As stated in my last post, I've just come back from the Press screening in my area, and have decided to break this into two posts.

The first post was on the movie:

And this post on the event.

WHAT EVENT!?!

The email confirmation I got from them said to be there about 45 minutes early and look for a Universal rep to see if I made the final cut.

Having been burned several years ago on a couple of free passes to see a preview of "The Shadow" (Alec Baldwin), because I showed up "too late" to get tickets, I was determined to not have that happen again.

So due to overachieving driving management skills, I showed up about 1 hour and 20 minutes early to get the tickets/pass for the show and then I thought about getting something to eat. Upon arriving at the theatre I notice a couple of people standing around and one has the BLUE SUN company logo Tshirt, so I hang out with them. We kill time talking about the show and trying to figure out what the rep will look like.

Around 6 (one hour before event) a guy shows up with a Serenity logo on a plastic slip on tag, and some paper and passes for the movie. He's asking for peoples names, and I go up show my paper and give him my name and he gives me a pass for two. my friend Jose arrived Oh happy day!

asta77 arrived with a friend and while I pointed out to her the guy to get the passes from, Jose went up to exchange our passes for tickets.

Then things begin to crumble. Suprize! the gentleman who was passing out the tickets was not from Universal, but from a local radio station, giving passes out for Serenity to contest winners. Asta77 is now curious how I got the passes and she can't. The guy from the station says, "oh that's why I'm running short on passes..." Jose and I give back the two tickets.

There is now a group of us hanging in the lobby looking for anyone to give us guidence or how scathing our posts will be if no one shows. My leading candidate for the Universal rep was a guy dressed very dapper (reminded me of Simon, hence the avatar), and had a leather clipboard/notepad. But he proved to be a blogger who works for Seimans, and he was wearing his work uniform.

Movie starts at 7, and its now 6:30 and no ones there to get us in. The theatre management knows nothing of the Universal rep or about this blogger screening. They only know about the radio station hosting the movie. Around 6:37 a guy in a cap, green baseball t shirt and jeans walks up holding a 4x6 yellow pad with names written on it. "Hi I'm the representative, are you all the bloggers? I'm kinda new at this." He starts calling out first names (does not want to try pronouncing any last names), after checking them off his list, we point out the Manager's area for him to speak with as they were looking for some resolution on a few things. He comes back a few minutes later (after visiting the ticket takers), and says lets go. We informed him they won't let us in without tickets, and he says, "Oh ok how many are you?" The man with a list of our names and how many passes we need is asking us to count off.

He goes over to the ticket counter (gets credit here as he didn't stand in line!) and returns at about 6:50 with a handful of tickets, we get the tickets and a mad dash ensues. We enter the theatre after stopping for snackums (I haven't had anything since 1:30pm) and asta77 has saved us 4 seats. We are seated for about 5 minutes and the first and only preview begins (it was DOOM).

After the movie (I always try to stay through the credits) I see our rep loitering around, I assume to make sure that everyone was taken care of, though I saw no one speaking to him. I left and saw him fade away into the far entrance of the theatre enterance.

So a representative did show, and I did get to see the movie.

There were no "prizes", no passes or collectibles, just the opportunity to see a very good movie, spend some time with a couple of my best friends and talk to people I've never met who all share a common interest.

That made it worth it.