A Trip to Newcastle

Recently we visited the city of Newcastle with our course Creative Film and Moving Image Production at CCAD Hartlepool. The trip consisted of a guide around the magnificent Tyneside Cinema and a visit to the famous Baltic Mill for a look at some contemporary art. When we first arrived in Newcastle we made our way over to the Tyneside Cinema first and waited for our guide to begin. We started on the ground floor where the box office was and made or way up the building, we found out that the cinema was designed and built by a man named Dixon Scott who was also the uncle of filmmakers Ridley and Tony Scott who are famous for films such as Alien, Blade Runner, True Romance and Top Gun. The cinema has five screens on various floors of the building that the use to view films and also allow to be booked out for any occasions you may have, the cinema had recently gone through a renovation and restoration back in 2006 but tried to keep it's classic style and design by recreating some of its patterns and tones on different floors. We were able to sit down and enjoy an old news screening in a screen they call "The Classic" and got to experience how people would find out about news back in the times it was created. It was an interesting view on how important the cinema was and still is and how it could be used for much more than just film. The further we went up the building we were introduced to different screens and cafes the cinema had and it was nice to see that each screen had it's own design and wasn't an exact copy of the previous. It was a great experience visiting Tyneside Cinema and a pleasant surprise to see an independent cinema doing well and still having that love for film and cinema after all these years.

After Tyneside Cinema we were given a lunch break and then it was off to the Baltic Mill to have a look at some of it's new additions and presentations. The Baltic also had many floors, each filled with a different artists work that you could walk around and view and each offered a different experience than the last. There was some very intriguing pieces of art and some that were either to complex for me to understand or just not to my taste but it was nice to see peoples thought process and how each individual interprets the art differently which is one of the best things about art. We finished up at the Baltic after just over an hour and then made our journey back to Hartlepool. I really enjoyed the trip to Newcastle and both the experiences we got to enjoy, it was definitely worth the the trip and the insight gained from visiting places like this is very valuable.