Wells film centre

The closest most cinema owners get to film makers, is projecting the credits at the end of the movie. But the family-run Wells Film Centre is unlike any of the big multiplexes.

Owner Derek Cooper laid out the red carpet for the cast and crew of Hot Fuzz last year; had his own walk-on role in The Libertine with Johnny Depp; and recently played host to a world premiere for the Somerset-filmed Seven Crosses.

It's no wonder there's quite a buzz in the bijou former Scout hut in Princes Road, at the centre of Wells, which the Cooper family has gradually transformed over two decades into a three-screen state-of-the-art cinema.

"There is a place for cinemas to have a relationship with the independent film makers who are producing films in their own region," Derek says.

"As a small, independent cinema, we're able to have a much more personal approach in our relationship with the people at the other end of the movie-making business."

This was certainly true when it came to Edgar Wright – writer and director of Hot Fuzz, last year's unlikely box office success story, based on policemen working the sleepy streets of Somerset. "Edgar had been my projectionist," Derek explains. "Until I sacked him."

He shrugs his shoulders, as he makes his way through the cinema's narrow corridor.

"Still," he adds, "It was the best thing I could have done for him. He wasn't much of a projectionist, but he's an excellent film-maker."

Derek's relationship with the cinema industry started 35 years ago, next door in what was then the Regal cinema.

"I began as a young lad winding the film on the spools," he says.

"Then I worked at the Odeon in Taunton, then as manager of the Gaiety in Bristol," Derek explains.

"But in 1992, I came full circle when I took this place on, right next door to the former cinema where it had all began for me. This place had been a village hall – Scouts, W.I. all that sort of thing.

"But the previous owners had converted it into a single-screen cinema.

"We've slowly turned it into what you see today. For a place of just 10,000 people, it's quite something to have a three-screen cinema.

"It's important cinemas like ours support local film-makers," he adds.

"People don't realise how much film-making talent there is in the West Country.

"You've got the likes of Kirk Jones, who directed Nanny McPhee – he's from Clevedon.

"Then the director of The Libertine, Laurence Dunmore, was a former Wells Cathedral School boy.

"That's how they came to be filming scenes at Wells Cathedral – which is when I had my walk-on role in the background."

Derek, and his wife June, handed over the management of the cinema to eldest daughter Becky when they took the place on. But now, with Becky developing a full-time military career with the Territorial Army, the job of the day-to-day running of the cinema has been handed over to Becky's younger sisters.

Sally, 21, is the new general manager, while Libby, 30, is dealing with front-of-house sales and marketing.

"The key turning point for the cinema was when we managed to get a grant for a digital projector a few years ago," Sally explains.

"And getting that was tied in to our relationship with independent local film makers. The Government set up a fund of £15 million called the Digital Screen Network to try to develop the digital revolution in cinemas.

"We managed to bid successfully for one of the £100,000 machines. It completely opens up the field on the range of films you can show – because these days you don't have to wait for the reels to arrive for the latest movie.

"It's particularly useful when it comes to supporting the independent film-makers, who might not have been able to get their movie set on to 35mm. And in order to get hold of the machine, we had to commit to showing the smaller independent movies."

"Without this machine, we wouldn't have been able to offer independent film makers the chance to show their films here."

Scottish-born film producer Robbie Moffat knows just how important it is to get your movie on to a big screen.

He set up his own low-budget film company in 1995. Under the title of Palm Tree Entertainments, Robbie has managed to produce 15 feature films, based in a small office in Pinewood Studios – surrounded by the big boys such as Warner Bros, Paramount and Universal. Having lived in Somerset for two years in the 1980s, Robbie has used locations in the county for a number of his movies, including Seven Crosses and Sisters Grimm.

"We started off in Scotland as a production company, and found very early on that it's easier to film in rural locations than in cities," he explains. When we moved down to London, we looked around for good rural locations in the south, and Somerset seemed like the perfect option for me.

"Importantly, it's not been over-filmed yet – it's not that audiences are seeing the distinctive Somerset landscape in every other film. So we're able to create something a bit unusual, which is always important."

Robbie quickly developed a relationship with Wells Film Centre and the Cooper family. "It's vitally important for us to ensure each film gets to appear in cinemas and doesn't just go straight to video," he says.

"The fact is, if a production company is going get their hands on the vital Film Tax Credits, they have to prove the movie has been seen in a theatrical environment.

"Sadly, the big American distribution networks have total control over the vast majority of the cinemas in this country.

"That's why the small independent cinemas are so important to us. We can approach them and talk to real people, who are often willing to take a punt on a low-budget British film.

"The American film companies are so powerful, it's very difficult for any British film industry to flourish – and even those films you often think are British have American backers – so all the money bleeds back out of the country. It's a terrible shame, because we have all the real talent, all the best story- lines, the greatest technicians and some fabulous locations.

"Everyone likes a free market in principle, but there has to come a point when the Government sees the way the Americans are bleeding us dry.

"In France there is a system of governmental protection of French films, in order to keep their movie industry healthy. We need similar help in this country.

"But for now, getting those Film Tax Credits is the key – and that's where cinemas like the Wells Film Centre come into their own."

■ For more information about the Wells Film Centre, log on to www.wellsfilmcentre.co.uk