Chatt, TN 2015-12-17 - Star Wars Episode VII

Well... I never thought I'd be posting an event thread for a new Star Wars movie again, but... (ahem) BOOYAH!

Chattooine will be meeting up at Carmike East Ridge theater on December 17 and 18, 2015 for "Star Wars: The Force Awakens". Many of our members dress up for various movie releases throughout the year and this will be no exception. Actually, back when Episode III came out, we took over the theater and was there over the entire weekend doing various things (costume contest, video game tournament, saber duels before the movie showings, etc). We'll probably do some additional stuff like that. I'm sure we'll begin planning sometime soon, so just keep an eye on this thread.

As far as costuming goes, we try our best to keep it to one of a "face" character on the floor at a time. It helps maintain the illusion to the kids. Of course, we can't (and wouldn't want to) control what other people outside the group wear, but within Chattooine, we'll do our best to maintain that rule. With that said, we also try to accommodate everyone that wants to be certain characters. When we costume up for movie releases, we normally do 2 days, so one costumes one day and the other the next. Or we have a room we get ready in at the theater (away from the public), so maybe we just split up times. We can work it out. Also, different versions of the same character would be possible. Luke as a Jedi Knight and Farmboy Luke would be perfectly all right (for instance).

Here's who we have so far:
Shellina Blevins - Princess Leia white buns
Cherry Darling - Mara Jade
Kyle Dagnan - Jar Jar
Vannah Noelle - Queen Amidala
Mark Compton - Imperial ISB Officer
Ashley Edington Meredith - jawa
Jamie McCurry - Stormtrooper
Jared M Jordan - Vader
Duane Vorrasi - Heavy weapons trooperJeff Hickey - Stormtrooper or TIE Pilot
Abby Hickey - Barriss Offee
Todd Patton - Jango Fett
Patrick Arthur - Dark Jedi
Patrick Needham - jedi
Michael Knight - stormtrooper
Kerys Dolan - Death Star Gunner
Richard Kephart - Obi-Wan Kenobi
Alarick Lewis - jedi
Alex McKeel - Episode III/ Rebel Pilot/ Jedi/ snow TrooperTheresa Ivey - jawa

 

Closer and closer! By now, everyone's seen the teaser, trailer, posters, toys, etc... Pumped yet?

Rather than try and redo the costume listing, I'll just say that some has dropped off, some has signed on, some have changed what costumes they'll be doing, and... bottom line: Costume as your favorite character. We're not worried about multiple face characters. We can work that out pretty easy when the time comes. We'll probably be split into at least a couple groups (since we'll be such a large group), so multiple face characters won't be an issue.

We've also went ahead and added Saturday, Dec 19th to the mix. So... there are 3 days you can choose from to costume up and see the movie as a group. And yes... you can go to all 3 days if you want. So Thursday night (opening night), Friday, and Saturday. Each day will have us costuming from 7:00pm (you can arrive an hour early if you need to get ready there... we have a room that we can use for this) and we normally stop costuming and see the movie around 10:00pm.

 

The day(s) ar almost upon us! More and more people are confirming to where (as of this second) here's where we stand:

On Thursday, December 17, we have a total of 73 of us going (costumers/handlers).
On Friday, December 18, we have a total of 55 of us going.
On Saturday, December 19, we have a total of 39 of us going.

The Friday and Saturday numbers may go up a little as some were questionable about getting to go multiple days.

A few things to note:
* NO BLASTERS or "gun-like" props allowed. This pretty much is happening at every theater and has been their policy for a while, so no surprises here. Just wanted to state it again for the record. Lightsabers and masks are ok, though. I am NOT sure if regular movie-goers will have the same privilege, though. I know of some theaters where that's the case.
* We'll have a list of everyone that signed up at the "ticket-taker" area. If you have not bought a ticket for that night, no worries... Just bypass the ticket stations and go to the ticket-taker area and we'll have someone there to let you in. MAKE SURE YOU'RE ON THAT LIST, though. If you're not sure, PM me. The theater is being VERY generous with letting us see the movie, but we have to let them know how many to expect. As you've seen above, we could nearly fill a small theater on our own. So let's make this easy for them and manage ourselves the best way we can.
*NORMALLY when we do movie premiers, we arrive around 6pm to get suited up and on the floor by 7pm. Since all the Star Wars movies will be starting at 7pm on Thursday, we're going to try and be on the floor earlier. So we plan to be there from 5pm until well into the night. That should give everyone an opportunity to get there when they can.
* Just be warned... the theater is going to be CRAZY BUSY and parking will be tight. For those that don't know, there is lots of parking behind the theater. No one ever parks there, so if it looks too bad, you may want to just go around the building.
* KISS-FM will be doing a live remote on Thursday night. Not sure the times yet, but I imagine they'll want to catch the initial crowd, so I'd expect them around 6pm. We're going to help them with trivia and do some interviews during the lull that'll happen once the 7pm showings start.
* We should have water and possibly snacks in our changing area up on the third floor.
* Speaking of, the third floor changing area will be more crowded than usual because of the large turnout. Please be courteous by taking up as little space as possible. Try not to spread out too much. Also, once you're done changing, go ahead and head down to the floor.
* The HANDLERS will be split up with a number of costumers they are to take care of. Their primary job is to keep the costumers safe since some costumes limit their visibility. Other responsibilities include: handing out water, directing costumers where to go (from pictures, and such), alerting costumers to small kids near them, taking photos with theater-goer phones, etc...
* Since this is a BIG event with a lot of tickets pre-sold, we may have to wait for a later showing to see the movie for free (unless you already bought tickets). The theater plans to stay open ALL NIGHT to accommodate as many people as possible. So yes... we can see it in IMAX at 3am if we want.

I think that's it. If anything new develops, I'll post here. STAY ON TARGET!

 

WHAT A BLAST!!!

First off, the kick off this crazy weekend, the Chattanooga Times Free Press did an article that focused on Chattooine members and what Star Wars means to them and featured shots from member Alex McKeel as he showed off his new Kylo Ren costume.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/...ar-wars-fans-excited-about-denew-film/340831/

Later that evening, CHATTOOINE kicked off its three day event on December 17 at our local theater (Carmike East Ridge) that we've been trooping since Episode III came out in 2005. Several of us costumed (and costume support) and watched the movie together afterward on all three nights. We took A LOT of pictures, so it'll take a while to process them all and get them on the website. The initial shots from the first night are here: http://s1198.photobucket.com/user/Chattooine/library/2015-12-17 - The Force Awakens?sort=3&page=1.



The shot above is Channel 12 doing a live remote. The video van be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/wdefnews12/videos/1076631152370635/?theater and another segment here: https://www.facebook.com/wdefnews12/videos/1076506869049730/?theater

WUSY radio was also there on Thursday. Here's a shot with their DJ with some of us.



On Friday the 18th, the Chattanooga Times-Free Press ran a story about The Force Awakens that also featured Chattooine (although they called us "The Chattooines" lol). The first article from the day before was written by long-time friend Casey Phillips, so he got out name right. ;-)
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/dec/18/force-strong-fans-line-new-star-wars-release/341018/
Hits96 came out Friday night along with the folks from Game On (gaming store) who did demos of the X-Wing miniature game.



Day three went really well as there were several repeat viewings by people, so they all brought friends! The management agreed that if Christmas wasn't right around the corner, we probably would have just made arrangements to come out again next weekend. Maybe now that Episode VIII will be shifting to a May 2017 release, we can maybe do 2 weekends of Star Wars costuming (since right now it doesn't look like it'll interfere with any other events we're doing).

I'll post links to more pics soon. ALL pics will be on the website as I get them: www.chattooine.com
And finally, here's a shot of me (stormtrooper) and my fiancee Kerys in her debut as Ibtisam. My plan is to eventually do a Nrim Vakin (Quarren x-wing pilot) who was Ibtisam's romantic interest in the books/comics.

 

You did well to find a theatre that let you turn up to watch the film in costume.

Several (not all) of the people on the FanFiction forum, found that cinemas were not allowing costumes, lightsabres, anything; and were backed up by police, so negotiation was out.

Looks like you have been doing a good job there, Vesper2112.

 

Thanks!! :-D
Yeah, thankfully we've had a long history with this particular theater, so the only restriction we had were no "gun-like props". We saw lots of other people dress up for this as well without any problems, so I hope those other theaters will relax a bit for the next movie.

 

I saw you guys there. I was at the 12:15 AM showing. Nice job on the costumes.

 

Thanks!!

 

All the new photos from that weekend are now on the website as well.