[Dixielandjazz] Creating an Event

[Stephen G Barbone]

If we band leaders want to interest young audiences in OKOM, perhaps  
we too should "create events". There are many ways to do that. The  
following article is food for thought.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonesttreetjazzband

Forget Shhh! Theaters Want You to Sing Along
Ny Times  - By Brooks Barnes - July 12, 2010


LOS ANGELES — They came dressed as Pink Ladies and Beauty School  
Dropouts. They cheered Danny Zuko at Thunder Road. The rama-lama ding- 
donging? Deafening.

No, this wasn’t a karaoke club. It was the premiere here for “Grease:  
Sing-A-Long,” a rerelease of the 1978 musical starring John Travolta  
and Olivia Newton-John. By adding lyric subtitles, Paramount Pictures  
hopes to inspire audiences in places like Texas and Michigan — clad in  
costume, preferably — to trek to multiplexes and sing about summer  
lovin’.

“The goal is to create a true event,” said Adam Goodman, president of  
the Paramount Film Group. “How do you get groups of young people going  
to the movies and having a great time?”

The key term is “young.” Older moviegoers may still prefer to sit in  
silence, but younger audiences — the ones studios work hardest to  
motivate off the sofa — are increasingly programmed to interact and  
multitask. Sitting quietly in a theater starts to feel like a bore  
when you can watch the DVD at home while texting a friend, playing a  
video game and posting witty comments on Facebook.

Despite 3-D blockbusters like “Avatar” and “Alice in Wonderland,”  
moviegoing in North America is in trouble. For the summer period,  
which typically accounts for 40 percent of annual box office receipts,  
attendance is down by about 3 percent, to 309 million tickets,  
compared with a year earlier. Years of sharp ticket price increases  
have papered over the problem — revenue for the summer is up about 4  
percent — but movie studios and exhibitors are now starting to fear a  
consumer pushback.

Since at least “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” moviegoers have  
created their own events around films — wearing costumes, bringing  
props, singing along and generally treating the theater as though it’s  
their own den. Now it is the multiplex chains and film studios that  
are trying to manufacture audience participation as a way of coaxing a  
certain crowd into theaters. Just bring your friends, they say, and  
buy a lot of candy. The strategy depends on creating an excitement  
that was once organic, and it could easily backfire, said Matt  
Britton, the managing partner of Mr Youth, a New York social marketing  
agency. “You don’t want to force a cultural habit on people,  
especially young people who are very savvy about being manipulated by  
marketers,” he said. “But it’s definitely savvy to try and make the  
moviegoing experience less linear and more interactive.”

There are signs, at least in the short term, that audiences are  
responding. “Grease: Sing-A-Long,” which features some minor lyrical  
changes to make the songs less crude, opened on Thursday in limited  
national release and has been selling out in cities in California, New  
York, Texas and Florida.

Arriving at a Los Angeles screening, Inthia Seabrooks paid homage to  
the movie’s “Beauty School Dropout” number by dressing in a silver  
smock and wearing a headdress made out of an empty KFC bucket. “If  
you’re going to get all dolled up and go out to the movies, they had  
better offer you something special,” said Ms. Seabrooks, 28. “This is  
special.”

In addition to signing on for “Grease: Sing-A-Long,” which at the very  
least is a way for Paramount to keep milking a 32-year-old cash cow,  
AMC Entertainment has been busy hosting participatory “Twilight Saga”  
marathons. AMC, one of the largest theater chains in North America,  
handed out collectible lanyards at the triple feature and encouraged  
customers to root for their favorite lead character by wearing T- 
shirts emblazoned with “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob.”

“Everyone together laughing or crying or cheering — that’s why you go  
to the movies, and we want to really reinvigorate that experience,”  
said Sun Dee Larson, AMC’s vice president for film and product  
marketing.

For Walt Disney Studios, all of this multiplex festivity leads back to  
one thing: Chihuahuas. To promote “Beverly Hills Chihuahua,” released  
in fall 2008, Disney invited Chihuahua owners to bring their dogs to a  
series of screenings. The goal was to attract a few dozen people, but  
hundreds turned out — many with their dogs dressed in outfits, like  
tiny little tuxedos.

Pictures from the event became a hit on the Web, helping to turn the  
movie into a success. The lesson for movie marketers was that in the  
Twitter age, you can easily convince people that moviegoing is a party  
with a simple promotional event.

So Disney, aiming to create a group-fun vibe around “Alice in  
Wonderland” last spring, staged a similar shindig at a Los Angeles  
mall. The studio invited MySpace to stream video of the event and told  
guests to “dress in your best Alice costume.” A crop of Mad Hatters  
and Red Queens showed up and — presto — moviegoers started popping up  
in similar garb at theaters across the country.

Next up: Elvis. On July 29, National CineMedia will present a  
compilation of concert footage called “Elvis on Tour: 75th Anniversary  
Celebration” in more than 450 theaters. “I’m sure Elvis fans will  
arrive in full costume,” said Michelle Portillo, a National CineMedia  
spokeswoman. “We receive several calls from Elvis impersonators about  
it a day.”

National CineMedia also organizes multiplex sing-alongs (“Forever  
Plaid”) and simulcasts sporting events (patrons dress in team colors  
and cheer as if they were in a stadium).

Feeling bashful about behaving this way in a theater? To encourage  
reluctant singers, Paramount layered a recorded audience’s voice —  
like a sitcom laugh track — into the musical numbers in its new  
“Grease.”

But beer helps, too. Dale Hurst, marketing director for Carmike  
Cinemas, said his chain hired caterers with mobile liquor licenses to  
service theaters for these kinds of events. “Some people really let  
loose,” he said.

Betty Henderson, 67, acknowledges that it took her awhile to warm up  
to the idea of singing during a movie. “I just thought it sounded a  
little strange,” she said. But before long, Ms. Henderson was belting  
out “Summer Nights” with the best of them.

“The energy of the crowd was so great that it just made you feel  
good,” she said afterward. “I’ve never experienced anything like that.”