Tribeca Film Fest - Update
Dudes¹!
It's now past the mid-point of the Tribeca Film Festival, and I've been doing a whole lot of slacking - both with festival attendance and with the updates. No longer!
Initially, I had read through all of the film synopses and picked out ten movies that I'd enjoy seeing. I charted them out on a schedule and found the time to see all of them, with no time-slot conflicts. Things were looking to be on-the-up in terms of late planning, which is rare and good. I was so proud of myself and wanted to share the glee with others, so I began pitching trailers and invitations at my local friends. As with most things that pan out far too golden, I ran into the catch.
Had I started planning this all out a day earlier (instead of watching Crank 2), I would have noticed that there were advanced sales and ticket discount packages for Downtown Manhattan residents, and that I do qualify for this offer. Had I noticed, I would have procured tickets - at least for the shows I was really determined to see - before they opened to the general public the next day and promptly sold out. But not all hope was yet lost. There is such a glorious thing known as "Rush Tickets"² for slackers like myself. The concept lifted my spirits back up around their normal levels and encouraged me to more thoroughly weigh how much I wanted to see each of my pre-scheduled films.
The first official entry on Way's must-see list (chronologically) was "Black Dynamite". Friday evening I met with Zach and Rich outside of the AMC VII theater. Despite arriving 75 minutes early, the designated line for our showcase was nearly double that of the other three films showing that night. Fantastic!
[Time lapse]
We got incredibly lucky and somehow managed to get tickets and make our way into the theater. The size of the rush line had made me pretty dubious of our actual chances, given that it's contingent upon press, celebrity, and industry attendance. Yet somehow, fate did smile her toothy grin in our general direction and we, through the beer-goggled haze of hopeless anticipation, offered to buy her a drink. Great success!
The film itself was beyond awesome. No details from me, just go see it as soon as it becomes possible.
After the credits, there was a Q&A session with the director, actors, and musical composer. It was overall nothing special, but it did reveal that while a giant on-screen, Michael Jai White is not a very tall dude. He must get apple-boxed in basically every scene. No wonder he was sitting through most of The Dark Knight and computer generated through almost all of Spawn.
I had intended to see a few more shows over the weekend, but hangovers, Udon restaurants, Jim Beam, other plans, and an unwillingness to stand in line again for hours deterred me. Like I said, I've been slacking.
Last night I left work a little late, but still made it to the rush line for "Departures". Again, it was mammoth in comparison to the other movie lines. While I planned to get there a little bit earlier, I'm not sure it would have actually mattered; there were so damn many Asian couples in line ahead of me. Apparently they all saw the Academy Awards this year. When only eight remained in the line ahead, the tickets sold out. All I had to show for it was 50 fewer pages left to read of Nightwatch. Damn...
Tonight I'm learning my lesson. I will not miss "Moon" as a result of being too late and falling short in line. To up the ante, it's a movie date, which adds to the shame of missing out.
¹ Totally a gender-neutral term. Only ninja turtles and hippie douchebags use the term "Dudette." Stop it.
² Having nothing to do with Geddy Lee, as far as I know.
³ I assume they can pretty much just saunter into anything as long as they're 30-15 minutes early
It's now past the mid-point of the Tribeca Film Festival, and I've been doing a whole lot of slacking - both with festival attendance and with the updates. No longer!
Initially, I had read through all of the film synopses and picked out ten movies that I'd enjoy seeing. I charted them out on a schedule and found the time to see all of them, with no time-slot conflicts. Things were looking to be on-the-up in terms of late planning, which is rare and good. I was so proud of myself and wanted to share the glee with others, so I began pitching trailers and invitations at my local friends. As with most things that pan out far too golden, I ran into the catch.
Had I started planning this all out a day earlier (instead of watching Crank 2), I would have noticed that there were advanced sales and ticket discount packages for Downtown Manhattan residents, and that I do qualify for this offer. Had I noticed, I would have procured tickets - at least for the shows I was really determined to see - before they opened to the general public the next day and promptly sold out. But not all hope was yet lost. There is such a glorious thing known as "Rush Tickets"² for slackers like myself. The concept lifted my spirits back up around their normal levels and encouraged me to more thoroughly weigh how much I wanted to see each of my pre-scheduled films.
The first official entry on Way's must-see list (chronologically) was "Black Dynamite". Friday evening I met with Zach and Rich outside of the AMC VII theater. Despite arriving 75 minutes early, the designated line for our showcase was nearly double that of the other three films showing that night. Fantastic!
[Time lapse]
We got incredibly lucky and somehow managed to get tickets and make our way into the theater. The size of the rush line had made me pretty dubious of our actual chances, given that it's contingent upon press, celebrity, and industry attendance. Yet somehow, fate did smile her toothy grin in our general direction and we, through the beer-goggled haze of hopeless anticipation, offered to buy her a drink. Great success!
The film itself was beyond awesome. No details from me, just go see it as soon as it becomes possible.
After the credits, there was a Q&A session with the director, actors, and musical composer. It was overall nothing special, but it did reveal that while a giant on-screen, Michael Jai White is not a very tall dude. He must get apple-boxed in basically every scene. No wonder he was sitting through most of The Dark Knight and computer generated through almost all of Spawn.
I had intended to see a few more shows over the weekend, but hangovers, Udon restaurants, Jim Beam, other plans, and an unwillingness to stand in line again for hours deterred me. Like I said, I've been slacking.
Last night I left work a little late, but still made it to the rush line for "Departures". Again, it was mammoth in comparison to the other movie lines. While I planned to get there a little bit earlier, I'm not sure it would have actually mattered; there were so damn many Asian couples in line ahead of me. Apparently they all saw the Academy Awards this year. When only eight remained in the line ahead, the tickets sold out. All I had to show for it was 50 fewer pages left to read of Nightwatch. Damn...
Tonight I'm learning my lesson. I will not miss "Moon" as a result of being too late and falling short in line. To up the ante, it's a movie date, which adds to the shame of missing out.
¹ Totally a gender-neutral term. Only ninja turtles and hippie douchebags use the term "Dudette." Stop it.
² Having nothing to do with Geddy Lee, as far as I know.
³ I assume they can pretty much just saunter into anything as long as they're 30-15 minutes early