The people of Derby are about to be the stars of their own film. As yet, there is no cast, no crew and no plot but its director, world-renowned Marinella Senatore, tells Jonny Birkin what she thinks it will do for the city’s arts scene.

USUALLY, it's Hollywood blockbusters, quirky indie dramas or award-winning foreign films that cinemagoers flock to Quad to watch.

But come September, in place of Leonardo di Caprio, Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Foster, it will be people you pass in the street lighting up the screens.

That is because, over the next few months, a feature film written, directed, produced, scored, edited, designed by and starring the people of Derby will be created on our doorstep.

It will start with a blank page and end with a glittering premiere at Derby Festé. But it is between those two bookends that the magic of film-making will take place for hundreds of people.

Whether it is as an actor, writer, editor, camera operator, sound engineer, runner, focus puller, director, set designer or driver, there are countless ways you can add your name to the end credits of what is being dubbed the Derby Soap Opera.

Costume-makers, decorators, builders, storyboard artists, singers, musicians and more are all needed for the film.

It is one of the most ambitious mass-participation projects ever attempted and Quad, together with renowned director of photography and project coordinator Marinella Senatore, want you to get involved.

"There is an open invite for anyone to get involved in any way they want," said Marinella, who has flown to Derby from Berlin to get the project off the ground.

"The best part about adventures like this is that they are adventures for everyone. They are a way for people to experience something new and to see the creative process behind a feature film for themselves.

"People aren't just the spectators watching a finished film; they are the authors, they are the directors, they are the stars.

"The Derby Soap Opera is a chance for people to share in that process, to acquire new skills and to teach each other."

The idea was thought up by the team at Quad, who then approached Marinella to see if she wanted to get involved.

Having worked on mass participation projects in the past, the film-maker jumped at the chance and set about creating timetables for pre-production, filming and post-production, which start tomorrow.

Before the cameras even start rolling, there will have been countless workshops teaching newcomers to the craft and those with some experience how to write a screenplay, sketch out storyboards, scout for locations, film with a camera and set up a basic lighting rig.

It is all about bringing people together to share their own stories, whether they are a student with a message to send or a community group member who has an incredible life experience they want to share.

And it does not matter if you have never held a camera, written a line of dialogue or acted in your life.

Marinella says: "People's experiences of film-making could be really different; they can get hugely involved even without any kind of knowledge about a camera, lighting, dancing, acting or anything else.

"They can learn to write even if they have never tried it before and it really isn't necessary to be trained or have a professional filmmaking background.

"It just depends on what they want their level of involvement to be and the kind of experience they want with the project. The platform is really open and it is conceived to be an ongoing workshop where everybody brings what he or she knows."

When the final frames are edited and the film has its premiere later in the year, Marinella hopes it will have created a sense of community, a creative partnership between people who have never met but bond over their mutual aim of telling stories and entertaining audiences.

She says: "Connecting personal events with collective processes, fact and fiction, history and chronicle, my work fosters the construction of an archive of shared narratives that create that sense of community.

"Ultimately, the goal is to make something collectively and everyone brings something different to the drawing board. Sometimes, the most interesting stories come from right in front of us."

Marinella describes herself as a mix of many things, as much an artist as she is a film-maker. She learned her craft as a director of photography under Giuseppe Rotunno, who worked on many influential films by Fellini and Visconti.

Art exhibitions Marinella has created have been shown at the Venice Biennale, the New York New Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

One of the key reasons Quad was so keen to get her on board was her experience with similar mass participation projects. In the last two years she has created a video produced entirely by the retired miners of Sicily and a four-part radio drama made by industrial workers from the area around Venice.

She has also filmed a movie in New York made with 400 residents of the Lower East Side and in Spain in 2009 she persuaded 1,200 residents of Madrid to pay one euro to be producers of a film.

"I've been working with this kind of community project structure since 2006," said Marinella. "Since then, I have worked with such a variety of people.

"What I enjoy the most is my role as an activator, someone who helps to bring these people together to experience something new and exciting and fun, to provide a platform for their creativity and their ideas.

"I think of myself as the conductor of an orchestra, but of course I like to play as well!"

Marinella starts "conducting" tomorrow, when the Derby Soap Opera finally launches after months of meticulous planning by Quad.

She will be introducing the project to the public in The Box at Quad, at noon and 6pm.

Anyone interested in getting involved in the Derby Soap Opera can go along.

The cast and film crew will begin gathering from Wednesday, when the first of a series of skills workshops will start.

The first will teach people how to read and write a film script, followed by workshops on camera operating, photography, directing, music of the movies, sound recording, video editing, dance, movement and acting, all of which will be taking place at Quad and Deda for the next few weeks.

Then, once the ideas for the film have started to formulate, pen will be put to paper at scriptwriting workshops, starting from March 5.

Cameras will roll from May to July, after which the editors will head to their suites and start piecing the project together in time for its premiere.

And when the Derby Soap Opera – or whatever title it eventually takes on – comes to an end, it will be a medley of emotions for Marinella.

"I will be sad when it finally comes to an end," she said. "The affection, the camaraderie and the partnerships we make are an essential part of my work.

"We will create relationships with people through this creative process and sometimes it is difficult to leave them after such an intense period of sharing life.

"But the memories and the results of our collective efforts will make me so happy, as I hope it will for all those involved.

"It's a great opportunity for me to experience the culture and the creative hub of Derby and it's also a fantastic chance for the citizens to craft their own work of art, something they can be proud to call their very own feature film."

QUAD WORKSHOPS FOR DERBY SOAP OPERA

Tomorrow: Marinella's introduction to the project in The Box, 12pm and 6pm.

Wednesday: Writing and reading a script, Quad, 2pm-4pm

Thursday: Camera operator and photography, Digital Studio, Quad, 2pm-5pm

Friday: Director of photography, The Box and Digital Studio, 2pm-5pm

February, 26: Music for the movies, The Box, 3pm-5pm

February 27: Sound recording, digital studio, 2pm-5pm

February 28: Video editing, Digital Studio, 2pm-5pm

Sat, Mar 3: Dance, movement and acting, Deda, Chapel Street, 5pm-7pm

March 11: Acting, The Box, 3pm-5pm

All workshops are free. Dates and times are subject to change so check before attending by calling Quad on 01332 290606 or visiting www.derbyquad.co.uk.