Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith Planning Thread

I went by Briarcreek and got my tickets for the midnight showing as well as for other showings the next day and Channel 11 was there doing a story on the Episode 3 Tickets being on sale. The managers there were being total jerks about them filming on their property. You'd think they would be glad for free advertising that SW tickets were on sale. I just hope they're less problematic with the upcoming festivities on May 19th than they were this morning. It almost made me want to get my money back for my tickets and go over to the Raleigh Grande instead.

Let me clarify something as I am the manager at the Movies at Brier Creek - and without getting into a war of words. Yes, "free" publicity from the local media can be good but it also can provide problems. Our company (Eastern Federal) has asked us as managers to direct any questions of an event like this to our marketing director at our home office down in Charlotte. The problem with such media arises when a popular or teen-friendly R-rated film comes out (notably "8 Mile") and local media groups purposefully send underage teens out to try to buy tickets so we can be plastered over the 11pm news. This is why we are hesitant with the local media in terms of divulging information because we do not know exactly what their intentions are and once it is reported no amount of retractions or apologies can undo the damage.

Now, as to the festivities - I would not have called Jim back from my cell phone while I was off down in Charlotte to let him know we could do this event with him if we were not interested. I am very excited and looking forward to the night of May 18th. I simply hope that everyone understands that my theatre and employees are looking forward to this as much as all of you and not to worry about us being "jerks".

PartyOnDarth - if you still do not believe me I would be more then happy to meet with you in person to allay any concerns you have about the event and our presentation and (as I did when Jim and Chris met with me on Monday) give you a tour of our building. I am at the theatre Friday through Tuesday so come in the front door and ask for me.

Daniel Tyson

Got my tickets today, yes sir. Got my dad to go get them for me while I was in school. I can't wait!

Thanks for addressing the issue, Daniel.
I guess the Channel 11 guy never communicated his intentions, even though it was simply to interview people buying tickets for the PG-13 rated Episode 3. As a previous movie theater manager of 3 years, it just irked me b/c I use to do a lot promotional stuff with my movie theater and welcomed any press I could get, but I understand that corporate headquarters always calls the shots. It's one of the reasons why I left Blockbuster as well.
I'm looking forward to all the festivities this coming May 18th, though, and I can't wait to see Revenge of the Sith on the big screen at Briarcreek. You've got one of the best screens in Raleigh. Good luck on the preparations.

How big are the screens again?


EDIT: has the channel 11 piece aired yet? Or is it on @11?

Thank you for the kind words PartyOnDarth - I appreciate your understanding and can really sympathize with you. DarthDesolate - the screens for Star Wars are 60' and it is quite an impressive presentation (granted I am biased) but I have seen "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King" on them it is quite a spectacle. I look forward to seeing all of you for the festivities and it sounds like things are going to be great.

Simply awesome!

-Janers

"DarthDesolate - the screens for Star Wars are 60' and it is quite an impressive presentation (granted I am biased) but I have seen "The Two Towers" and "Return of the King" on them it is quite a spectacle."


60ft!!??!! Wow
I wuv you, and eastern federal theaters

Party On Darth and Darth Desolate,

It has been my joy to be a partner with Daniel Tyson and Eastern Federal Theaters since the Lord of the Rings. They are truly a fan's theater and they have bent over backwards to support me and my fan club related events.

We are truly lucky to have them as our theater of choice with a general manager who throws his support behind our club!

Daniel is correct - media coverage can be a double edeged sword because they tend to tend to influence a negative side to get a story.

Don Weinstein
Raleigh area Fan Force City Rep

Hi Don, Hello Everybody

Don, I've just received the e-mail from the "MeetUp" forum saying your steping down there. If everything is going on tru this forum I can see your point.

Is there any plan to get together before opening night?

I think I'll be available that day from about 5 or 6 pm, so let me know in what can I help you. I'm more than happy of being an active member of the triangletradefederation.

Everybody, let me introduce myself. I'm from Mexico and I've just recently came to live to Raleigh. I've been a star wars fan since I was about 10 years old (20 years ago more or less).

Hope to meet everyone soon.
May the force be with all of you.

Hi, everyone, no I'm stepping down just from Meetup.com. They are going to charge organizers $18 per month so that's bad. I'm still here! all activities are still a GO! I'm going to see Daniel on Monday to finalize all club activites and set a schedule!

yipeee! 26 days....

I noticed a question in another thread about digital cinema and wanted to shed some light on it for all of us Star Wars fans. Here is the latest information...

Right the industry as a whole has not set the standards for getting movies to the projectors (such as via satellite or a specially encoded CD).

Right now prints come in on reels and are spliced together with tape - FYI the movies run 24 frames a second x each frame about .75 inches high. Thus 1.5 feet of film is a second of movie so 9000 feet is a 100 minute movie - Episode 3 at 142 minutes is 12,780 feet. The days of having to change the reels manually has changed and this has allowed the megaplexes to exist since now one projectionist runs the whole booth by himself.

I was in Los Angeles a couple years ago and watch a movie from a digital projector. I noticed they also had regular projector as well for the auditorium. Right now a digital projector with proper sound and such runs about $250,000 per projector! For example with my theatre having 14 screens that would be about $3.5 million. That is a lot of popcorn and soda sales! A regular projector probably costs about a quarter of that at most. The other problem (and the reason why that theatre had two projectors for one auditorium) is that there are not always titles available in digital format. So without the regular projector the auditorium would be empty for the times when no movies were available - and that obviously defeats the purpose of running movies!

Eventually down the road they will get all of this straight and the film distributors (Fox, New Line, etc) will actually help absorb some of the cost of changing over because they no longer would have to make prints. An example was the second Matrix. It was in 4,000 theatres and I think there was a total of 8500 prints. Each print costs an average of $2,000 so that would be $17 million in print costs alone.

I saw Matchstick Men on the digital projector and it is quite a different experience - similar to the difference between a VCR tape and a DVD. I believe that digital cinema runs at 30 frames/second so it is much smoother. If you get a chance to see one it is well worth it no matter what the movie is. I know there is one at Disney World as they are showing Episode III on a digital projector.

If any of you know differently from me please let me know. I have a lot of people ask me this and I try to keep up to date on it.

Daniel

I've met with Daniel at Briar Creek today to finalize the theater plans!

Here's what we have been ok'd to do and how the schedule is shaping up leading up to the midnight showing of ROTS!

1. 5PM - 11PM
Star Wars CCG and Star Wars Miniature gaming demos - need Will and at least two other volunteer to man the tables and help with teaching people how to play. Tables will be on the inside lobby.

2. 5PM - 11PM
Triangle Trade Federation membership drive / photo op. Need at least one digital cameraman for photography, at least two, maybe 3 people for membership taking, performing Origami X-Wings, showing how to build a lightsaber base, passing out flyers, talking about the club, taking donations for the photo op with our members in costume. Donations go to ForKatie.

3. 7PM - 10PM
501st Carolina Garrison troop in. Hail the Empire! Photo ops with troopers with optional donations to ForKatie.

4. 8PM - 9 PM
Costume Contest for patrons. Prizes will be passes for movies (other than Star Wars) by Eastern Federal.

5. 9PM - 10PM
The Shadow Players perform their outstanding lightsaber duel either outside in the parking lot or inside the theaters after seating.

6. 10PM - 11:30PM
Trivia contest in the theaters after seating - prizes by TTF club. Need at least 3 - 4 volunteers for it, one to hold questions, another to pass out prizes. Prizes will be free Star Wars CCG cards boosters or Star Wars common miniatures.

7. 5PM - 11PM -
Inside the theater lobby - a rep from Barnes and Nobels showing off Star Wars books, and Electronics Boutique, a gaming store, with consoles playing your favorite Star Wars video games.

We are honored to be a part of this exciting event and thank you Eastern Federal and Daniel Tyson at Briar Creek for making this possible!

Hiya. If I'm not going to be able to attend the midnight showing at Brier Creek, would it still be OK to stop by and meet everyone? A huge group of my friends had already gotten tickets for another showing long before I was aware of everything going on at Brier Creek. I know it's kinda bad manners, but I'd still like to see what's going on. Please let me know?

Hello Everybody

Hi TallonKaardgamer

I can help you with the photo thing and/or the membership taking. I have a 4.1 digital camera (or if you have a better one just let me know).

See you.

Axelay - you raise a good question - especially since Lucas and Fox will not allow any exchanging of tickets once you have purchased them. I think what we will do is have the lobby open and check patron tickets at the door so everyone gets a seat and no one sneaks in. Thanks for bringing up a good point.

Is anyone going to South Point to see the movie? I just found out about all this stuff going on at Briar Creek? I'm going in my ANH Han Solo costume. If I wasn't planning on going so early to line up I might have come by and checked out the festivities.

Cfardreamer,
Sorry but no one here's going to Southpoint.

I'm on good terms with Southpoints management too, but Briar Creek's management has been just too outstanding to us.

We've been planning this since late last year, and we just moved it to the best theater to view it in town. A factor in not choosing Southpoint was they have a small lobby, they're simply not large enough to host all the activities we were planning.

You can still come on over and hang with us for a while before you jump over to Southpoint.

Llortch,
You're our designated photographer for the night! Thanks, sir!

It looks like I might be able to get convention level support for the release night. I finally got a straight answer on it. I'll be submitting the request for support tonight.

If we can only make the movie...wat time do you think I should arrive? 11:30 sound good enough?


EDIT: 17 days...

Desolate,
You'll miss all the good stuff! Get here at 5PM. If you get here at 11PM and you'll get lousy seats.

According to the manager there are no "lousy seats" in the theatre. I'm only going with one other person.


EDIT: 15 days

Hey Flecktone,
What time will your movie theatre start accepting tickets for the ROTS midnight showing?

Right now the events start at 5pm. We probably will not be able to seat until 10pm or so. We will probably make an announcement as we are ready to start seating. I should have a more definite answer as of next Monday the 9th or Tuesday the 10th.