Letter by Letter

A picture is worth a thousand words.

It was cold out, especially for a June night, a full moon hanging ominously in the sky. For nearly two entire days, the press had been a-buzz with news of a midnight screening in Milwaukee that didn't require a corset, squirt gun, or rice.

It was the Blood Bound Milwaukee premiere, and this time, we'd gotten a theatre.


Kerry and Taylor are pleased at the sight of Jared raping Mason.

I'd been up most of the previous night finishing work on the single one-sheet I could afford to print, but was energized by the thought of the words Blood Bound on the Downer Theatre's marquee. Sure, we'd all seen a screening of the nearly-finished film already, but seeing it up on the marquee like an honest-to-goodness movie somehow made it all feel more real.

Luckily, Kerry had years and years of Downer marquee experience, and John had agreed to let him put up what we wanted so long as we got there early. And so we departed around 10pm, Kerry and I in the Brilliant Whale's replacement, Ol' Scrapey, Mason and the gang in his sweet pimped-out rental.


Kerry wouldn't touch A Prairie Home Companion with a 10 foot pole! ...unless, you know, he had to...

Mason, having once again travelled cross-country for the love of his film, headed for John Dahlman's office, to do a little catching up and a lot of testing of the theatre's digital projector. Mason had made three separate screeners that all arrived in the city separately.

Some people would say he was just being a bit paranoid. Those people hadn't worked on Blood Bound.


Mr. Big Shot Filmmaker makes yet another diva-esque demand that John ignores.

In the meantime, the actual Downer employees gave us a treat--our very own little theatre marquee, so that the hoardes of rabid Blood Bounders wouldn't make the mistake of going in the big theatre.

That's right, I said Blood Bounders.

I think it's going to stick.


Jared really likes that marquee. Or the women's room.

By this point, people started to arrive.

And by people, I mean STARS!


STARS!

...and also people...


PEOPLE!

When all was said and done, over 60 people showed up to see our bloody little opus, reinforcing my faith in the American public's love affair with free movies. We lingered in the lobby, talking with friends, hanging on to the experience as long as we could.

Kerry, back outside in the chill night air, removed all evidence of our brief triumph, letter by letter. Above him, the moon in the sky was full, perfect for some sort of non-descript mystical ceremony. Instead, he simply replaced each letter of the movies actually playing.

But for one night, our movie played on the big screen, and that's all that mattered.


Blood Bound on the big screen?!? Kerry can't believe it!