Filmmakers open new community cafe inside 'working studio' in Maidenhead

The founders of a film and photography studio in Maidenhead want to build a community with those who ‘enjoy creativity’ through the opening of a new café.

Ben Marlow, 44, and Jack Tompkins, 35, started Ben&Jack Studio eight years ago and have gone from ‘strength to strength’, making several sports documentaries for major streaming services.

After years of living the ‘freelancer lifestyle’ and working from home, the pair finally secured Unit B in Reform Road and opened their studio in spring this year, but ‘one thing led to another’ and they have built an in-house café too.

“When I was researching what my photographer and filmmaker friends would want in a studio, I was picking their brains about backdrops and lighting and all that studio-based stuff,” said Ben.

“But the resounding thing that came back from everyone was that a good coffee is the most important thing.”

This month, they soft-launched a café for photographers who rent the studio, but the venue has become popular with repeat customers from all over the community.

“It's not a Costa or anything. It’s a café, but it is also a working studio, so there's lots of art and photography about,” said Ben.

“Depending on what the shoot is, there could be photographers upstairs doing a fashion shoot whilst someone's downstairs having a cappuccino.

“It’s quite an odd situation, but quite cool.”

The café is open on weekdays and offers a variety of coffees and teas, as well as homemade flapjacks and goods from Epic Brownies.

It will soon host events and weekly art exhibitions.

“What we're trying to do is find our tribe – a place for creatives to meet, have a coffee, and with artistic stuff happening all around them,” Ben said.

“That's the ethos behind it – we’re looking to get customers that have a keen interest in art, photography and filmmaking.”

This is happening naturally because it's a studio, he added, but the café has even attracted customers from the next-door car wash.

“We're not targeting anyone but the plan [is] to create this hub for people that don’t have to be from Maidenhead, don’t have to be [creatives] themselves, but just enjoy creativity,” said Ben.

Having been born and bred in Maidenhead, Ben and Jack previously found it ‘difficult to get the community aspect’ of their business without a physical studio, but are now ‘trying to make something bigger than just the two of us’.

The pair have been content sponsors for Maidenhead Nomads for more than a year, creating videos on kit launches and matchdays.

“The whole ethos of our company is to be community-based, and because most of our documentaries are on women’s sport, we said, ‘We’re happy to sponsor, but why don’t you start a women’s team?’” said Ben.

“Two weeks ago, the women's team played their first game, so we’re providing football now to women in the local area as well and filming it and taking snaps along the way.”

Ben&Jack Studio will soon offer filmmaking courses and workshops in topics such as pre-production, filming, editing, cinematography and photography, after seeing a ‘gap in the market’.

“Our slogan is to create content that makes people ask questions, but now to teach the next generation to do the same is a huge part of what we're doing,” said Ben.

“We’ve always known from being at college ourselves, and what has not changed even to this day is… if you study cinematography, the amount of time that you spend with a camera in your hands is small.

“The thought was, how can we get more cameras into people’s hands?

“The next era of Ben&Jack studio is to start bringing everyone else in, and not just me and Jack have all the fun.

“There’s plenty of stuff going on.”