CAN'T STOP THE SERENITY - EDINBURGH REPORT

Monday, June 25, 2007 1:05:33 PM

Bear with me, cos I ramble.

The day started off a bit badly - with doors scheduled to open at 10am and the movie starting at 10:30am; with us aiming to arrive at the Filmhouse by 9:30am to set-up, and allocate jobs to volunteers at 9:45am, we didn't have much time to get things running anyway. But Jennifer (co-organiser) was late in getting to my house, and I was worrying about everything fitting in her mum's car, and also about running out of time. The next 10 minutes were full of stress and yelling, but thankfully, Zack (my cousin) arrived early and took half of the stuff in his car, so that settled me down some. Though not much.

Arriving at the Filmhouse 10 minutes behind schedule, we found the Front of House Manager just opening up, and two volunteers (Alison and Kerri, friends) already waiting. Cue unpleasant thoughts and stress about our lateness and the consequences. I orchestrated the swag-carrying inside, and I had just set down the last box in the entrance area when I turned round to find 4 unknown males standing there alongside known helpers (mainly family and friends). First thought was "who the hell are these guys?" Introductions quickly established that they were in fact the guys who had either volunteered through MySpace or been volunteered by others to help out on the day. Second thought was "yes! More people to help carry and get this shit going!"

We got all the stuff upstairs to the cinema screen in one trip, and everything dumped at the front on the stage when I found everyone looking at me suddenly, as if I was supposed to tell them what to do next. Which I kinda was, but it made me feel very nervous - I was put off by the fact that some of the people there weren't actually on my list and didn't have jobs already allocated, which meant I felt a bit lost in regards to what people were doing. Of all the stupid things! At this point, a voice in my head was screaming at me to get a fucking grip and get a move on, because we were fast losing time until the audience started to arrive, and nothing was getting done. So I listened.

Thankfully, our group of minions (the stickers went down a storm, by the way) were awesome. Once I got over my initial stupidity and sorted out who was doing what, everyone went about their way and took up their positions efficiently - we had people ready to take pictures, hand out goody bags, collect donations, sell t-shirts, and sell raffle tickets. The good feeling wasn't set to last though - I was still setting up the raffle prizes on the front of the stage when Jen came running back and announced that the audience had started to arrive. Cue panic.

It turned out that things weren't going as balls-up as I thought it might, though. Evident by the fact that everything looked suspiciously like it was running smoothly, and the fact that everyone kept telling me to calm down and chill. The arriving audience was cool, Jen and I both got a lot of people coming up to each of us and thanking us for organising the event, telling us well done and the like. It felt bizarre but also wonderful. And personally, since I've had correspondence with a lot of randoms recently, it was great finally being able to put faces to names, especially when they were such enthusiastic and friendly Browncoats! Special mention goes to Christopher, an LA native who was here on holiday, and who drove 5 hours from the Isle of Skye to Edinburgh for the screening. He rocks hard.

The seats filled up fairly quickly, and it looked like we actually had quite a good-sized audience, thought I don't know the exact number for sure. I've emailed my contact at the theatre so I'm hoping to find that out soon! Will update when I do. The half hour flew by and soon it came time for us to make our lil' speech before the movie started (the Front of House Manager and Projectionist kindly offered us an extra 10 minutes, so we could fit in everything we needed to beforehand). Crunch-time, and making our way up the stage steps, Jen and I were both more than a little shaky - we needn't have been. Unexpectedly, the entire crowd gave us this huge round of applause, which was...wow. A bit immense, to say the least! The speech itself went down well enough (yay! Because it was good, it has to be said :-P), and FINALLY, we jumped off the stage and settled in our seats to watch the film.

That was an experience in itself. This was my first time watching Serenity on the big screen anyway, so it was just absolutely fucking amazing. And it felt so great watching the movie with other fans, because people were laughing out loud at all the funny parts, laughing at their own personal favourite bits, just reacting the right way throughout the whole film. There was another round of applause when the credits started to roll too! It was definitely something special.

*** Though that special feeling was just turned into something hi-larious when Jen, who had been sitting away from me near the end of the front row, went zooming past me once the credits had barely started (to get a start on the raffle), didn’t see the protruding part of the stage, and tripped right over it. Oh man, it was amazing :-D She agreed afterwards that the rush had been unnecessary ***

The raffle draw itself was fun. I solely ended up pulling tickets out the bucket and Jen handed prizes out to the winners, so our minions got to just relax for a bit. But yeah, it was quite amusing because I kept up a running commentary every time I announced and described the prizes, and alot of the stuff I came out with got good laughs (amazing really, because I was talking pish for the most part). Probably the most memorable moment was when I was showing off the parasol in Kaylee's basket, so I opened it with a flourish and was closing it again when it got stuck - I kinda fumbled with it and announced a very clear and guilty "oops". It's all good though, it didn't break. Generally, prizes went down very well and everyone was pleased with what they won. Also, I'm hoping my threat about what would happen if I found the Fanty costume on eBay was enough to discourage the winner from putting it up there *thumbs up* Maybe I shouldn't have threatened my audience, but it had to be said!

We ran about 15 minutes over, but the Filmhouse staff were understanding about it, and we cleared and tidied up everything before leaving - mainly by showing anything and everything into boxes and bags. But it worked. Overall, it was an incredible experience, and despite all the stress, I loved every minute of it. Everyone had fun and plenty of folk mentioned next year, so it was worth every bit. And the best part is we raised over £750+ (I'll get a more definite total soon). And the feedback I've had about the event has been positive, so I'm proud like you wouldn't believe :-)