I see the white walls and I want to paint them black...

Two months ago (see post dated August 27th), you saw one of the studios in its infancy. Somewhere in between, it turned into this:


And today, our little baby's all growed up.

With all the progress being made, our first equipment vendor is scheduled to come in this Wednesday to work on the framing for the drapes and the screens. So this is the last you'll see of the pretty black paint. Unless you try to hide behind the drapes to sneak into another screening, but unless you're planning on spending a couple of nights, you'll be watching the same movie, so I'd advise against it. And to get rid of the carpet glue, those floors have had more chemicals poured on them than a high school science lab, so I'd steer clear of the M&Ms found on the ground. At least turn the five second rule into three seconds.

Seeing as we're in the business of showing movies, we thought it might be appropriate to document the process in some other format than the written word. Hence the world premiere of our new YouTube channel - http://www.youtube.com/cinemaaperture. (Author's note: I was told four minutes before I went on camera I was doing this, but thanks to the magic of our wonderful PR gal Sadie, I only managed that deer in headlight look for about 30 seconds, and made just one inappropriate crapper joke).

Movienomics

If absence truly does make the heart grow fonder, you guys must be extra fond of me now. More than likely you've moved on and are spending your time on the internet learning about the balloon boy sleeping in the attic or mourning the passing of wrestling legend Captain Lou Albino (RIP to the man who made wearing rubber bands in his beard acceptable). While I've been MIA - Paper Planes what? - for the past two weeks, we've closed out the LLC group, submitted countless Master License Agreements (MLAs) with the major film distributors, started working on assembling a staff, ordered some samples for t-shirts, had new neighbors move in, done a heck of a lot of construction, and got a new fish, Bubbles (no relation to MJ's chimp). I'll focus on the two that are probably most interesting to you guys, the MLAs and construction.

If I thought we were signing over our lives when we got the loan for a/perture, we just signed over our lives, Nigel the dog's, and our son's firstborn with all the paperwork for the MLAs. This is probably my best chance to go all Reading Rainbow and teach you some economics of the movie theater business. So obviously getting people in the door is a crucial aspect to any enterprise. However, in order for the studios to recoup their investments in blockbuster films and help subsidize some of their other films, they typically take 50% of the ticket sales to cover their costs. For some of the aforementioned blockbusters, that can be as high as 90%. That makes it hard to pay the rest of the bills without all the fun stuff like concessions and merchandise. So, if you take nothing else from all of this, remember this - sneaking Cookout milkshakes and convenience store candy in - bad (even though I've been guilty of both before), buying popcorn, candy, and two drinks even if you're by yourself - awesome.

On the progress front, we're pretty much walled out and are waiting to get painting. The seats are being delivered November 9th, along with the sound drapes and other "front of the house" stuff, and the projection equipment will be here after Thanksgiving. Since I unashamedly just begged you all to make frequent trips to the concession stand, here's a couple of pictures of the lobby to help get a sense of it.



A little messy, but no more than my old college dorm, right mom? Well, it feels good to be back, and hopefully I've shared enough to bring what little momentum I had alive again. Lawren and her team have been working on some exciting stuff, so hopefully in the coming weeks I'll be able to tell you about more cool things happening at a/perture.

I'll be back...

Cursed real world obligations! I promise that once we close the books for this quarter (at my day job), I'll be back with more regular updates. Should be this weekend. In the meantime, enjoy this picture.

...just like most of my posts.

Turn it up to eleven

Another week, another lack of posts. But this time I feel like I at least have a good reason. The family took what could be considered our last vacation for awhile as we get this theater up and running. Lawren treated me to a weekend in Austin, Texas chock full of 24 oz beers (everything's bigger in Texas!), great food, and even better live music at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Going back to the standardized tests of high school, the best analogy to describe our own personal passions would be the following - Lawren : Movies :: Jigar : Music. People of Winston, if you make a/perture a success, I promise to try and open up a music venue in downtown. If Lawren will let me.

In theater related news, things are coming along on schedule. We're working on getting the equipment installers here sooner than later and the rest of construction is smashingly on schedule. Lawren's even trying to hire some people - check out the website for more info. While in Austin, we walked by one of the inspirations for the theater, the Alamo Drafthouse, and were made aware how painfully awesome the place is by my Austinite cousins. We were also treated to a multitude of ideas for a/perture by my old college roommate. If I had time to write a novel, I'd list out all his suggestions here, but suffice it to say he's excited, and hopefully we can make the Short Circuit marathon he suggested work.

Another old school mate quickly put me back in my place after suggesting "You're the Best Around" was the ultimate movie song by offering up "Tiny Dancer" in Almost Famous as well as "Highway to the Danger Zone" in Top Gun. To round out my music to film analogy, here's the soundtrack of our weekend at the ACL Festival.

Avett Brothers - "Slight Figure of Speech"
Phoenix - "1901"
John Legend - "Redemption Song (Bob Marley Cover)"
Them Crooked Vultures - I don't know any song names, but a band with Dave Grohl, Josh Homme, and John Paul Jones can't be bad
Kings of Leon - "Revelry"
Airborne Toxic Event - "This Magic Moment (Drifters Cover)"
Citizen Cope - "Bullet and a Target"
Bon Iver - "Skinny Love"
The Scabs - "H.E.B."
Passion Pit - "Little Secrets"
Girl Talk - Everything, especially the "Time After Time -> Tiny Dancer -> Don't Stop Believin'" mashup
Pearl Jam - "Alive"

Sweep the leg, Johnny!

I really should have know better than to commit to writing a blog during football and the new fall tv season. As you can tell from my updates becoming more infrequent, the distractions are winning when it comes to the free time. We're making a ton of progress on all things a/perture, from learning to make Quickbooks work for us, submitting North Carolina tax filings, installing and setting up point of sale systems, and oh yeah, a lot of construction.


It's during construction that I usually find one of the few advantages of having grown up in Dalton, GA, the undisputed "Carpet Capital of the World". You guessed it, free carpet. My dad stuffed a roll (you can just find it on the side of the road, that's how much carpet there is - no wait, the roads ARE carpet!) into a van with no seats, and braved the elements to bring it up this weekend. Then on Sunday, a/perture screened its first comedy - me, my dad, and my father-in-law attempting to move the carpet into the space. If anyone offers you free carpet if you move it yourself, don't take it. It's not worth it. Thankfully no one was injured in the process.

Another distraction that hit us this weekend was the movie Observe and Report, written and produced by UNCSA alum Jody Hill. I know, a little late, but we've been to the movies about four times since we had a kid. Probably another reason we decided to start our own theater. I get way too easily distracted, but William Faulkner would be proud of my stream of consciousness writing style. Back to my point, I thought the movie was hi-larious, but one of the things that really sucked me in was the soundtrack. Which got me thinking, what's the best use of a song in a movie, that makes the scene and sums up the movie? Joe "Bean" Esposito is the genius that immediately came to my mind. His finest work was used in two films, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, a documentary about breaking the high score in Donkey Kong (awesome, by the way), and one you're probably more familiar with - The Karate Kid.



If that doesn't get you pumped up, you have no pulse. William Zabka aka Cobra Kai Johnny, if you'd like to attend the opening of a/perture and sweep my leg, I'd be honored. I've also been told to increase the cuteness factor of the blog, so here's our son in the window of the theater.

Et tu, Brute?

The outpouring of support for Lawren's blog entry has really got me questioning my role here. I'm pretty sure that had I gotten to go to Toronto, I would have come back as Prime Minister of Canada. Just joshing, I enjoyed reading her recap as much as the rest of you. But the only reason I did hand the computer over was because it was her birthday week. Happy 18th birthday.

Part of the weekend festivities included a trip out to "Rock the Block" on Friday night. The rain was kind enough to stay away, as evidenced by the late night crowd.


If you tried to sneak a peek in on the progress at a/perture through the window, you were treated to the following sight:



It's starting to look like a theater back there, but we thought the posters might drum up a little more interest than sheetrock. In trying to keep with the theme of a/perture, we went with quotes from independent movies that were hopefully recognized by a broader audience, including Juno, Rushmore, Platoon, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Requeim for a Dream, Amelie, and The Graduate. We know we missed some great ones, so feel free to add your own in the comments. Who knows, they could be used in some later propaganda, and we'll work on a way to thank you if we do steal, I mean license, your idea.

Say hello to my little (best) friend...

As our faithful followers are well aware, Lawren spent the last few days in Toronto. She screened some great movies, and some just plain weird ones. But none as weird as Moron Movies. I saw her time away as my chance to educate the world, but she saw it as a blatant sign of disrespect. So now I'm on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION and she's taking over the blog. Just kidding. Who better than the legend herself to give you the firsthand account of the experience. Now, your curator.

It was very hard to wrestle the computer away from Jigar, so I hope I don't disappoint. In my research for a/perture cinema, I came across an article written by a fellow theater owner who said that out of the multitude of film festivals around the world, the Toronto International Film Festival (tiff) is the one to hit up if you are a film exhibitor. The festival screens more than 300 films over a ten day period, not to mention, many of the recent "award winners" have come out of tiff including Slumdog Millionaire, No Country for Old Men, and Crash. How could I pass up the opportunity?

Frequent flier miles, my in-laws offer to babysit and my mom's companionship all made the trip possible. We spent four full days in Toronto, making it to 12.5 films. Below is a summary of the festival in list form:

Longest time spent in line: 3 hours for The White Ribbon - totally worth it! I would love to get this film to a/perture this Winter.
Buckets of popcorn consumed: a mere 1/2 of a bucket during the Glorious 39 premiere (and it was a little stale)
Coolest Q&A: with director of Chloe, Atom Egoyan. He was so open and funny and adorably personable.
Biggest surprise hit: Beautiful Kate, by first time director Rachel Ward. Have to thank my mom for picking this one. It was a great little Australian movie with a lot of notable performances, an original story, and a beautiful setting. Here is a picture of my mom with a up-and-comer Sophie Rowe from the film:


Celebrity sightings: Sissy Spacek, Sam Neill, Bryan Brown, David Kross (from The Reader), Ridley Scott, Eva Green, Bill Nighy, Romola Garai, Julie Christie
Best photo-op: with Lluis Homar, Penelope Cruz's co-star in Broken Embraces. What is not to love about a man from Spain? Me, Lluis and my shiny bag:



New favorite song: the tiff theme song, "I Will Light You Up" by local Toronto band Pilot Speed
Number of visits to Starbucks for coffee: 4
Number of visits to Starbucks for free wifi: 12
World Premieres: 1! - Glorious 39 - red carpet, decked out stars, photogs - coolest part was that the director and actors sat down to watch the entire film with everyone else in the audience (if you can squint hard enough, you can see Bill, Roma, Julie and director Stephen Poliakoff in the photo below)


Films I hope to bring to a/perture: The White Ribbon, Broken Embraces, Beautiful Kate, Chloe, and Same Same but Different
Film I will never in a million years bring to a/perture: The Warrior and the Wolf
Films with the most buzz that I wish I could have seen: Up in the Air, Precious, and A Serious Man

If you would like to learn more about any of the films I've mentioned above check out the official tiff website at www.tiff.net or post some questions and if Jigar lets me back into the blog, I'd be happy to answer them.

P.S. - Thanks Jigs for taking good care of the homefront.

Genius or moron blogger?

So I'm already falling behind again on the updates, but I promise this excuse was a little more viable than the last one. Lawren left for Toronto on Friday (if you haven't already done so, head on over to the a/perture cinema twitter page for some of the celebrity encounters and early reviews) which left me without much to report as she had me researching movies to watch. So while she's having fun with that, I'm having my own adventures with our son Jake, and continuously hearing him yell "Mommy!". Further cementing the fact that Lawren is the only person of interest in our household, the gotriad article came out on Thursday.

http://www.gotriad.com/content/2009/09/09/article/shes_bringing_art_films_to_winston_salem

Joe Scott, who wrote the article, hosts his own film series in Greensboro, along with writing much more interesting stuff than I. Check out his website for more info: http://www.themovieshow.org

I'd like to take this opportunity to point out that while Lawren brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to this project, I'm no slouch myself. You're hearing from the co-founder/President of the Dalton High School Film Club. However, after declaring my love for the 1985 piece de resistance Moron Movies, my opinion apparently is as welcome as Joe Wilson's comments during an Obama speech.



I probably didn't do myself any favors with that clip, but it's about the only one out on Youtube, which is probably another strike against me. This space will probably be a lot more interesting when my wife is back from Toronto and I can post pictures of celebrities. Look out Perez Hilton!

I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse...

I've been giving you a shot here and there of each of the theaters, but figured I'd share more of a holistic view put together by the designers.





They're pretty tiny looking here, but I promise if you click on them, you'll actually be able to see some detail. Lawren's been out meeting with some movie theater people in other cities, as well as our own incredible resource for film, UNCSA (or NCSA, whichever keeps me in your good graces). She's getting reacquainted with distribution rights and learning more and more about the day to day operations of running an art house theater. The thing I've noticed is how helpful every single person has been along the way. It's almost like there's some sort of Movie Theater Owner Mafia out there that's making sure to take care of their own. They shouldn't be confused with the Indian Mafia, a group I concocted in the sixth grade to ward off bullies, claiming they were gathering in Canada, all billion of them, with toothpicks in hand to take over. But I digress. Our new friends at the Fine Arts Theatre in Asheville and the CAMEO Art House Theatre in Fayetteville have been invaluable resources in understanding how to turn a passion for watching good movies into an experience for the community.

On the complete opposite side of the fun spectrum, Lawren also attended a tax seminar this past week. If you thought your personal taxes were more entertaining than Chad Ochocinco's twitter page (do yourself a favor if you've never taken the time to visit), then wait until you hear about business tax. NC Tax Code 117 Regulation C-b5 states that zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I'm practically an accountant and when she tried to explain it, I got that glossed over look normally reserved for whenever I'm asked to change a diaper or do the dishes. So while most of running a theater is awesome, just know that it's not all fun and games.

Thanks for some of the suggestions for concessions. Keep 'em rolling in. Although I do think I gained an extra five pounds this Labor Day weekend after re-discovering Moon Pies.

Let's all go to the Lobby!

I promised myself I wouldn't go more than 5 days without an update, but sometimes critical tasks get in the way of good intentions. Preparations for my four fantasy football drafts took priority over writing. Not to fear, I've got an Atlanta Falcon on each of my teams so far. We also treated ourselves to a Winston-Salem Dash game, where fans were lucky enough to witness yours truly partake in a hippity hop race against a so-called friend who had to blind me with the giant rubber ball to win a free t-shirt. I hope you are sore, Teddy. Another highlight of the Dash game was Lawren's first celebrity moment, when someone saw her and said "Hey, the movie people!" I'm all for giving that person two free tickets.

We're in the first phases of construction after the big demolition, and I hope to use the long weekend to get some updated pictures. I've yet to share the box office/concession area, so be on the lookout for that. Speaking of which, we've almost settled on ice and popcorn makers. Lawren also completed Responsible Alcohol Seller Program training, so we're one step closer there. One of the things we've learned is that in order to sell wine, we have to sell some sort of hot food. So that opens up the question - what would the movie goers like to have? The first things that came to mind were pretzels, hot dogs, nachos, sandwiches, or Patio microwaved burritos. I really think the latter complements a good pinot noir, but maybe that's just me. Any other suggestions?