HOMP in NY?...

Posted by Howard Simpson at 8/19/2008 11:06 AM
Categories: uncategorized
As many of you know, I spent the first 12 days of August on the east coast awaiting the birth of my nephew, who was almost two weeks late.  With so much time to kill I decided to take a 5-day trip up to NY to do some competitive analysis for HOMP.  I went with my friends Allison and Lissa to the Brooklyn Bridge, which has a regular Thursday night movie.  This week's movie was Pleasantville.  I have seen this a few times and enjoyed it (plus Reese Witherspoon is in it), so I was looking forward to seeing how the presentation in Brooklyn would compare to HOMP.

This was the third different city I've had the opportunity to experience a large outdoor movie viewing.  The other two are Screen on the Green in Washington, D.C. and Cinespia Film Series at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.  Here is a quick little comparison of the three locations:

Backdrop:
DC - Right next to the Washington Monument, with views of the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial, and the White House.  Hard to beat...
NY - The Brooklyn Bridge with lights from Manhattan coming across the water.  Also agreat spot.
LA - The movie is projected on the side of a mausoleum.  The backdrop isn't thatgreat...but seeing a movie in a cemetery creates a cool ambiance.

Crowd:
DC - Not that impressive.  A lot more of a transient group, with people coming and going regularly throughout the movie.
NY - The smallest crowd of the three locations, but people seemed pretty into the movie.

LA - I think probably the best crowd, with people both really into the movie but also very aware that the pre-movie picnic is just as important to set the mood.  Huge downfall though is managing the crowd. You have to show up well in advance and stand in line, or sit in a line of cars to get in, as opposed to the other spots that are pretty open until the start of the movie.

Weather:
DC and NY - The threat of rain is always there.  In fact, during Pleasantville it started to rain with about 5 minutes left in the movie.  A large amount of the crowd started topack up and leave, while some devoted groups stayed (we were one of them).  Then with about 2 minutes left though,the rain got really strong and they actually stopped the movie.  Obviously, you can see how having to stop a movie at the end can really take away from the whole experience. 
LA - It's Los Angeles...I think we all know how great the weather is...

Miscellaneous:
DC - The first large regular outdoor movie night I experienced and the original inspiration for HOMP.
NY - Despite the great backdrop, it did have a semi-amateur feel to it.  They had some technical problems starting the movie (I'm not the only one!) and the first screen we saw was the DVD menu page, as if they had just rented the movie from Blockbuster earlier that day.
LA - The one movie I've been to so far was introduced by Drew Barrymore.

All three locations had some really great positives to them that I have or will be incorporating into HOMP, but let's be honest, none of them really compare to HOMP. HOMP obviously has the best crowd, enjoys the benefit of LA's weather, a personal touch to the previews, a complimentary cocktail hour, and at your seatbar service during the movie!

Baby Simpson!

In other news, I am an uncle!  Jack Aidan Simpson was born on August 11, 2008 at 3:11 pm at George Washington University Hospital. Little Jack was 12 days late, but now that he's here there's no holding him back.  I will have more on him in my next entry, but for now here's a picture of us each wearing our UCLA shirts! (in case you can't read it, his says, "Future Graduate - UCLA")

 

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