This isn't really a production diary, but I thought it might be useful to anyone who ever plans on managing the premiere of their own independent film. This premiere took place at our local bookstore, Books-A-Million last Friday from 7:00-8:00 PM in Wilson, North Carolina:

I got there around 6:00 PM to set stuff up, the projector screen, projector, stereo, speakers, DVD Player, etc.

That only took about 15 minutes, so I had 45 minutes to "get nervous" as the manager put it.

Around 6:40 PM people started showing up. A lot of those people were people I didn't know, which is cool because it means they saw the article in the newspaper. Around 7:00 PM I was getting kind of anxious. Of the thirty people who had signed up on MySpace or Facebook, not one showed up. But it's cool, we waited about 10 more minutes and started everything at 7:10 PM. I found the manager and he called the room to my attention.

Now I'm not the best public speaker, but I did my best and I can't go back in time to change anything . With that, I started the movie.

Almost immediately the movie started skipping in the DVD player (guys, this is my worst nightmare come true). Around the kitchen scenes I took action. I paused the movie, went over to my box of like 20 DVD's, took out another and announced "We're having some minor technical difficulties". That got a few laughs, so I was still doing okay. The second copy skipped a little too, but we got to the end of the movie. My English teacher was there and said she really enjoyed it, and my mom's coworkers and even an old dude that I didn't know said they enjoyed it. As per my father's request, I tried to remain humble in all aspects of the premiere, taking almost no credit for the movie (I love at the end when this guy comes up to me and asks me if I had any part in making the movie....LOL!). Books-A-Million and the manager were so awesome for letting us use their cafe to play the movie (and annoy the readers in the back, haha). I didn't have too many questions to answer, but some were like, "How'd you do that shot?, What kind of pizza did you guys use?, etc." Since I only sold two (not because people didn't want them, but because I didn't really tell anyone they were for sale, once again trying to be humble and low-key), I was able to give the cast and crew their copies right then and there.

Around 8:10 PM we packed everything back into my car and drove home.



If you're reading this and ever plan on doing something similar, please read this next part and take note. It might save you some trouble some day.

Good Things We Did:
1. Got posters of the premiere up around the schools.
2. Made the front page of the newspaper!
3. Brought everything an hour early to setup.
4. Used real speakers and a stereo and DVD player instead of a computer.
5. Borrowed everything: the projector, screen, cafe; all for free.

Things We Could Have Done Better:
1. Practice introducing movie a whole lot more before hand.
2. Test whole movie before you play it to the audience.
3. DUST OFF THE DVD. This is what caused the skipping, I found out later.
4. Get the word out sooner (front page article was great, but published the same day of the event).
5. You can never thank people enough...
6. Have lots of chairs ready (even though it was cool, standing room only sucks for the audience).

Very cool. Nice to see some other peeps in NC

Raleigh Myself and Boone when in School.

Sounds like things still went fairly well, and getting an audience is always great.

Your poster makes me hungry... for pizza...

hey, Kevin. Glad to here the night was a reletive success. I have Nocturne premiering at a film festival that I'm also in charge of organising. Don't know what your crowd was, but because it's not a dedicated screening, I will have around 250-300 people watching it, with me in charge. Wish me luck.

That's cool that it went so well. Good move bringing your own speakers and everything. I had a film premiere at a research conference where everything is supposed to be set up for you in advance. I was the only film there and the only person without a room assignment and without any equipment for me. Needless to say I was pretty upset about it. I had to play the film out of a laptop hooked up to a projector and had to use the internal speakers. That's why now I will always bring my own equipment and not use anything else.