Fantastic Fest

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Oh Snap! One more late breaking secret screening!

Brace yourself folks, there's another secret screening in the mix. The curtain raises on what we are calling "Secret Screening - Late Addition" at 6:25 PM on Wednesday, September 24. We of course, can't tell you what the film is, but I for one am very excited!

posted by Tim League @ 10:39 PM  

25 Comments:

  • At 12:02 AM , Blogger Johnny Rollerfeet said...

    ugh...please, tell me you're holding tickets for badgeholders who didn't pick one up tonight. :)

     

  • At 12:11 PM , Blogger Justin Davis said...

    This comment has been removed by the author.

     

  • At 12:13 PM , Blogger Justin Davis said...

    Sounds great for everyone with VIP badges, but it's been downright impossible to get a ticket to any of the secret screenings for those of us without a non-VIP or better badge. Worried about not getting in the closing night film now.

     

  • At 12:44 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Well, not all of the VIPs got tickets to this screening either. I showed up at noon and they were sold out. I'm not at all pleased, given the late notice they should have a) announced the screening at the festival last night for VIPs to get badges then or b) extended the VIP badge pickup for this event a few hours this morning.

     

  • At 1:12 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    yea, what is up with that?there are quite a few disguntled VIP badge holders in the Lobby.

     

  • At 1:17 PM , Blogger Digs said...

    V.I.P. Badges are available for $250 and include an exclusive limited-edition t-shirt and poster, plus a souvenir Fantastic Fest shoulder bag filled with seriously fun schwag. The main benefit of the V.I.P. badge, however, is guaranteed admission to the movie of your choice at any given showtime.

     

  • At 1:18 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I am mad,
    How can you do that...

     

  • At 1:19 PM , Blogger Digs said...

    I was told by an Alamo employee at noon that the ticket distribution started at 11:00 that morning, and even then there was just one line and first-come-first-serve regardless of badge.

     

  • At 1:24 PM , Blogger thereviewer said...

    I say oh well to the VIP's you get into every other secret screening, you can let us have 1.

     

  • At 1:25 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Hey, I'm on another guys laptop at the Alamo.. I just want to say that the way this screening was handled sucks ass.. With how late this was announced tickets needed to be saved for VIP badges.. I'm sitting next to two other badge holders whe are in the same boat. At this point it would be nice if they showed the film again in the 9 o'clock slot for the VIP's that got screwed. VIP badge is supposed to secure a seat for any screening...

     

  • At 1:59 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    By the letter of the rules that they posted regarding ticketing, Alamo fulfilled their obligations to badgeholders - they were not required to make special accommodations for the VIPs. And while I by no means think that it was an intentional slight by the staff, the way has been handled so far was a disservice to those who purchased a VIP badge and I hope that they will find a way to make it up to those who were not able to get a ticket for the screening.

     

  • At 3:25 PM , Blogger Justin Davis said...

    I'm sorry I said anything and think the bitching by others is a bit overboard. They didn't know there even was an added secret screening until late last night. Many VIPs regularly checked the whiteboard where the Alamo posts changes to the line-up and managed to get tickets. Because they found out about the screening so late, festival organizers couldn't offer the tickets a day advance. They did the next best thing they could and that was make the tickets available earlier than normal today.

    Earlier, I wasn't expressing anger over not getting into the secret screenings today, like others on here have. I was merely disappointed. I'll live and so will you.

    Now, if I don't get into the closing night film . . .

     

  • At 3:35 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    What a RIP.

    The main benefit of the V.I.P. badge, however, is guaranteed admission to the movie of your choice at any given showtime.

     

  • At 5:04 PM , Blogger Robert Pattinson said...

    Y'all should just call these screenings VIP Screenings, next year, instead of Secret Screenings.

    Oh yeah, and Closing Night Film should be VIP Closing Night Film.

    I'm with "thereviewer", thank god the regular badge holders finally got a chance to experience a special screening.

    Class warfare at the Fantastic Fest... GOTTA LOVE IT!

     

  • At 9:57 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I think it is sad to call this debacle class warfare.
    I schedule my vacation around FF every year, and budget for a VIP badge, specifically because I want to get to see EVERYTHING.
    I was lucky enough to be in the theater waiting for a screening when these tickets were released, but I do think with the cost differential that VIP holders should get preferential treatment- it is what you paid for. Everyone has a shot at purchasing these badges- and you get what you pay for.....

     

  • At 10:13 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    We are VIP!!

    VIP rules!!

     

  • At 10:17 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I think they should have a new menu JUST for VIPs.

     

  • At 3:06 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    I heard someone say last night a secret screening was added, and it WAS on the board, just not real obvious (they added a 6:30 PM next to the midnight time slot September 24, 2008before the next to last film, at least. I also received a email/facebook posting. That said, I decided four out of five secret screenings were enough for me, and choose to stick with Acolytes, and am glad I did.

    What is the appeal of the secret screenings, anyhow? I've been both a regular and VIP badgeholder and the secret screenings I have seen when a VIP were by no means my favorite festival films. Most are films that will end up in the theaters anyways. If there's nothing I'm eager to see in a timeslot, yet, I succomb to the temptation of the unknown....but frankly, most of the time I regretted it at least a little. Why do people assume these are going to automatically be the best films?

    Yeah, of course I understand that people want to be able to chose the secret screenings, especially if they boght a VIP pass etc etc. But why are the secret screening tickets so highly coveted.

    BTW, they announced at tonight's screening what the closing night film will be. What was up with that?

     

  • At 9:35 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    If you couldn't figure out for yourself already that the closing night film was going to be City of Ember, considering their logo is all over the promotional material for the fest and the cave party that night ties into the thematic elements from the movie, I don't know what else to tell you.

     

  • At 9:42 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Glad I made it to the 6:25 screening of Appaloosa.

    Glad I gave my ticket back for the midnight screening, Role Models, YUK!!

    I have a VIP badge, I would have been pissed if I didn't get into Appaloosa.

     

  • At 11:19 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

    Y'know,I did wonder about all the City of Ember stuff but then decided nah, too obvious. Way too obvious. But I ended up mentioning it to someone else, and they said doesn't that open up in a couple weeks anyways?

    So what' the point of having the big closing screening be a movie we could see in two weeks anyhow? Kind of a letdown, sorry.

    I'm not doing the VIP badge again, Not worth $120 to see a bunch of multiplex films two weeks-four months early, at least not for me. Great festival, don't get me wrong, but the stuff that makes it worthwhile to me is the obscure, mostly foreign stuff I would never see on a big screen otherwise.I just don't get the "secret screening" mania.

    Chacon a son gout, of course

     

  • At 12:29 PM , Blogger Tim League said...

    Hey Gang,

    I hope you all had a good time at Fantastic Fest this year, and I also hope that the debate with Appaloosa ticketing doesn't get out of hand.

    A bit of history on this screening: I found out about the POSSIBILITY of this happening on Monday morning and Brad and I worked with the studio on Tuesday to pull it together. We got the confirmation at 11:00 PM and immediately began working to get the word out, print tickets, create a show page, etc.

    We debated on what was fair and what wasn't fair regarding ticketing for this show. No matter how you slice it,one group was going to feel slighted. We didn't have time to get tickets made the day before for VIP badge holders, as it confirmed 20 minutes before we shut those down for the day. By the ticketing rules, regular badge holders are allowed to get tickets for anything they like as soon as tickets go on sale day of show. We thought it would be the most fair to everyone to open tickets up to all badge holders at that time. This seemed more fair than making the regular badge holders wait in line twice in one day. That's the main situation we were trying to avoid this year.

    We'll probably be opening the film in a couple of weeks, so if any VIP badge holder still feels screwed over by this, I'm happy to arrange for tickets to see it when we open it up for the regular theatrical run.

     

  • At 12:49 PM , Blogger Rob said...

    Tim, the one thing I think that you could have done that would have made it a non-issue for me is if you had the folks introducing the midnight movies on Tuesday announce it. I think a lot of folks went straight home or to their hotel rooms after the midnight shows and went to bed without checking the web or e-mail and didn't know that they would want/need to get up earlier to get in line for the tickets. But yeah, hindsight is a bitch.

     

  • At 2:13 PM , Blogger Digs said...

    >> We'll probably be opening the film in a couple of weeks, so if any VIP badge holder still feels screwed over by this, I'm happy to arrange for tickets to see it when we open it up for the regular theatrical run.

    Hey Tim, given the circumstances, I think this is more than fair compensation. I know this last-minute arrangement wasn't the way you or anyone would have liked it to be handled. Thanks for looking out for us and for the festival in general.

     

  • At 11:31 PM , Blogger Mick said...

    I think both sides of this argument should step back and take a breath of reality before they complain much more. As far as the class warfare thing, sorry but there is a reason the VIP badge costs more, and it's not the T-shirt and bag. I dropped the extra money on a VIP badge because I wanted to get VIP treatment. That's the service I'm paying for, first choice at any screening I want. I've been a regular badge holder, and I had a great festival that year, but I didn't always get my first choice. I paid extra so i would get my first choice. It's simple math, only so many people can get into a theatre at one time. The "Special" screenings are all Studio pics that are only gonna let Tim run them one time, one screen. VIPs get first crack at that because that's what the VIP level badge is. It doesn't mean you're better, it means you dropped more money on a badge. Mellow out and enjoy the fact you had a chance to see around 39 movies that FIT the festival you wanted, and missed three or four that to be honest, didn't fit the festival that well, but again, that's what a "Secret Screening" almost always is . . . I skipped one or two because I'd rather be in the film I bought the badge for than one of the Studio releases, and I stayed for one or two that I enjoyed, and in fact set next to some folks with Regular badges.

    Two, the staff fought really hard to get everyone into the screenings they could. The brought in extra chairs, they let people set on the stairs, they delayed the films in some cases, just to get as many people as they could into the screening. They didn't have to do that. They could have filled up the seats and said, Sorry, we're full. They tried to make as many people happy as they could. I think they really put in the effort and deserve a lot more credit for that.

    And finally, the issue with the C screening . . . Tim didn't have the time to do the one day advance, sure. He got them out as soon as possible, and if you were paying attention, cool. And if you weren't, then yeah, the regular badge people got a break. For once. And that's really cool. I'm glad they got the chance to get into the Secret for a change.

    All I know is Fuck! I had a great 8 days and for every little thing that went wrong or that I didn't like there were 100 things that went perfect and smooth and just made it the coolest week ever. I saw 39 movies, I hung out with old friends from previous fests and made new friends I would never have met any where else . . .
    Thank you Tim! Thank you Alamo Draft House staff! And thanks to all the other badge holders, who were almost all really cool, stress free, and made it so much fun to be crammed together so close for so long!

     

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