OUGD505 - Studio brief 01 - Hyde Park Picture House research

I selected Hyde Park Picture House as one of the ideas to research further, this is due to positive feedback from my peers and tutors on the potential of the idea. For further research I delved into the history, the building, how the cinema has affected the city socially and culturally and forms of graphic design and illustration that is related to the cinema.

History

Despite the outbreak of WW1 in August 1914, the Hyde Park Picture House was built and opened ready for business on the 7th November 1914. The pages of the Yorkshire Evening Post were almost entirely devoted to news of the war but a small advert announced the opening of the new Picture House. It proudly proclaimed itself to be "The Cosiest in Leeds" and to this day the cinema tries to live up to this.

The first film to be shown at the picture House was Their Only Son, billed as a patriotic drama and was followed the next week by the famous invasion drama An Englishman's House. Although few new cinemas could be built during the war years audiences continued to grow. By September 1914 over 6000 men had enlisted in Leeds and the cinema provided news bulletins, war footage and morale boosting dramas as well as the escapism of lavish productions. In the years to come the cinema would become the highlight of many people's week.

A vibrant heart within the thriving Hyde Park community. Over time it became the backdrop to many little off screen dramas. It was a hot spot for young couples and many a romance blossomed in the back row. The advent of the talkies in the late 20's didn't hurt the stride of the little Picture House in the slightest and a quick conversion to sound was easily enough achieved but the road was now open for many a new hurdle. The 30's saw the building of several new city centre 'super cinemas' capable of seating up to 3000 people at once. The 50's saw the development of television. And one interesting event I found while researching the cinema was in 1959, to promote the showing of The Big Hunt, a live elephant appeared outside the cinema. In the 80's it was video, the 90's was the new multiplex surge and the new millenium brought with it DVDs and the full power of the internet. But with all these changes the Picture House is all the more able to be a constant, a regular friendly face in an ever changing social landscape.

One of the landmark events in the history of the little Picture House happened in 1989 when Leeds City Council stepped in to save it from closure. The Picture House is now owned by Leeds City Council as part of the Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House Limited. This independent company within the council is dedicated to preserving, and securing the future of three of Leeds most historically and culturally significant venues, the Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House, The City Varieties and the Hyde Park Picture House. The Board of Trustees, Leeds Grand Theatre and Opera House Ltd.

I underlined key aspects of the cinemas history that relate to the brief and will inform potential further research, but from only looking into the history of the cinema I can note down a number of events that have been significant.

Building

The building is a Grade II listed building built by Thomas Winn & Sons. Today it features many original features, such as an ornate balcony and external box office, and is the only remaining gas lit cinema in the United Kingdom. Following the installation of "comfier seating", the Picture House has a capacity of 275, down from around 400 on opening. The front elevation is topped by a Dutch gable with ball finials and features four ionic columns. Moulded letters spelling out "Hyde Park Picture House" appear at the entrance and contrast with the red brick, which makes up the majority of the building.

Social and cultural benefits of the cinema

From looking into the history of the cinema I found that despite all changes the Picture House has encountered it is all the more able to be a constant, and be a regular friendly face in an ever changing social landscape. This alone is a great example of how the cinema acts as a social hub for the community surrounding the cinema but also the rest of Leeds. A great way of finding out the social and cultural benefits of the cinema was looking at the general publics reviews of the cinema, so I looked at Google reviews and Trip Advisor.

The Google reviews provided a real insight into what the people of Leeds think of the historic venue. 'Cultural hub of Leeds' is one example of the perception of the cinema but my favourite is the bottom review from Steve Paget, he talks about the simple things that make the cinema and the overall experience so special. 

 

Again with Trip Advisor the reviews show the impact the cinema has on people, it creates enjoyment for all that visit which is down to its authentic feel. 'A wonderful place with real a soul and for me one definite highlights of Leeds'. 

Related graphic design and illustration

To look at graphic design and illustration that relates to the cinema was a good source of inspiration and gave me an idea of how other have depicted the cinema visually.

The first example I looked at was from Alphabet, who were approached by the Hyde Park Picture House to tackle the task of attracting more students to the cinema. Alphabet decided to focus on their recognisable colour scheme of Black, Yellow and White, and created new and bespoke content for the cinema that was aimed specifically at the younger student audience. The content was focussed on bold Typographic approaches that was heavily inspired by the cinema’s use of traditional typography.

To focus more on the use of type which was influenced by traditional cinema screen boards, where the cinema staff would physically fix and move letters onto a board to spell out the constantly changing film titles and times. The type is definitely the strongest element of the work and is paired with bold yellow colour and imagery that was treated to be black and white and high in contrast. The type, colour and imagery create a contemporary style for the cinema which no doubt attracts a younger audience. 

The second example I found was from one of the co-founders of Alphabet, Abbas Mushtaq. While at the cinema recently one of the prints for sale caught me eye, and it turns out it is one of Abbas designs which he created in 2012. It was for 'The Creatures of the Night' calendar which is a big event at the cinema with some great films being shown. The cinema offered the chance to design a one-off poster for one of the big titles being shown that year, Alejandro Jodorowsky's classic horror film - Santa Sangre (1989). Abbas aimed to represent the film as 'trippy' in his design and the concept of the poster along with the colours is the ability to read it upside down too with an equal amount of information upside down with an idea of symmetry. Seeing the work being sold online and inside the cinema, made me realise that this idea has the potential to exist outside of university and the poster if I chose Hyde Park Picture House could be sold.

These are a series of illustrated promotional posters for the cinema and each poster aims to show different aspects of the institute. Quality, atmosphere, community and history are the themes portrayed through playful illustrations who were created by a student at Leeds University as a part of a brief. From researching into the cinema it is clear that quality, atmosphere, community and history are all big factors that attract people to the cinema so I like how the illustrations aim to replicate them factors.