Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Wow.

So remember in the last post how Darren said that after our next screening the number of people who have seen "Humboldt County" would double?

He lied.

Yesterday, I'm walking around Austin trying to drum up some publicity, and I'm seeing this immense influx of what appears to be rock stars walking everywhere. The music part of SXSW is about to begin and I think to myself, "Jeez. Will anybody be interested in seeing movies anymore?"

Yes.

We got to the theater early to help organize, and by the time we arrived, a good hour and a half before show time, there was already a huge crowd standing in line to see "HC." Apparently, the good buzz spreading about the film and the excellent reviews we've been getting have been paying off. Thirty minutes later, about an hour before show-time, the line was waaaay out the door.

There were so many people there that we were going to be able to fill the theater in a heartbeat but would have to turn away literally hundreds of people. So our fearless producer's rep, Mr. David Garber, got on the phone. He called the head of the festival, Matt Dentler, as well as the head of the theater chain, and convinced them to bump another film and open up a SECOND theater for "Humboldt County." And you know what? We sold out that theater too. In fact, we still turned away about 100 people after filling two theaters.

It was insane. SXSW staff members working the theater said they had never seen anything like it before.

Darren and I split up the film introductions and the Q&As afterwards - I did one theater and Dgro did the other one. It was such a rush. Just knowing that there was such interest in the film and that people seemed to really enjoy it was an amazing feeling. Darren and I were on fire all night.

Today we celebrated with my first bottle of Dom Perignon ever while eating all you can eat ribs at this amazing place outside of Austin called The Salt Lick. I am satisfied. In more ways than one.

One more screening to go. I hope people still want to see movies.

1 comment:

grainyms said...

So happy for you guys!!!! Would love to see this catch even more fire. Wishing you all the best.

--Janet Pierson