Last night we claim dangerously close to an epic fail. Since we changed the venue to the Caroline setting up has been a breeze so I was in no hurry to get started last night. We ate in the pub (their burgers are amazing by the way) and then I casually wandered upstairs to switch everything on. Only for some reason the projector can't find the DVD player and I have no idea why. This happens to be the only night that the pub's owner hasn't been there and Brother Pete (who is better at technical stuff than me) wasn't due to turn up until later. So I start panicking and we spend half an hour turning things off and on again in a desperate attempt to make it work. Finally I speak to the owner on the phone and we get it working. Fine.
Then I realise I haven't brought the pens for the quiz. After a super-busy weekend I'd been a bit rubbish at getting everything ready so it was inevitable I would forget something. So I call Brother Pete who is on his way and ask him to look out for emergency pens. Of the things I could've forgotten it wasn't that bad, it just added to the gradually increasing sense that things were not going to go to plan tonight.
Then there was another minor issue - I think copying 200 copies of Jenny Ringo and the Monkey's Paw (please sign up to the mailing list at www.jennyringo.com) had killed my DVD drive and the DVD I'd put the trailers and an intro to one of the films on wasn't working. Pete managed to get it to work in the end, but again it wasn't helping my growing anxiety.
So everything is working, we have pens, we're ready to start. Just in time too - it's 8pm which is when we generally kick off the night and screen the first film. So why is no one here?
Aside from the four of us running the night there were 7 other people there. In a room that seats 60. This did not look good.
Most of the 7 had already been waiting around for half an hour (as they turned up at the advertised and correct time of 7.30pm!) so I couldn't really keep them waiting. I tried to act like this was normal and did the introduction to the first film as if it was a full room. Luckily a couple of minutes into the film, more people turned up. A lot more people. By the end of the film we had somewhere between 30-40 people in which is closer to our regular numbers. And from then on everything ran smoothly and it turned into a really good night. Which is fantastic, but I really could have done without the stresses at the beginning.
Anyway, next month is the Halloween special, which I don't have to worry about because loads of people will be there. I hope. Seriously, if you are in Brighton or anywhere near on Monday 31st October you should definitely come along to the Caroline of Brunswick. Preferably at 7.30pm. We will be showing short horror films all night and dressing up in daft costumes and awarding a prize to the best daft costume. I already have some fantastic and genuinely scary horror shorts lined up so I seriously recommend you check it out.
As always we'll be posting the rundown of last night's event on the MovieBar website in the next few days.
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