His Highness Hollywood Movie Premiere: Excitement, Entertainment and Sabotage - Page 5
People left at this point. Gawker left. Andrew Morton remained. I was going nowhere, this was my final destination. Something had to give. Just when the tension in the room had reached critical mass, a commanding woman took the stage and said:
"You have two options, you can politely say your goodbyes and disperse, or we can show you the unedited version about 15 takes back. I don't want you to see it, because it's not what the final version looks like, but you came here to see something, and this is what we have."
"Show US" pleaded those who remained, now about 150 people. Impressive considering what we've all been through.
Finally, at 10:00pm we took our seats for the FOURTH time... tap, tap, cautionary tale, five minutes...it was like a midnight showing of Rocky Horror where everyone repeats the lines....but then a miracle happens and the film keeps going. Uproarious cheers erupt and the entire room madly applauds. It was both rude and necessary.
We quiet down for a film which is 30 minutes too long — we know and understand this — but is still amazingly funny, full of tremendous insight and at times sad, shocking, and utterly entertaining. Ian is a natural story-teller, and he takes us along on his journey undercover, as willing accomplices into a world we all know, but so few truly understand: Hollywood.
It really was a great viewing, and I can't wait to see the final version to compare. Editing is a skilled artform, and now I will have a greater appreciation of the effort that goes into it.
So, are you wondering about the sabotage part yet? Yeah, so were we.
After I get back to Cleveland, I receive an email from Ian. All it says is: the film equipment was tampered with. I call him and in a frantic and excitable voice Ian explains what happened.
They had tested the film at 5:00. It was hooked up to a projector and playing on a computer as an AVI file. At 5:00, all went well, the film ran as expected, no problems. Secure and satisfied everything was ready to go, Ian and crew left to take a break before the premiere and await guests.
They even did a brief run through at 7:00 while Ian and I did our interview. You can hear the tell-tale tap, tap in the background. But there were several people coming and going and what happened during this time period is unclear.
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