Well, my partner made the deal about 6-months ago when the theatre wasn't doing much business, so the deal was for a Saturday night and $300. But now we are brutally busy and it turned into a bit of a distraction.On Tuesday before the event the coordinator called and said that 4 out of the 5 shorts were going to be on video. We told her to go rent the appropriate equipment.
Saturday morning we juggled the schedule so films would work. We were really busy.
All week we had lesbians calling and asking for advanced tickets, which we did not have. So we knew it would be popular.
Saturday night she showed up with a Sharp 3500U video projector and a Sharp VHS VCR. The video projector is very good on screens between 6' and 8' wide. I wouldn't recommend you go larger. So we focused the image on our 30' wide screen and winced. 
The lady accepted it and on we went.
We had 256 women and one man attend. Never before have I been un-stimulated by such a large group of women. Being a lesbian means never having to watch your weight. Being a lesbian means never worrying about unsightly facial hair. One lady? Had a full mustache and goatee for Christ sake. 
These aren't the lesbians you see in Hollywood films like Basic Instinct or Better than Chocolate.
Every few minutes someone would come out and tell us to focus the image. It was so dark you could barely discern color. The fourth clip had subtitles, which were about 2 pixels high on screen. What is that, a four-bit digital image?
The last clip was 35mm film. When that hit the screen my partner said there was a collective "Ahhh!" from the audience. 
The downside is that we canceled a film we could have made $500 from in order to play a special event that was difficult and earned us $300. We made $1800 from the event but we had to give her $1500. 
The upside is that we made $300 plus whatever concessions there was and we spread goodwill through yet another disenfranchised group who will support our theatre no matter what, because we have the guts to show Lesbian films. 
New rules.
1. No special events on Saturday night! Wednesdays and Thursdays are good.
2. See if you can get a piece of the action over a certain amount.
3. Friends don't let friends use VHS in movie theatres. 
4. We need a decent video rig that won't bankrupt the theatre.
Home
posted 12-02-2000 03:03 PM
Printer-friendly view of this topic