Lyric Notes 4/28/07

The 4:30 show is killing me. It's a total waste of time. So I was talking to my film buyer Paul, which, now that I think of it, I haven't mentioned once. Quick rundown on Paul.

Paul is becoming the godfather of
low-budget-fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants-independently-own-by-a-couple-snot-nosed-punk-kids, movie houses. He started the Ragtag in Columbia, MO seven years ago while he was pretty young (I don't really know how old he is), and helped Dan start the Moxie two years ago and is helping me as well. He gives me a list of recommendations to play, I choose and he tells me whether or not I chose well. It's kind of like the pupil trying to grab the pebble from the masters hand.

At any rate, Paul...I was talking to Paul about how my 4:30 show is doing pretty bad, and he said "Why are you doing a 4:30 show?" and I said "Uh...well....I don't know." Then he said "I've never had a 4:30 show." Well huh. I guess I never really thought about it to hard. So I'm doing away with the 4:30 show in favor of a 6:30 show and an 8:30 show relative to the running time of the movies being shown. That will not only eliminate the time wasted showing a 4:30 show it will also increase sales for the 6:30 show. Which will, in turn, help me, which will, in turn, help my family, which will, in turn, help all of humanity....because we are just that important. This will, of course, be advertised as to when I'm doing it which will be starting this next Friday the 4th.

On to more important matters. I wore flip flops today and have been wondering when the term was changed from "thongs" to "flip flops". I'm guessing it has something to do with that intensely clever Sisqo song. Either way, I love thongs.

Lyric Notes 4/24

Well we did some number crunching and we are ok, for the moment, I think. Either way, I think we are going to survive our first month open. We will just have to see how the second month goes though. I think things will pick up once we open the second theater which should be in about a month or two. The reason I say that is because The Host is making a killing, especially considering the onslaught of mis-information that the general public was bombarded with regarding our days and times. If we were able to put The Host in a prime spot like 7:00, it would have killed it. But, as it were, Little Children is here until Thursday, and is the kind of movie that only really plays in the 7:00 slot, which it has also made some decent numbers as well, but probably not what The Host would have. It's a big game of cat and mouse, give and take, capture the flag, monopoly, shoots and ladder...I think you get the idea.

So that brings me to a little shameless promotion. If you want to see Little Children before it leaves Ft. Collins, better hop on it because it will be gone by Friday. In which case, The Namesake will take it's place in the 4:30/7:00 slot. (I have to do this because it is also another movie that plays best to an earlier crowd). On that same "shameless self promotions" topic, I would like to put a plug in for our Movie Trivia Thursdays @5. Last week we had a great crowd that did positively outstanding, and so this week we are going to make it a little tougher...but not much for all the new comers.

Well, enough about me, let's talk about the theater. We've gotten a lot of requests for a lot of different things, so I thought I would take this time to address these requests.

Yes, I do realize that the wall the screen is on is not perpendicular to the seats, and no there is nothing I can do about it. The screen has to be perpendicular to the lens of the projector, and since I'm shooting out at an angle, I have to angle the screen.

I'm afraid that I cannot put the aisle in the middle of the room, city egress codes make designing a theater tougher than you would think it should be. Not only that but I would loose seating due to wasted space.

I know that in some of the movies the beginning is soft and the end is loud. That's how they mix the movie, and baring me sitting by the volume during every show and turning the sound up and down, there is nothing I can do about it.

99% of the time I know that the screen is out of focus and am actively trying to remedy it. Shooting out at the angle and not being able to see the screen from the projection room makes focus a difficult task, and having to switch lenses once or twice a day makes that task even harder. And no I cannot NOT switch lenses, different films have different formats, scope and flat. I happen to have both formats right now.

There is nothing else we could have done with the layout that would have allowed us any more room and met all the egress codes. It is what it is because that's what we could fit into this building. And we did look for many many other spaces, all of which were either too long and narrow or too small in general for the specifications of a theater. This building was the best fit in downtown with the least outrageous rent. It's a retro-fit, what are you gonna do?

Because of the confusing nature of the lay out I also know we need more signs...I never imagined I would need so many signs, so we are working on it. It's hard to know that when you were the one that put up the walls and know ever inch of the space like the back of your hand. Hopefully everyone will be such loyal customers and know the place so well after a few months we won't need the signs in the first place.

I also realize that sometimes information is wrong, either in the papers or yes, even on the website. This is totally my fault and I'm trying to create a system of checks and balances to fix this problem, because if there is one thing I'm not, it's detail oriented.

I think that about covers it. If there are any other questions that I keep getting asked I will try to put some more answers up on the blog and create a FAQ section of the website.

Lyric Notes 4/20

Ah, good old Hitler's birthday. Nothing to make you feel better about your life than knowing that it's Hitler's birthday today...I think. Maybe it's the 21st, I can never remember. It just puts things in perspective. I'm really tired and I keep screwing things up, but at least my name isn't synonymous with pure evil and the slaying of millions of people. Just a thought.

My projection skills have improved ten fold over the last week, especially considering I had no idea how to work one of these things until two weeks ago. But, as it were, I still suck at it. They are very complicated machines...go figure. Projecting is a funny business. I know Little Children by heart now, and I have nightmares about the closing title song. Thinking I missed it, or that I forgot to turn up the lights. On that same note, I have heard Kate Winslet have sex more times than...um...I'll stop there, but those scenes have led to some really awkward conversations with people in the Projection room.

Movie trivia night was a smashing success. We had a phenomenal crowd (considering I didn't think anyone would show) and it seemed like a blast, at least to me. I have to admit that everyone did much better than I thought they would. We came up with, what I thought were, real doosies, but we only had a hand full of questions that actually stumped people. We might have to make it harder next week, but we'll see what kind of a crowd we get. We might throw some easy ones out there to encourage new people to build up their movie trivia knowledge. I believe that this movie trivia thing will be the next big thing in Cinema Cafe's around the world...so, in that case, everyone should get in on the ground floor. You will be able to say you knew they two that invented this.

Lyric Notes 4/18

Well we are through our first week and I have to say...we are definitely through our first week. I can't say we did great, but I'm optimistic that we will have a good turn out starting tomorrow. It's a shame more people didn't come to Air Guitar Nation, it was a great Doc. But I dropped the ball on the marketing side, so I'm to blame for that one.

We've gotten a lot of compliments and a lot of complaints, but all I can say is that we are new to this and everyone is going to have to bare with us for a little while, we will get the hang of it. Our menu will expand, our cafe hours will expand, our theater is still being fine tuned and all three of our staff are learning at a quicker pace than Josh and I, which might come back to bite us later.

I have to say though, it is a blessing we weren't busy this week. We've actually had time to figure some stuff out without upsetting too many people.

So here is my shameless marketing plug. We are getting the Host this week, a South Korean horror, that has gotten better reviews than any other movie I've checked out on RottenTomatos.com, which is quite a feet for a horror. We are also getting The Namesake next Friday, which has also gotten stellar reviews and I'm pretty excited to get as well.

Lyric Notes 4/16 (I wised up)

Sundays officially suck...pardon the graphic language...but gosh darn it, they're the worst. We got a total of 21 customers all day yesterday. What is the deal with that. I also officially hate nice days now too. We would have gotten more people both Saturday and Sunday had it not been for the nice weather. I'm bitter and very disappointed.

So this weekend was a big wake-up call. We need a serious marketing strategy. We can't rely purely on people's excitement about this place, we have to make them feel like they are missing out on something, something big. So what we came up with is Josh and I will stand out front laughing maniacally to prove what a good time we are having, thus enticing more people to come into the cafe and spend money. I hope this works...

Actually, we are having a Movie Trivia Hour trial run on Thursday at 5:00, complete with drink and food specials. Which actually will be fun, even if it's just me and Josh quizzing each other. Actually our employees (yes we have three) are pretty good at movie trivia, but no one has stumped me yet...mmmmm....movie trivia....OK, what was I talking about? Oh yeah, good times. Along with the Movie Trivia Thursdays, we will have have Date Night Tuesdays, with ticket, drink and food specials for couples, regardless of sexual orientation and relationship status. I'm a big believer in platonic football buddies going out to a heartwarming movie and sharing and piece of cake and a nice glass of wine. There is nothing wrong with that.

I'm also open to suggestions, within reason, for specials and events and other cool things you would like to see at the theater and in the cafe.

And here is a NEWS FLASH to everyone. It's looking like I will be sending Air Guitar Nation off at the end of the week, so if you want to see it, you had better come on down before Friday.

Lyric Notes Vol 32

I'm beginning to think that numbering these blog entries was a bad idea. Maybe I should just put the date on there like an intelligent person would. Hmmm...at any rate, maybe I shouldn't think out loud.

For my now "Bi-monthly" update I will give a good pat on the back to Josh and I for not totally screwing up our grand opening. I screwed it up a little in the 9:30 show on Wednesday when the platter got a Brain Wrap (when the film wraps tightly around the spools on the platter...you kind of have to see it to get it), a belt fell off and the sprockets jump the holes and stretched the film. Fortunately everyone expected us to be blundering idiots and waited patiently while we called for a projectionist in the audience to come help us out. I probably shouldn't count my eggs before the cows come home (we are only halfway through the third showing) but our grand opening seems to have gone splendidly. We sold out of both 6:30 shows and last nights 9:00 was two thirds full, which is pretty good for a Wednesday night.

Now, if I were a good blogger like Dan at the Moxie (moxiecinema.com), I would get into details of how much of what sold, and how many tickets we sold and all that, but I really don't know, all I know is that if it keeps up like this, considering inflation and cost of living expenses, I might be able to send Bailey to a community college by 2056, but probably not Jack. Woohooo! Hooray for money!!!

At any rate, I really would like to thank everyone that helped us with this project (even though none of those people read this blog) and all the people that attended our Grand Opening, solidifying our status and a pretty big deal, which in turn feeds our ego, which in turn helps create world peace...uh....sorry, what was I talking about?

Lyric Notes Vol. 31

I'm getting a lot of requests to sell tickets for the grand opening in advance. So we will put tickets on sale at the opening of the cafe tomorrow at 2:30 in the afternoon for both nights, both shows. We highly recommend getting here pretty early for each show because we are going to start at 6:30 and 9:30 and want to get everyone seated before the show starts.

That's really all I have for this blog.

Lyric Notes Vol. 30

Well, we are open. I know we haven't had our grand opening yet, but we are having a test opening to see what the foot traffic is like on our block. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. I should fill you all in on why it's been so long since I've written anything. The short answer is that last week was pure hell on earth. Shall I elaborate?

It all started on Monday...oh god, I can't even remember back to last Monday. Let's see, Josh and I had just gotten off a weekend of nothing but construction, prepared for a week of untangling red tape in preparation for getting our certificate of occupancy. When I get into work I find out that our fridge is still in South Carolina and won't be here until the 10th...we are scheduled to have a soft opening on Friday the 6th with our final health inspection on the 5th. Now you might think I was frantic, but I think livid describes it more accurately since we had ordered the fridge three months earlier. On the same note, the sink we had special ordered because of it's odd dimensions had been sitting in a ware house in Denver for two weeks and they had no intension of moving until Thursday. You might say I lost it, but I think I held it together pretty well given the circumstances. On top of that, no one had bothered to order the special $500 dollar/square foot fire proof glass that takes 2 weeks to make. One, I suppose, could have called me violently angry, but I only ever take my pure rage out on innocent by-standards, so it's all good.

By Tuesday I had solved the sink problem by making horrible threats and accusations, and was halfway through the other two problems. This whole time Josh is trying to get a completely broken Point of Sale system up and working (which we had also been working on all weekend) and getting all our food and drink accounts set up and delivered by Friday morning. Finally I decide that it will be cheaper and easier to just order another fridge from the place that we got the rest of our equipment, and so I do and tell the other guy sending the other fridge to go to eat a bug (only in much more colorful language). So two out of three problems solved. Now what the hell do we do about the glass. Finally on Wednesday Kevin (our contractor) says that we will have the glass on Friday right before our final inspection, in the mean time we will have a preliminary final inspection to solve any problems that might come up before Friday. So we do, and just like we thought, we have to bring back all the sub-contractors to fix a bunch of stuff.

While all of this is going on, we have Allen and Jimmy installing our projector and needing more power, better angles, a special washer, more conduit, etc. There is a lot of stuff that goes into installing a projector...a very very lot.

By Thursday we have most of the problems resolved, but still a lot of touch ups to do (paint this, fix that, find this, re-fix that). So Friday morning rolls around and we are pretty much done with construction and waiting for the inspector. Randy (one of our carpenters) comes up to Josh and I while we are still trying to get the POS system up and running and says that the inspection hasn't been called in....uh....what?....did I just hear that right? To make a long story not quite as long, we ended up getting our Certificate of Occupancy at 4:00 in the afternoon and got the screen up and projector running by 6:00 and the show started at 7:00. Now, I have never run a projector like this before and didn't realize that it was this dangerous or complicated, but it is and I had about half an hour to figure it out. Fortunately I'm a superhuman genius and can learn by osmosis. So I rubbed my head against the projector and now I'm an expert.

Now we are just chugging along and having a grand old time.

Be sure to show up early for the showings on Wednesday and Thursday, it's looking like it might be pretty full. Show times are at 6:30 and 9:30 both nights, tickets are $8, champagne and popcorn are free, but we have much better food available at the counter if you need something more substantial.

See you all there.