with Monsters vs Aliens and soon Ice Age 3D. Plus we’re looking at putting it into screen 2 in Clapham Picture House. The film everyone’s looking for is Avatar at the end of the year, James Cameron’s new title. Kids’ films are great, but you can’t judge the appeal for the majority of people and whether they want to see films in 3D. Avatar is different and will allow us to judge, so hopefully we’ll have 3D in for that.

It’s interesting how 3D has taken off recently…

Have you seen anything in it?

Yes, we saw Monsters vs Aliens and it did add a lot to film

Well, it needed to because the film isn’t great! I’m still sitting on the fence because I haven’t seen anything that’s blown me away, but visually it does add the wow factor. I really want a film to match that, and a film like Star Trek would have leant itself to 3D, it would have been unreal. That’s why everyone’s looking forward to Avatar with its setting in space and it’s great use of 3D, that will be the one to watch out for. Then you’ll see more and more films for adults in 3D and that’s when more cinemas will take it on board.

You're looking at a piece of Clapham history right here, the last of Clapham Picture House's traditional film stock projectors. There's a film being shown on it in the picture and those massive reels on the left hold the film.

You mentioned events earlier, are there groups people can get involved in?

There’s a monthly film group that comes along, but it’s a lady who runs it off her own back, nothing to do with us. They come, watch a film and have a discussion afterwards which is really lovely. We have a lot of different groups, like the mums and babies on a Thursday – they don’t even know what we’re showing, they just come and enjoy the social event.

The same is true with the silver screen on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. Something we try hard to do is to be part of the local community and that is our main priority. If people ask me how we see the Clapham Picture House, I do see it as an integral part of the community because we service the community. Yes we’re a business, but we’re here to provide a service that the community wants and that’s why we always try to tailor what we offer to what people expect. A lot of cinemas don’t do that.

You can come to us and the majority of the staff want to be in the film industry, they’re actors and screenwriters who have a real interest in films. You can come in and hold a real conversation with them about your favourite film. That’s the way to stand out.

Upcoming events at Clapham Picture House

A massive thanks to Mike for taking the time to talk to Love Clapham and for the behind the scenes tour . Visit the Clapham Picture House website for more info and to book tickets.

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