Opening Day... LIVE!
Written by Dan
Ok, here we go. A minute by minute account of our opening day!
8:37 am - Just walked into the theater (note to self: don't leave theater lying around). We were on the Woody and Suzanne show this morning. It was really fun, except when Woody asked what movie makes me cry. "SELENA!" I didn't even wait for Woody to finish his question. Everyone looked at me a little funny, so I hung my head in shame. Time to clean the theater!
9:37 am - Still cleaning. Nicole just went to fax something at Kinko's. How exciting!
10:42 am - The wireless connection in the projection booth has just gone down for no reason at all. I was trying to transfer some preshow slides from the vault computer to the projector computer when... zip! It's down. What's even stranger is that the other two computers are working just fine (station one and the vault computer). Damn you wireless network! Damn you to hell!
12:23 pm - Man, I'm starving! I had to run home so I could burn all the renovation pictures onto a disk (since the projection room computer has decided to drop itself out of the wifi loop). I also threw together a few preshow slides. Some are funny, some are HILARIOUS! Nicole just called. The film has arrived, which means I need to hurry and burn the pictures to CD, run by Taco Bell (I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday), fly to the theater, build up the film, and at least leave myself enough time to test the first half. Tickets go on sale in 30 minutes! Woo hoo!
12:28 pm - 29 minutes to burn the CD?! Damn you 4x CD writer! Damn you to hell!
12:41 pm - Since the CD is taking so long I have to resort to finding something to eat around our house. Not an easy task. I'm currently inhaling a bowl of Raisin Bran, which probably isn't the smartest move, considering the way my stomach has been acting today. I'm also eating it out of a coffee mug... with a fork... we really need to do our dishes more often.
3:46 pm - I'm not dead, just SUPER BUSY MAN! I got back here at 1:15 and I've been building up the film ever since (i.e. splicing together the little reels into the big reels). I just finished, now I have to go thread up the projector and staple up our NOW OPEN sign. Forty-five minutes till the first showing!
4:05 pm - We're beign attacked by the press. KOLR 10 and KSPR 33 are running around with their cameras filming everything in sight... including me spray painting the sign! Nicole has been fielding questions since I've been too busy building up the film. Uh oh, people are showing up. I'll be back in a jiffy!
4:06 pm - Raisin Bran was a bad idea.
4:42 pm - First show started well. There's news cameras EVERYWHERE! All their lights are making it really hot in the theater. I just turned the air down to 62 degrees to try and stabalize it. It doesn't help that I've been running around all day. Ok, they need me for an interview. Back in a bit... oh yeah, we sold 1/3 of the auditorium for the first show. Not too shabby!
5:55 pm - The second half of the film just started. We're having a bit of trouble cooling the auditorium. Everyone says it's comfortable, but I think it's hot. Last week it was too cold, now it's too hot. Maybe it's because I have two shirts on - one of which is long sleeved. Either way, if you come to the 7:00 or 9:15 shows, dress cool!
7:26 pm - Great turnout for the 7:00 show. The auditorium has stabalized itself, and now it's nice and cool. A couple students from a local high school are here filming now. I don't know what we're going to do when all the media attention dies down. Probably cry myself to sleep on my HUGE pilla!
8:31 pm - Just heard from Rob at the Mudhouse... we'll have our coffee tomorrow. Sorry no one this evening was able to try some. The 7:00 showing is about 15 minutes away from ending, so I better go prepare the broom and dustpan. Only 3.5 hours to go before our first day is wrapped up!
10:13 pm - Well, the last show was the busiest! At 9:15, when it was time for me to start the film, I realized that I had forgotten to rewind the first half!!! I had to rewind at the speed of light and then drag the film into the auditorium and explain to the audience, "these reels are big, and my arms are small, so thanks for your patience." Oh well, I wouldn't be an eventful night if SOMETHING bad didn't happen. Still, I could think of a lot worse things. All in all, things have been going pretty well.
11:34 pm - I just finished cleaning and vaccuuming the auditorium. All the trash is collected and Nicole is restocking our inventory. All we have left to do is close the cash drawer and head home! What a great first day! Hip hip hooray! Sixteen hours after it began, we're finally ready to head home. Poor Bogey. He misses us. Maybe we can sleep in a little tomorrow. We need some rest before we do this all over again tomorrow. Woo hoo! A big thanks to everyone who made it by tonight.
THANK YOU SPRINGFIELD! GOOD NIGHT!
