Ciplak Press/Preview Screening

So yesterday, in a complete daze, buzzing off of a latte to help me through a quick brainstorm, I looked at the clock on my phone: 5:25pm. Technically, the earliest I could leave the office was 5:30pm, but clouds were forming outside and I wanted to beat the jam. Besides, I'd been up since the day before and technically started work at 7:00am for a shoot for a client at a high school (with a director I shall not mention but never enjoy working with).

I figured 'fuck it'. It's my press/preview screening, I should be there early. So I left without a moment of hesitation and by the time I stepped into my car the rain drops started slowly dropping. A light drizzle at first. I dashed across Jalan Sultan Ismail whilst it was still clear and the jam was just about to form behind me. By the time I got to my house to shower and change it stormed like The Day After Tomorrow.

Using my brother's tiny umbrella (my parents took all the adult ones) I rushed to Paul's Place to find it absolutely spotless. Anyone who's been to Paul's Place knows that the place is never clean. Occasionally tidy, never clean. Saiful and the other Paul (from my band Y2k) had cleaned up the entire place, top and bottom, by themselves (I now owe these guys steaks and I reckon they deserve it anyway).

Then the SMS's and phone calls started pouring in. A large number of people couldn't make it because of the rain. Almost half, to be precise. I was quietly relieved, though, as over 100 people RSVP'd and I only had 60 chairs.

At around 7ish the photographer from the Star came to take photos quickly because he couldn't attend. I pulled some stupid poses I will later regret and hope they don't print.

At around 8:30pm I started the screening, first by thanking everyone involved and everyone for coming, then rambling a bit with a few jokes and apologizing for my blur-ness (no sleep, go figure). Then the screening started.

At first, the audience was pretty quiet. A few giggles here and there and not much else. No worries. There's one gag in the movie which is the deciding factor and if they laugh at that scene I know I'll be fine. Then I realized something: we made the screen to suit a 16:9 showing so we don't get black bars at the top or bottom. But in one of the scenes which had a time code on it the time code was only partially visible. The 'deciding factor' gag involved subtitles, and if those subtitles aren't clear no-one will get it. I was worried. Very worried. Then the subtitles popped up. And they laughed.

Hard.

After that it was smooth runnings. After the screening I went over to everyone for chit-chat and small talk. The food arrived but it was for a 100 people so it overflowed a bit (and I felt kinda bad considering my girlfriend's mom cooked it all). People came, people congratulated, people praised and me? I was over the frickin' moon.

So yeah. Thanks to all those that helped out with the screening (really couldn't have done it without you guys) and those from the press who made it through the horrendous rain. Most of all, thanks for all those that came to show support.

And for those that couldn't make it, don't worry. There'll be plenty of screenings in the future.

(And no, Man Method, I haven't forgotten. Soon, buddy. Real soon.)