What is Film Quiz?
A monthly get together of film-loving people, organised into teams of no more than six, pitting their wits against each other (and against the Quizmasters) for the chance to win a prize – and glory – (especially glory). It’s a social occasion and played for fun (although SOME teams – who shall be anonymous here – are pretty competitive)! There are other prizes and consolations, in particular The Bringing Up The Rear Prize for whichever team comes last (we try not to use that term…) It’s a celebration of screen culture, as is the Screenplay Film Festival, and we hope it encourages people to attend the cinema to keep their knowledge up to date and because Mareel is such a terrific cinema with a varied and inclusive programme; biased, us? You bet.
How have the quizzes changed from when you started 10 years ago?
The Quizmasters have become a lot more professional in their approach and are constantly looking for innovation and variety. The first quizzes were necessarily experimental, and we’ve honed our skills over the years with regard to content, presentation and fairness; the latter is hard to achieve when you have teams of widely differing expertise – you can’t just keep making it more difficult, you have to find innovative ways of asking questions that might offer opportunities to less experienced teams whilst tripping up some of the usual front runners.
Why do you think film quiz has lasted so long?
In all honesty I think it’s down to the dedication of the volunteer Quizmasters and the effort they put in to make it special. We maintain a high standard and that doesn’t happen without a whole lot of attention to preparation and presentation. Each quiz involves over 90 hours of volunteer effort, and the big Screenplay Film Quiz- which is an anarchic riot - involves a lot more.
We’ve also worked hard to create a sense of community and camaraderie. When the Covid-19 lockdowns occurred we were determined to stick together, so we moved online. Whilst this presented us with definite challenges (live marking online is a very tense affair!) and limited us in what we could offer (broadband capacities were very varied) it offered different opportunities for joining in. We gathered new teams- some involved members ‘south’, those who previously struggled for childcare or had travel difficulties. It was crucial to us that the Film Quiz sense of community was retained – and it certainly was a lightsome distraction during that difficult period.
