I guess I should start at the beginning.
We have known for a long time that a new Star Trek movie was coming, based on the 2009 reboot of the popular franchise, and we needed someone to spearhead our efforts... so I volunteered.
The first task was, of course, finding a theater that would want to work with an enthusiastic team of Star Trek fans. Fortunately, we had an existing working relationship with Megaplex Theaters - specifically the Jordan Commons location. (Click the link for a video containing our 2009 promotional event.) I contacted the Events Director (Julene) around March to begin planning.
Not only did Julene remember the U.S.S. Kelly, she had some great ideas. The first thing we talked about was setting up at both the IMAX end of the theater and the brand new Rialto end (shown below). We also spoke about getting a poster made advertising that the club was coming.
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| Consessions space at the Rialto end of Jordan Commons |
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| Rialto section of Jordan Commons... panoramic view |
Firstly, the captain of a sister club, the brand-new U.S.S. Essex, suggested that as many of the clubs of Starfleet Command's Seventh Fleet as possible work together to show a more united front, which I thought was a brilliant idea. Especially as two or three clubs had already started working individually with local Megaplex theaters. This meant coordinating just a few things at the Fleet level... such as promotional "Coming Soon" posters and trivia questions.
Secondly, as cool as collecting for a charity would be, we decided that since people were heading to the theater for entertainment, it wouldn't necessarily be a good idea to be collecting money for other purposes. Finally, our Styrofoam provider let us know that the company was so busy we weren't going to be able to do anything like the Holodeck we had last time (good for them... but bad for us).
Fortunately, Captain Thalmann of the USS Kelly had a two great ideas for a display: a painted backdrop and a green screen. We already had the green screen, so we only had to come up with the backdrop. Fortunately, we have great people to work on that.
One of our great members purchased the material, another sewed it together, and some new recruits and I painted it. Here's proof:
Now we needed to construct a frame. My first thought was using PVC pipe, as that had worked well for us in the past. I already had several pieces ... make that lots and lots of pieces ... left over from other projects, so I thought it would be easy.
Unfortunately the finished size of the backdrop turned out to be approximately 13 feet wide by 14 feet tall, and my supply of PVC wasn't quite up to the task. Good thing we had a backup plan! (More on that later.)
Meanwhile I had contacted Julene at the Megaplex about our fleet-wide promotion idea, and she thought it was a good idea. She contacted the other Megaplex theaters to see who, if anyone, would be interested in having a Star Trek club come promote the movie in their theater. Two were interested, but by the time I was able to coordinate anything with the club leaders, only one was able to be on their own (the U.S.S. Essex), and the other ended up coordinating at Jordan Commons with us (the SS White Buffalo). That actually worked well, as the captain of the White Buffalo told me he had never done anything like a movie promotion before, and wanted some direction and I needed all the help I could get.
One of our members is a graphic designer by trade. She took the idea of a "Coming Soon" poster and truly ran with it, and created some beautiful posters: two informational (one for the Kelly and one for the Seventh Fleet), and another as the "Coming Soon" poster. The informational ones were able to be rotated into Jordan Commons' rotating announcement screen (thanks to Julene), and looked gorgeous!
Now all that was left was to do the setup and be there for the actual event.
Remember how I said that nothing ever goes completely to plan? My work schedule is one of those things. I had originally planned to have Wednesday - Saturday off to promote the movie, but with work schedules, I ended up having to work the Wednesday. Since I got off at 7:00 pm and the first movie (in IMAX 3D) started at 8:00 pm, I knew I'd need help. Fortunately, Captain Thalmann was available.
He set up our green screen in the IMAX end of the theater, where we knew the hard-core Trekkies would prefer to go, and used another green screen frame for the Rialto end. We had several costumes available (mostly mine, but some from a local theater connection) and some standees of Kirk and Spock available for green screen pictures. I even created a rack for the costume out of some PVC pipe.
Remember how I said nothing ever goes as planned?
Well, when working with the theater on Friday morning, Julene informed me that she had a large group that would need the entire Rialto lobby on Saturday, as well as a smaller group that needed part of the space we were using on Friday afternoon. Since we had to move anyway, I decided we should only move once. Julene then allowed us to move into the main hall, which is where most of the theater patrons would be coming in. There was even a built-in desk there that we were able to coopt. Thanks to employees of the Megaplex at Jordan Commons, we were able to move the backdrop in about five minutes... tables and all.
Working with the theater, we were able to do trivia questions (provided by members of the Kelly and shared with the Fleet) in the individual theaters as well as provide a fun atmosphere. Most of the theater-goers enjoyed our presence, though to be honest there was one complaint. Plus I'm sure we ran the projectionists ragged trying to turn off sound in order for us to do our trivia.
Either way, being the coordinator for this whole project I was the first U.S.S. Kelly member on site to arrive and the last one to leave. I had a great team who worked hard to make the event a success, and I want to thank each of them as well as the events team and theater staff at Jordan Commons. Without you, this would never have worked.
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