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This topic comprises 3 pages: 1 2 3
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Topic: Anyone Ever Run A Hollywood Premiere?
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Michael Schaffer
"Where is the
Boardwalk Hotel?"
Posts: 4143
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Apr 2002
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posted 04-03-2007 05:27 PM
I ran a lot of premieres, world premieres as well as European and German premieres when I worked in Berlin.
Some during the International Berlin Film Festival, some were world premieres of German movies, some were European premieres, especially of Columbia TriStar productions as that company is owned by Sony, and I worked for the company which operates the cinema in the Sony Center right in the historical center of Berlin which is also the European headquarters of Sony.
So, they wanted their local German and European premieres to run there, and we did a lot of the stuff they cranked out during those years, like "The Patriot", "Spiderman 1/2", "Charlie's Angels", titles like that, plus we also got some of the premieres of other major distributors, Fox, Paramount, since the events we did for Sony all went very well.
Plus, the Sony Center is an ideal location for premiere parties. It has a large, long foyer and an inner courtyard which is open air but has a roof, and there is a very long and wide tunnel which goes from a nearby freeway under the Sony Center (so they can truck in stuff for the offices, shops, and restaurants in the Center). So we had premiere parties there of biblical proportions, and all the stars usually came and partied there. But I am not really interested in stars, so that wasn't so "exciting" for me.
Me and my colleagues did get to go to the premiere parties, but apart from being able to swallow large amounts of hideously expensive food, standing around and seeing some stars walk by, it's not really that much of an event, especially since by the time the premiere is over, you are nearly *dead*.
Preparing for these events is a ton of stress. Even though our stuff was always well maintained, we checked through everything over and over in the nights before the premiere, watched the showprints - I had to watch "The Patriot" 8 times in a row -, ran test screenings several times over, and when the time of the premiere comes, there is a lot of tension and anticipation and a lot of last minute triplechecking going on.
Then when the premiere runs, you just sit there and wait for stuff to happen. But we never had any major problems. Actually, not even minor ones.
One time, we discovered during a last check 15 minutes before showtime that a DA20 had somehow given up, so we had less than 15 minutes to tear this and one from the only other auditorium that wasn't used for the premiere out of the racks and install that one. I was still fumbling around with that when Mel Gibson entered the auditorium and greeted his fans and the show started literally within seconds of me finishing it up.
That's a lot of stress, and after that, you just sit back, patrol the booth, and wait for it to be over so you can go hit the party, grab some shrimp cocktails, then finally go home and catch up on sleep.
The International Berlin Film Festival which is, I think, the 3rd biggest film festival in the world (and of which the Sony Center is one of the main locations) always was a lot of fun, but also a megaton of stress.
During 2 weeks or so, we ran many *hundreds* of screenings, usually 5 a day in each auditorium, each screening a unique event with typically staff from the production (director, producer, actors etc) in all the screenings, a lot of press, film buyers etc.
Some of the screenings were "just" for the buyers' market, closed screenings in which everything was actually run from platters (we had people building and breaking all day long), but the screenings in series like "International Forum of Young Directors" were all very "film festival", so we ran everything changeover in those auditoriums which had been specifically equipped for those events.
In those auditoriums, we basically had everything you need for any kind of picture and sound format.
I usually ran changeover shows in an auditorium that was equipped with a pair of Kinoton FP-38E (and we did actually still run some 16mm, although that has became more and more rare). We also had one with a pair of FP-75E.
The festival is a major logistic operation since it happens in several locations, and most of the films get screened on 3 or 4 different occasions in different locations. So we had a host of couriers who were hauling the prints all over the place, sometimes the prints came in only minutes before the screening, and you just had enough time to put reel 1 on while you put the rest on reels. They always came tails out so you had to rewind them, giving you an opportunity to quickly check the reels, and when done, they went directly into the box the way they were, often with the courier standing by to take off with the print the moment the screening was over.
One year, we ran a retrospective of Vietnamese films which were all in 1:1.75 (and they also had French leaders, reflecting the fact that Vietnam had once been a French colony, the printing equipment they have probably goes back to that time). They all came on tiny 8-minute or so reels and the prints were very brittle old acetate which sometimes just crumbled when you threaded them even very carefully.
During those festivals and premieres, you get to see and do a lot of interesting things, but believe me, as satisfying as it is from a professional point of view to handle all that, at the end, you are just happy to go home and go to sleep...
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Michael Coate
Phenomenal Film Handler
Posts: 1904
From: Los Angeles, California
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 04-04-2007 03:24 AM
quote: Tim Reed
"Superman 2", some special benefit arrangement. Ran concurrently with the L.A. and NYC premieres.
Tim...Was it a premiere, or a preview screening? I ask because Warner Bros. did a select-city preview of the movie one week before it opened (June 12, 1981) which would seem more likely for a city like Lexington. (There wasn't a Lexington connection to that production, was there?)
The only bona fide premieres I'm aware of for "Superman II" were the ones in Washington, DC (Uptown, May 31, 1981--Steve G, did you work that one?), New York City (National, June 1) and Los Angeles (Goldwyn, June 2).
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