Makerspace
FILMA Is Moving – Memberships are Temporarily Closed – Contact us to get on the waitlist at our new location! Read more: FILMA IS MOVING TO BERKELEY
Filma is all about creativity – about the Makerspace:
- Tools & Space for making art (or making not-art).
- Collaborate and skill share with other makers
- Sit-stand work surfaces
- Epic Big windows – Lots of Natural Light
- Eco-conscious — we work very hard at recycling our materials
- Chill/break area w/ fridge, kettle, filtered water, ice, friends.
- Art night every Tuesday night – we get together with the community and make stuff!
- Participate in local creative community events and creative installations
- Sliding Scale – we have to pay the rent, but we’re all about being accessible to artists and makers. Choose a monthly dues that fits your budget.
Sliding Scale: $60-$150/month
Basically the way it works for artists and makers is: you show up, grab a station, you make stuff for a while, you clean up after yourself, and you come back tomorrow. All creatives get a little bit of storage for their active projects. We keep the power tools & chemicals to nights and weekends to allow the space to be more inclusive. That’s it – easy peasy.
What do people do here? Like, a lot: Sculpting, music, electronics, wood, projection mapping, collage, audio visualizers, LEDs, interactive dot matrix printers, neon lights, game programming, embroidery, 3d printing, sewing, writing and then some.
or Txt/Call – 510-213-8431
Makerspace Tools
- Basics: screw drivers, pliers, cutters, etc
- Wrenches: sockets, allens, crescents and so many more.
- Wood tools: chop saw, table saw, circular saw, router, joiner
- Electronics: Soldering iron
- Pneumatics
- Grinders, sanders
- Drills, Angled Drills, Drill press
- Billions of measurement devices including a prized collection of tape measures.
You must be demonstrate safe & proper use of power tools in order to use them 🙂
Makerspace Creative Equipment
- 1080p 4k lumen projectors
- Tablets you can hack
- Midi controllers
- Photography light reflectors
- Tripods and other stands
- Creative cloths and other re-usable art materials
- What’s in the shop?
Our shop is a generalist shop – you can do lots of things in it but it doesn’t specialize in any one craft. That means there are all kinds of tools, but you likely won’t find highly specialized tools like you would in a facility dedicated to one specific purpose.
Shop Tools:
- Measurement devices (lots)
- Screw drivers, sockets, wrenches, pliers, cutters
- Table Saw, Circular Saw, Chop Saw, Shitty Jig saw, Band Saw
- Drill press, hand drills, 90 degree drills, impact drivers
- Router, Button Joiner
- Pneumatics – staples and nails
- Clamps, clips, vices
- Glue Gun, glue gun stuff
- Grinder, Sanders
- What other equipment is available?
We tend to lean towards light and tech related arts so we have resources available for creatives:
- 1080p projectors
- Tri-pods
- screen reflectors
- Midi controllers
- Ipads
- Curtains & Decorative Cloth
- What kinds of work surfaces are available?
- 8×4 waist-height workbench
- 8×4 standing-height workbench
- 2 4×3 industrial desks
- 2 6×3 industrial desks
- 1 personal seated desk
- 4 personal sit-stand desks
- shared table seating
- What kinds of art happen in the makerspace?
Our current members are involved in, but not limited to these creative activities:
- Electronic music production
- Sound Design
- Film Scoring
- Audio Recording
- Projection Mapping
- Video game design
- LED Sculpture
- Interactive Immersive Art installations
- Wax casting sculpture
- Electronics design
- Product design
- 3d printing
- Embroidery
- Painting
- Sewing
- Drawing
- Collage
- Sign making
- Neon lights, glass bending
- Cosplay costume making
- Miniature death robots
- Garden moisture automation
- Can I do woodworking at Filma?
While you can work with wood at Filma we do not consider ourselves to be a “wood shop”. A dedicated wood shop would likely have way more cool saws, stuff like cnc routers, and some really good dust management among other features. We just don’t have that stuff – so when it comes to wood you could probably build a very basic table here, but you might not be manufacturing the next Burning Man sculpture.
If you’re interested in wood-working we recommend checking out Bridge Art & Storage, Ace Makerspace, and The Crucible. Each of these organizations has differing wood offerings depending on your needs, skill level, and desire for independence.
- Do you have a kiln?
Nope – however there’s a great pottery studio around the block that will fire your work.
- Can I bring my “really cool giant tool” to Filma to share?
Please don’t bring any tools to share, no matter how cool they are 🙂
- Do you have art classes?
Nope! We’re a project-based makerspace where folks come here to realize their vision. While we certainly skill-share as a community, our business model isn’t based around art-education. If you’re interested in taking classes, might we recommend these fantastic local organizations:
- Ace Makerspace
- The Crucible
- Grey Area
- How does sliding scale work for artists, makers, and designers?
Sliding scale means designers, makers, artists, and folks generally sharing the shop for creative purposes choose their fees in 10 dollar increments: 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, or 100. You pay what you can afford – no questions asked.
This is different than coworking at Filma which has a different pricing model. See our website and other parts of this fax for information on coworking.
- What are consent hours? How are they different from Quiet Hours?
Consent is all about asking the people in the community before you do something that impacts them. Because we’re a coworking space by day, we observe consent hours every weekday.
Consent hours are simple: If you want to use a loud ass tool or get crazy with chemicals, talk to folks who are working. It’s really hard to talk to your boss over zoom when someone is drenching the makerspace in paint thinner. After 6pm we’re all done talking to our bosses – go crazy with the chop saw.
Why not just call them ‘quiet hours’ or something normal? Because CONSENT IS COOL and ‘quiet hours’ are way too restrictive. What if no one is telecommuting that day? What if the person telecommuting doesn’t care if you play with Nancy, the table saw?
It’s easy – if it’s consent hours and you wanna do something that’s going to impact the community – ASK FIRST (and be prepared to be told no too).
- Are there community art events?
Yes on nights and weekends folks can get together! We’re always looking to create in group settings. Weekly we host art night where our community and their guests are welcome to roll up their sleeves and creatively hang out. We also host creative meetups from time to time too (like for projection mapping).