Renegade Picture Show

Category: Show Report

  • Show Report – Reel Rock Film Tour – And Other Stuff

    We had a great turn-out for this event. This was our first gig that we required tickets for. That’s because the film cost us money to show so we needed to charge at least to break even. In order to do so I devised a plan to have vendor booths/sponsors for the event. At one time it appeared we would have 5 vendors but it eventually backed to 3 vendors. All were paying to be at the show and display their wares. As the crowd was mostly climbers, it was after all, a climbing film festival, they were drawn to the outdoor gear-store sponsor, and the wine vendor, the most. Our t-shirt vendor did ok but I think they wished that they would have sold more shirts.

    In any case, the event went wonderfully – not a single technical issue. In fact, it was probably one of the smoothest running shows I’ve delivered.

    As for the climbing films – all were absolutely amazing and with the feedback I got, everyone was really happy they attended. So maybe we’ll make it an annual event.

    ****

    On to seasonal things as a whole.

    I am working on ways to make the Renegade Picture Show a more sustainable venture. Meaning less out-of-pocket $$$ for me, less copyright worries, and more focus on the overall artistic experience. The RPS is more than just watching movies on a wall – it’s a gathering, it’s a social art experiment.

    Every show I do I put together a program that includes the pre-show music mix, a slideshow featuring movie stills, trivia and other stuff. Then I arrange various clips – sometimes things I have created myself and finally comes the feature presentation.

    So this entire process is unique each and every time – and while I’ve gotten pretty good at delivering it and making it look seamless, there are still apprehensions each show about what people will think about the night’s show.

    Now that I’ve convinced myself that this is “art,” I’m ready to begin looking for grants that will support the show. I have a couple of leads. Of course I have no clue if anyone sees as much value in this as I do – so I don’t know if anyone would give me money to continue and even grow the idea. But it’s worth a shot.

    I’d like to start with about $1000 per season – that would allow me to do at least 5 shows next year. Maybe even invite some other filmmakers to show their film and talk about their work.

    Any thoughts?

  • LATE Show Report from 4/18/09, RPS #16

    LATE Show Report from 4/18/09, RPS #16

    So the third season of Renegade Picture show has begun – this time with a “Dumb” (if not Dumber) movie. We had a GREAT turnout for the show and everyone had a great time. The weather was perfect – a great way to start the season.

    Sometimes I feel a little bad about turning down the music and starting the show because it interrupts the social atmosphere – everyone is moving about, chatting it up and just enjoying hanging out together. But once the pre-show footage gets going everyone seems to remember – ah, yes we are here for this – and they get comfortable and start to watch.

    Aside from a couple of technical glitches (i.e. losing power halfway through the show and having my laptop DVD player freeze-up at the VERY end of the film – that killed me by the way) everything went pretty well. I’ve realized I’m sort of a perfectionist when it comes to syncing everything together and making it appear seamless. I guess I have an expectation for that performance aspect of the show – a part which maybe you don’t see but I feel it is there because I’m trying to make the experience look and feel a certain way. I think therein lies the “art” part of the show. I was about to go off on a tangent here but I’ll save that discussion for a separate post.

    For the time being we’ll just leave the show report at that. Next show will be soon – I know we’re running out of days in May and my intention was to do at least one show this month but we’ve had an incredible amount of rain – that in combination with my absurdly busy schedule. Rest assured, we will have a show or two in June.

    By the way, who else here is a David Lynch fan?

  • Show Report

    I’m a little late on the show report this time around, but hey, at least I didn’t forget.

    It was another great showing. In my view a great showing is: comfortable weather, no technical glitches (sound or picture), a relaxed atmosphere where people enjoy the evening. This showing had all of those elements.

    The movie was funny – dorky, but funny. And even better after a couple of beers.

    Next scheduled showing is Saturday, SEPT 6 and we’ll be showing a movie about being dumb.

  • Show Report – Christmas on Mars

    On Friday, June 13th the Flaming Lips teamed up with deadCenter Film Festival and Rocktown Climbing Gym to present the band’s long-awaited film Christmas on Mars. The experience was unlike any I’ve ever encountered.

    The show took place in an enormous red and yellow circus tent with 200 seat capacity. This tent housed a large stand-up screen about 14 ft tall and 20 ft wide, a massive sound-system, futuristic green-glowing orbs, and a huge digital projector. Seating was arranged in rows like an auditorium using fold-out benches. Outside the main tent was a smaller tent which served as the ticket booth and popcorn stand. Movie tickets and popcorn were free. Beer was also served (for a cost) and this was handled by the deadCenter folks.

    The original plan to hold three shows, one at midnight, one at 2 am and one at 4 am, was changed after an Oklahoma storm rolled in. Tickets were handed out prior to the 10 pm slated time and the first show began about 11:30 pm as the tent was opened early to allow the audience a reprieve from the rain.

    Prior to the movie, Wayne Coyne, the creative mind behind the movie and lead singer for the Flaming Lips, gave a brief introduction and thanked everyone for being there. Then was a short documentary film which consisted of Wayne answering some questions about the film and providing tid-bits about creating the film. This gave some insight into the process of making the movie and some hint of what to expect. Of particular interest was the question entitled, “Why is the movie so loud?” This was sort of a heads-up to the audience to get ready to be blown away.

    So you’re wondering – what was the movie like and what is it about?
    A space station on Mars sometime in the future. It’s just before Christmas and the first human child is about to be born on the planet. We follow characters struggling with their own mentality and the hardships of life in a surreal place far from Earth. Things take a turn for the worse when the man who is supposed to play Santa meets his demise. That is until an unlikely Martian visitor appears.

    The movie might best be described as “other-worldly,” in many senses. An eclectic mix of genres, characters, narrative, noise, and space. To say the movie is simply “good” or “bad” is shortsighted and narrow-minded. There’s so much more to it, yet at the same time, there’s not. You just have to sit, listen, watch, and let it be. In many ways the movie is more than your typical movie. It is more than a visual story on screen, more than putting lines together to create a cohesive beginning, middle, and end. It is an experience.

    For the audience the tent became a spaceship. Maybe it was the deafening roar of EIGHT 800 watt speakers in 5.1 surround sound or the massive projector light beam blasting through smoke over the heads of 200 people but the mood of the evening left me in awe.

    Oklahoma weather played a large part in the experience. Flashes of lightning, claps of thunder, and torrential rains pounding the tent and flooding the interior only added to the energy of the film. But inside the tent we were comfortable.

    The movie was beautifully shot by Bradley Beasley in 16mm and is mostly black and white. But every once in while the audience gets a peak inside something or closer to something and then we see in radiant hyper-color. This was always accompanied by an unexpected blast of electro-sound which jolted you into reality.

    Of course, one of the most special aspects of the film to me were the locations and sets. A good portion of the movie was filmed at the silos that make-up Rocktown Climbing Gym. In fact, several of the sets are still at the gym – in hidden places. I had to remind myself sometimes that this was a space station I was looking at – not the silos. But again, that connection drew me in even more.

    Thanks so much to Wayne Coyne, the rest of the Flaming Lips and their crew, Melissa and the folks at deadCenter for making this possible. I believe this is just the beginning of making Rocktown a great venue for events like this.

    Click here for all the pictures.

  • Show Report

    The show on April 19 was a great opener for the 2008 season. There was a decent turnout considering the expectation of a passing spring storm and the cool conditions. I hope everyone enjoyed the movie. I know there are some corny parts to it but that’s part of what makes 80s movies so great. Still, I have to say, after watching the climbing sequence again I am impressed that it all was accurate – there were not any shortcuts that Hollywood-ized the climbing and made it unreal. Except I did notice when Alan was hanging in mid-air he had two opposed carabiners clipped to a single non locking carabiner – what was the point in that?

    Another thing that I was even more impressed by in watching the movie some 15 years later was the final canoing scene. The cinematography was pretty amazing and those must have been class 6 rapids.

    The new screen worked wonderfully. I think the image looked SO much better on the flat surface versus seeing it on the curvature of the silos like last year. Still watching it on the silos gave the experience a unique feel.

    One more thing about the show – I usually see who donates cash to the donation jar (or in this case, the donation box) and make a point to thank them but I didn’t see who donated this time – you guys must have been sneaky or I must have been busy. So to those of you who donated cash – Thank You very much. I sincerely appreciate it.