W.VA Episode III - The Wait In Line

7:00 am - So...I go to get my tickets in line early in the morning. The secretary of this little group makes an announcement, I kind of think she has no idea as to what she's doing. My friends and I will make fun of her at school the next day, but for now I'll just think of what I'm going to say. I get my tickets and go home. From there, I go to sleep. (Present time about 12:00 pm.)

5:00 pm - I wake up and get ready to go to the mall. I arrive at about 6:30, and I'm in line at 7:00. From here, I will talk to my friends about movie speculations...good time.

9:15 pm - My friends and I (presently #'s 1-12 in line) are informed that we will be lining up by ticket number...I glance at my ticket...108. The guy behind me explains that "People who were there earlier in the morning should get first spots in line." I know that there were 28 people in front of me at the movie, that's an 80 person difference. I respond with "I've been waiting here for 4 1/2 hours, fat boy. You can wait."

9:25 pm - Crowd makes me go back further in line, and I cuss profusely on the way back realizing that I just wasted 4 1/2 hours because this little fan club decided they wanted to change things

Approx. 10:00 pm - I enter the custom contest. I'm not wearing a custome. I still get more cheers than most of the other people...2 kids jump on the end of line, copying me. Losers.

10:30 - We're let in to the theater. I use my small size to weave between people. I'm the 13th person in the theater. I bet Fat Boy ran out of breath halfway down the hall.

12:00 am - Movie starts. I threaten to beat the crap out of the kids in front of me, because they refuse to shut up.

2:45 am - I go home, knowing why no one talks about the Star Wars Fan Club. They suck and nearly ruined my movie experience. I hope they never return.

 

Well for one thing, it was NOT the fanclub's idea to make everyone in line move. The mall security had to shut that gate thing across the main hall. Therefore we were asked to tell everyone that they had to move.

We were also instructed by the theater employees that everyone had to form two lines according to ticket time and number.

And finally, the theater did not inform us in advance that everyone was to be seated an hour early, and thus we had to do our best in distributing the prizes for the raffles within the actual theaters.

So before you make another appearance on our club's message boards, please get your facts straight. And I'm sorry you had such a bad time, but perhaps it has something to do with your attitude...

 

Before things get out of hand here. You need to understand that our club was only there to do the trivia game, costume contest, and raffle. The theater and mall security decided to use us to inform everyone of all the other stuff. Also I said that lining up by ticket number wasnt a good idea, and they wanted us to announce it anyway.

Im sorry THEY made those changes that "ruined" you night, but understand that we only said what they wanted us to. I believe your frustration is being misdirected. We didnt get our stage, PA system, or any of the stuff we needed to do the show well and they seated everyone an hour before they told us they would, so were are a little frustrated as well.

 

I understand your frustrations as well, Graav. BELIEVE me. I stood in line for both Ep I and Ep II tickets, and ended up well back in line when the time came. I can only speak to what the theater asked us to announce.

Do I agree with the lineup policy? No, I don't. Our intent was to try to get everyone just to have a good time, and try to expand on the movie experience. As Darth_Raptor mentioned, a large part of our planning piece fell through. Obviously, the theater also wasn't as prepared as they should have been for the lines, either. The lining up bit was simply thrust upon us when we got there, as was the seating time. We were intending on having at least another hour of events before the show, so more people could get involved.

I am truly sorry that your movie experience was soured. I wish there was something more I could say.

 

i might as well share my experience of the night as well

week and a half before the movie is released: My mother tells me that channel 5 is having a contest, take a picture of you being a fan, whether thats you in costume, with all ur star wars crap, whatever, and the winner gets free tickets to the midnight showing. I look on channel 5's website, and find nothing, finally calling the news people, i got the right email

Saturday before the release: I go home and gather all my crap up, figures, comics, games, cards, everything i could find, and put it all on my table, sadly, only about 3/4 fit, still, i took a few pictures, and sent them to channel 5

May 18: I call the guy to see if i won or not, or if i should be trying to get tickets, he tells me that its between me and another guy, and wants to know if i can be there at 6 for a live showing and he would present me the tickets, and also if he could meet me to get some shots of my stuff, this was like 10 in the morning, and i worked from 2 to 7 that day, so there wuz no way either of that was happening seeing as how i was in fairmont and my crap was in doddridge, disgruntled, the newsman said he would have to talk 2 the other guy first. he calls back about an hour later and explains that i won, and the reason he called the other guy is because they really wanted someone to give the tickets to on the air, if u had given me any notice.... i said, i could have made it, he calls me back again later that day saying that they were going to be there at 11, and he would give me my tickets then, seemed like everything was working out great.

10:15: i go to the mall to buy 2 extra tickets, not realizing they were already sold out (the previous 2 movies i went the day it was released, by skipping school i didnt have 2 worry about the theatre being filled) anyway, they started selling tickets at like six that evening for a second theatre, and the ppl wanting those extra 2 were i think 3rd in line, everything was working out perfectly

8:00 pm: showed up at the mall and walked around randomly seeing lots of kids with star wars shirts on, was pretty excited, a little before nine, i met my mom and the other ppl i was seeing the movie with and we just kind of hung out around the theatre, eventually where we were standing became a line, with a herd of 13 year olds behind us doing what they do best, be amazingly loud and annoying. and my goodness, there was one kid there that was REALLY into the mythos of star wars... was carrying around two 100 dollar lightsabers, and did anyone see him when they put the camera on him ? those moves were exact, that kid had been practicing

I bought 5 dollars worth of tickets in the raffle, thinking oh well it goes to charity, watched what i could of the trivia contest, feeling sorry for the people running it, it was obvious that this was not how they wanted the night to go, they split us up into 2 lines, i had no idea what line i was in since i hadnt gotten my tickets yet, eventually i guess the trivia contest ended, because the costume contest started, the kid with the movie replica lightsabers was there, among a group of others, couple vaders, an ewok (EWOK ?) and some idiot who didnt have a costume on, eventually 2 of the kids that were behind me earlier joined the guy, the crowd cheered, and i really wanted the ewok to win, come on, she dressed up as an EWOK ! but some chick won, i bet the lightsaber guy was miffed, it passed the time well, and i enjoyed it. the news channel five guy comes, gives me my tickets, and the theatre people say we can go ahead an be seated, i went in, got a good seat, and then went back out, asked the channel 5 guy about the interview, and then went over to the group that ran the contests that night, asked them about the raffle, and then introduced myself and said i had just joined the forums about a week earlier and just wanted to say hi, Darth_Raptor (right?) talked 2 me for a little bit, congratulated me on the free tickets, and i went and had my interview, all my non-nerd friends here at college were

 

I know what you mean about the guy with the two lightsabers. He really had his moves practiced. Anyone have idea who he is? I'd be interested in knowing where he learned his moves.

Zoomer

 

I spotted some of his moves in Jedi Academy that came out for the PC a couple years ago =)

-Dot

 

Hopefully that's not the Star Wars kid from Toronto from a few years ago.